It's a common trope in fiction: a final confrontation between the central hero of a story and its central villain. It's an important trope in Westerns, both on the page and screen -- Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven" is just one famous example. And we see it in works of fiction that are too many to count: … Continue reading Hero, meet your villain; or, never mind
Category: Tolstoy
Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary Discuss Their Suicides
"Anna Karenina" is not quite letting me go. Partly that's because it was just that good. I went back to re-read Part 8; and generally I don't re-read books until years later; but I had to drink in that last section of the novel again, and slowly. Partly the book is hanging on because I've … Continue reading Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary Discuss Their Suicides
Finishing Anna Karenina
I once made a passing remark about how nobody does deathbed scenes like Tolstoy. It happened again to me in the last half of “Anna Karenina,” with the death of Levin’s brother. Deep into that scene, I felt the book was gripping me more tightly than ever, and it's actually hard to explain. Death is … Continue reading Finishing Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina – Parts 3 and 4 (of 8)
“Anna Karenina” is not a book you can read quickly. It just doesn’t move at a hungry pace. You can read a couple of chapters and feel like you’ve moved into a single character’s soul; and you’ve got more than enough to digest for one night, without thinking of moving out into some other character. … Continue reading Anna Karenina – Parts 3 and 4 (of 8)
Anna Karenina – Parts 1 and 2 (of 8)
A few years after finishing “Anna Karenina,” Tolstoy sank into a spiritual funk or crisis that resulted in his work, “A Confession.” In the latter work, he shares the following recollection from his formative years: The kind aunt with whom I lived, herself the purest of beings, always told me that there was nothing she … Continue reading Anna Karenina – Parts 1 and 2 (of 8)
Koheleth and Tolstoy
February 1, 2021 Reading “Koheleth” and Tolstoy's “Confession” back-to-back lifts both works for me. Both works struggle with the fact that death is coming for everyone. Both observe constantly how the good and the wicked have random rewards in this life; both hang on to the idea of knowledge/wisdom while questioning both its extent and … Continue reading Koheleth and Tolstoy
Niebuhr and Tolstoy
January 31, 2021 I keep running back into "War and Peace", in my re-read of Reinhold Niebuhr's "Moral Man and Immoral Society". This is from chapter 1: The growing intelligence of mankind and the increased responsibility of monarchs to their people have placed a check upon the caprice, but not upon the self-interest, of the … Continue reading Niebuhr and Tolstoy
You might be a fox if …
January 28, 2021 I took this Quiz: Fox or Hedgehog? My score is +47. I gave negative numbers -- hedgehog numbers -- only for questions #12 and #13. All my other answers are fox numbers. I didn’t answer question #1, partly because I thought it would tip the scales with an answer that could easily … Continue reading You might be a fox if …
Hedgehogs and Foxes
January 27, 2021 I’ve reread “The Hedgehog and the Fox,” Isaiah Berlin’s essay about Tolstoy’s view of history. I had read it in the mid-90s, but without reading any of Tolstoy apart from the historical essay that ends “War and Peace” (the second half of the epilogue). A description of Berlin’s essay, from kobo.com: "The … Continue reading Hedgehogs and Foxes
Digesting Big Books
September 24, 2020 “War and Peace” might be having long-term effects on me. Possibly. - I am more forgiving of myself when I am confused by a situation, whether personal or intellectual, or even when I’m just looking out physically and finding the things in front of me confusing. Tolstoy hammered home the point that … Continue reading Digesting Big Books
