Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy?

[Anonymous]

Dostoyevsky! Crime and Punishment is the GOAT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dostoyevsky! Crime and Punishment is the GOAT.

The horse narrative just kills me.

[Anonymous]

I don't really like to choose between brilliant writers who each have such different voices, but if you insist then of course I would choose Tolstoy. Even Dostoyevsky seemingly considered Tolstoy the better writer, and called Anna Karenina a work of perfection.

OP you might want to check out Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: An essay in the old criticism by George Steiner.

As an English major with advanced degree who has loved reading and escaped into and lived via thousands of books over the last five decades, I can honestly say that if anyone asked me which one great novel they should read above all others, it would have to be Anna Karenina.

I first read it in the summer between sophomore and junior years in HS when I was just 15, and I can still remember all those long cool summer days I spent laying on the bed in the bedroom I shared with my grandmother, reading and reading and reading that enormous book which encapsulated all of life and human yearning. It changed my life and how I viewed everything around me. I have read so many amazing works of literature since, in the course of pursuing a BA and MA in literature and then just for the sheer pleasure - but nothing has ever moved me so much as Anna Karenina first did.

One of my favorite daydreams is that I'd love to have a dinner party for literary giants, gather them all at the same table - and at the head would be Leo Tolstoy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't really like to choose between brilliant writers who each have such different voices, but if you insist then of course I would choose Tolstoy. Even Dostoyevsky seemingly considered Tolstoy the better writer, and called Anna Karenina a work of perfection.

OP you might want to check out Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: An essay in the old criticism by George Steiner.

As an English major with advanced degree who has loved reading and escaped into and lived via thousands of books over the last five decades, I can honestly say that if anyone asked me which one great novel they should read above all others, it would have to be Anna Karenina.

I first read it in the summer between sophomore and junior years in HS when I was just 15, and I can still remember all those long cool summer days I spent laying on the bed in the bedroom I shared with my grandmother, reading and reading and reading that enormous book which encapsulated all of life and human yearning. It changed my life and how I viewed everything around me. I have read so many amazing works of literature since, in the course of pursuing a BA and MA in literature and then just for the sheer pleasure - but nothing has ever moved me so much as Anna Karenina first did.

One of my favorite daydreams is that I'd love to have a dinner party for literary giants, gather them all at the same table - and at the head would be Leo Tolstoy.

I'm 100 pages into Anna Karenina but keeping getting sucked back in DCUM and doomscrolling. Thanks for the inspiration to get off of here.

[Anonymous]

Hard to say. Anna Karenina is without equal, but I’ve reread The Brothers Karamazov more and given it more thought than any other book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably Dostoyevsky. I love Tolstoy of course, but Dostoyevsky just speaks to me.

Same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't really like to choose between brilliant writers who each have such different voices, but if you insist then of course I would choose Tolstoy. Even Dostoyevsky seemingly considered Tolstoy the better writer, and called Anna Karenina a work of perfection.

OP you might want to check out Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: An essay in the old criticism by George Steiner.

As an English major with advanced degree who has loved reading and escaped into and lived via thousands of books over the last five decades, I can honestly say that if anyone asked me which one great novel they should read above all others, it would have to be Anna Karenina.

I first read it in the summer between sophomore and junior years in HS when I was just 15, and I can still remember all those long cool summer days I spent laying on the bed in the bedroom I shared with my grandmother, reading and reading and reading that enormous book which encapsulated all of life and human yearning. It changed my life and how I viewed everything around me. I have read so many amazing works of literature since, in the course of pursuing a BA and MA in literature and then just for the sheer pleasure - but nothing has ever moved me so much as Anna Karenina first did.

One of my favorite daydreams is that I'd love to have a dinner party for literary giants, gather them all at the same table - and at the head would be Leo Tolstoy.

I don’t think you’d actually want Tolstoy at your party. He ended up hating AK so much that he burned it. The fact that Dostoevsky recognized the genius in AK says more about the personalities than it does which books are Bette. Tolstoy was rather an a-hole who hated his own stuff and hated other people’s stuff even more.
There’s also some question about whether Tolstoy’s wife contributed to AK … she did all his transcriibing for him and was herself a very intelligent thoughtful woman. Many people have questioned whether such a famous misogynist could write a book like AK….if so, it’s a great irony! But Tolstoy always wanted to be a different kind of writer than he was. He wanted to be a clear dogmatist but despite his best efforts ended up writing complex people. He didn’t want to write such an endearing adulteress, but he did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't really like to choose between brilliant writers who each have such different voices, but if you insist then of course I would choose Tolstoy. Even Dostoyevsky seemingly considered Tolstoy the better writer, and called Anna Karenina a work of perfection.

OP you might want to check out Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: An essay in the old criticism by George Steiner.

As an English major with advanced degree who has loved reading and escaped into and lived via thousands of books over the last five decades, I can honestly say that if anyone asked me which one great novel they should read above all others, it would have to be Anna Karenina.

I first read it in the summer between sophomore and junior years in HS when I was just 15, and I can still remember all those long cool summer days I spent laying on the bed in the bedroom I shared with my grandmother, reading and reading and reading that enormous book which encapsulated all of life and human yearning. It changed my life and how I viewed everything around me. I have read so many amazing works of literature since, in the course of pursuing a BA and MA in literature and then just for the sheer pleasure - but nothing has ever moved me so much as Anna Karenina first did.

One of my favorite daydreams is that I'd love to have a dinner party for literary giants, gather them all at the same table - and at the head would be Leo Tolstoy.

I don’t think you’d actually want Tolstoy at your party. He ended up hating AK so much that he burned it. The fact that Dostoevsky recognized the genius in AK says more about the personalities than it does which books are Bette. Tolstoy was rather an a-hole who hated his own stuff and hated other people’s stuff even more.
There’s also some question about whether Tolstoy’s wife contributed to AK … she did all his transcriibing for him and was herself a very intelligent thoughtful woman. Many people have questioned whether such a famous misogynist could write a book like AK….if so, it’s a great irony! But Tolstoy always wanted to be a different kind of writer than he was. He wanted to be a clear dogmatist but despite his best efforts ended up writing complex people. He didn’t want to write such an endearing adulteress, but he did.

Interesting!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:tolstoy: because he wrote the greatest line ever, "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

and The Death of Ivan Ilyich is just such a good story

This quote comes to me often.

[Anonymous]

I have a soft spot for Crime and Punishment and don't care for AK, so my vote is for Dostoevsky.

[Anonymous]

Neither. Chekhov.

[Anonymous]

Tolstoy hands down. Dostoyevsky is so grim. I feel the same way about Zola. So grim. Dickens, even though he also goes in for some realism, is a little more bearable.

[Anonymous]

Dostoyevsky.

[Anonymous]

Dostoyevsky--I can still remember the experience of reading Crime and Punishment--it affected me for months.
Tolstoy never transfixed me the same way. I loved Anna Karenina, but struggled with War and Peace.

[Anonymous]

I've spent a lifetime reading a wide variety of literature, from beach reads to serious books. Once I begin a book, I compulsively finish it. The only exception that I was unable to complete was a book by Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov. Never tried to read him again. Tolstoy, on the other hand, I adore. I re-read War And Peace every 10 years or so. I liked Anna Karenina but found her suicide more than I could bear, so I never re-read it.