Impossible!!!

[bazarov]

I know you think that and that's alright, I can live with it. I think of Dostoevsky as being a much heavier read, if that makes any sense and sometimes, that's exactly what I want, there are times when I love being challenged but I do find that when I read Tolstoy there is a sense of pure enjoyment that isn't there when I read Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky is more intellectual and Tolstoy is more emotional...at least for me.

Yes, you're right, long live Leo!
It's just a matter a what somebody like...

[bazarov]

Dostoevsky is simply one of the greatest writers. Certainly when it comes to philosophical and religious issues. However because of this - I think- he didn't focus on society (compared to Tolstoy and Dickens)- but more on the individual. Don't you think so?

I am not so sure cause I have only read his Crime and Punishment and Brothers Karamazov .

Well, I think it's harder to focus on society if book with 500 pages is talking about one week happening(like Gambler or Crime and Punishment, Idiot is like couple of months, Demons also). The Brothers Karamazov are 850 pages about one month happening. I think society can't be changed in such a short time, so he focused his story on the individual.
On the other hand, War and Peace is 1300 pages which telling us story from 1805-1820 and society changes in 15 years, especially in war situation; with effects on the individuals also. Anna Karenina is also longer; she is leaving her husband, having Anne with Alyosha, Levin and Kitty get married with children... and there must be some society reflections on their life, with acceptations and rejections of their acts. But Tolstoy did also made some great individual work outs, like Levin, Pierre or Andrey.
Maybe his better that pencil sharper

[samah]

Well, I think it's harder to focus on society if book with 500 pages is talking about one week happening(like Gambler or Crime and Punishment, Idiot is like couple of months, Demons also). The Brothers Karamazov are 850 pages about one month happening. I think society can't be changed in such a short time, so he focused his story on the individual.
On the other hand, War and Peace is 1300 pages which telling us story from 1805-1820 and society changes in 15 years, especially in war situation; with effects on the individuals also. Anna Karenina is also longer; she is leaving her husband, having Anne with Alyosha, Levin and Kitty get married with children... and there must be some society reflections on their life, with acceptations and rejections of their acts. But Tolstoy did also made some great individual work outs, like Levin, Pierre or Andrey.
Maybe his better that pencil sharper

I think you are right about that but I'm with idrill I still prefer tolstoy , I read Anna Karenina when I was 14 and I got it it was simple and interesring but Dostoevsky you have to be mature with a certain mood to undrstand him , some of his books i even couldnt finish it ! and now I have to reread them all over again to see if I can go on with him now , yes maybe Dostoevsky was a genius but Tolstoy is so great much greater than a pensil sharper. and about that wierd way of proposing I guess if someone proposed to me that way I would never understand these letters even if he translated them to me later I would turn him down . No just kidding

[Idril]

It's just a matter a what somebody like...

That's exactly it, there's no right or wrong, there's only personal opinon and preference. I do have to say that though that no Tolstoy book has ever affected me quite like The Idiot, I don't believe Tolstoy could've written anything like that and Dostoevsky is so good at getting you into the minds of his characters while Tolstoy puts you more in the role of observer and I believe that's what makes Dostoevsky books much more intense, there's no separation between you and the devastation that accompanies all of his characters.

[samah]

I dare everybody here to guess this quote ( Its my favourite )


PASNAS

[bazarov]

I dare everybody here to guess this quote ( Its my favourite )


PASNAS

We have to guess what does it mean or what?

[olichka]

I don't know what that Tonya reference is about, she was actually Sonya's younger sister

Actually, it's Tanya, not Tonya, or, in full , Tatiana Kouzminskaya and, it's true, Tolstoy was very good friends with her, even when he was married to Sonya, to the point that Sonya began to resent it ! At first, Tolstoy was interested in Sonya's older sister Liza, but decided that she would not make a good mother because she was so interested in studyng.( Maybe he was right, can you imagine a woman with her own identity having 13 kids ?). Just goes to show that Tolstoy didn't respect a woman's intelligence : in W.and P., he actually refers to a woman's mind as a "tiny property" which some so-called "intelligent" women try in vain to expand (in contrast to "real" women who only strive to absorb the very best in a MAN), and in that novel and everywhere else he punishes the intelligent women. For example: Sonya (W.and P. ), Varenka (A.K.) become old maids, while Anna Karenina commits suicide, but the not-so-intelligent Natasha and Kitty go on to have happy lives.

[ex ponto]

... and Dostoevsky is so good at getting you into the minds of his characters while Tolstoy puts you more in the role of observer and I believe that's what makes Dostoevsky books much more intense, there's no separation between you and the devastation that accompanies all of his characters.

Bravo! Beautifully said!

[ex ponto]

I think Dostoevsky's focus was smaller than Tolstoy's in that he focused mainly on city life, the upper class

Not only on the upper class. Just remember what Raskolnikov's hat looked like. It had no brim.

[fjkdsi]

you guys playing secretary?