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My copy included :
Family Happiness (1859) : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Superb writing with beautiful descriptions and delightful dialogues. In depth portrayal of interrelationship between men and women, the nature and development from the self-delusion built up in romance, the disillusionment in marriage life, deception, deterioration and the death and the new shape formed in marital partnership.
The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Any story contemplating death in its stages is always thought provoking, Tolstoy's though is of a supreme quality. This is also where for the first time I detected a sense of humor in Tolstoy.
The Kreutzer Sonata (1889) : ⭐
A shocking disappointment, after the brilliance of The Death of II. The whole lengthy story is mere excuse to whine endlessly, and rant about sex and women, and abstinence. 'Oh WE, WE men, such poor creatures, always so helplessly overwhelmed by lust, and women are the real dominators, the source of madness and evil! torturing us wretched men with their bare shoulders and their becoming clothes, if only they wore shapeless sacks! And, music, that's trickster, the ruin of souls! But, what can we do? Oh, poor us, oh, all you doomed men are unware of this, but I discover this SECRET!' In short, women are the lab mice in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And also we should abstain from sex to save humanity, do physical work until we almost faint from exertion, and Police! Remove these women! and blah blah blah.
The Devil (1911) : ⭐⭐⭐
Has a similar theme and purpose as in The Kreutzer Sonata, but appropriately focus on the story line, writing is good and plot is compelling enough.
I had terrible time with Anna Karenina and had hoped to start again from new perspective with him who was acclaimed as possibly the greatest novelist ever lived. So far, I've read Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Chekov and Gogol besides; except for Gogol, any of them is superior in my opinion.
My issue with Tolstoy, I think, is he's too serious for me and had almost no sense of humor. I cannot fathom how anyone can understand life without it. In The Kreutzer Sonata and The Devil, I see a romantic, splendid writer whose later works became so ridden with disappointment, paralyzing fear and shame of his own sexual desire, self-destructive guilt and deep sense of utter helplessness. I have lost half of the respect I just formed for him. Perhaps, I am wrong, I'll read War and Peace, and make my conclusion then.
Family Happiness (1859) : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Superb writing with beautiful descriptions and delightful dialogues. In depth portrayal of interrelationship between men and women, the nature and development from the self-delusion built up in romance, the disillusionment in marriage life, deception, deterioration and the death and the new shape formed in marital partnership.
The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Any story contemplating death in its stages is always thought provoking, Tolstoy's though is of a supreme quality. This is also where for the first time I detected a sense of humor in Tolstoy.
The Kreutzer Sonata (1889) : ⭐
A shocking disappointment, after the brilliance of The Death of II. The whole lengthy story is mere excuse to whine endlessly, and rant about sex and women, and abstinence. 'Oh WE, WE men, such poor creatures, always so helplessly overwhelmed by lust, and women are the real dominators, the source of madness and evil! torturing us wretched men with their bare shoulders and their becoming clothes, if only they wore shapeless sacks! And, music, that's trickster, the ruin of souls! But, what can we do? Oh, poor us, oh, all you doomed men are unware of this, but I discover this SECRET!' In short, women are the lab mice in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And also we should abstain from sex to save humanity, do physical work until we almost faint from exertion, and Police! Remove these women! and blah blah blah.
The Devil (1911) : ⭐⭐⭐
Has a similar theme and purpose as in The Kreutzer Sonata, but appropriately focus on the story line, writing is good and plot is compelling enough.
I had terrible time with Anna Karenina and had hoped to start again from new perspective with him who was acclaimed as possibly the greatest novelist ever lived. So far, I've read Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Chekov and Gogol besides; except for Gogol, any of them is superior in my opinion.
My issue with Tolstoy, I think, is he's too serious for me and had almost no sense of humor. I cannot fathom how anyone can understand life without it. In The Kreutzer Sonata and The Devil, I see a romantic, splendid writer whose later works became so ridden with disappointment, paralyzing fear and shame of his own sexual desire, self-destructive guilt and deep sense of utter helplessness. I have lost half of the respect I just formed for him. Perhaps, I am wrong, I'll read War and Peace, and make my conclusion then.
