Discussing one of Leo Tolstoy's classic, Anna Karenina, and whether or not it deserves all the praise it receives and whether or not it should still be read today.
@@RelishBooks As an example, I saw this critical list of the greatest novels of all time in terms of literary stature and influence. Here are the top 10. 1 Don Quixote 2 War and Peace 3 Ulysses 4 In Search of Lost Time 5 The Brothers Karamazov 6 Moby-Dick 7 Madame Bovary 8 Middlemarch 9 The Magic Mountain 10 The Tale of Genji
@@Tolstoy111 Critics are so often the most wrong. There are a million lists out there, and they are only as good as the people who make them. I never want to rely on a list for what I think is great in a book. I always want to read it myself, and judge it for myself. I do like 'Anna Karenina' in a lot of ways. I also think it's a bit overrated. Tolstoy was amazing, I think we can at least agree on that. But I don't want to put him on a higher pedestal than he deserves just because people say he's great. They often have a different idea of what greatness is than I do. Which is totally fine of course, everyone can have their own opinion, I'm just on here to be honest about mine. But I'm curious about your opinion. You haven't actually told me, you've only told me what the critics say. Why do you like 'Anna Karenina' and 'Madame Bovary'?
I've read all those works (working through the Proust) I don't think scholarship is often the most wrong - not good scholarship anyway. The list I posted is one of the best I've encountered. You can't really argue with the massive influence and stature those novels have. One may not "like" Ulysses but no 20th century novel broke more new ground or influenced more writers. Anna Karenina is a penetrating analysis of human nature and how adults respond to crises both personal and public. I can't think of a single false moment in it. Its emotional and psychological breath etc. Bovary is basically the first modern novel - prose doing what poetry should do as they say. Every image is built up meticulously to create an absolutely devastating effect by the end. Flaubert intentionally made the characters unadmirable to force readers to respond to the work as a whole and not to individual characters. @@RelishBooks
