/lit/ - Literature

What makes people think this book is so good? I'm about 200 pages in, and though I admire Tolstoy's observational skills, and his way of creating very realistic scenes, there's not much else of merit that I can find in the book. Why do people say Tolstoy is up there with Shakespeare? His command of prose isn't even all that incredible, besides the convincing way he describes things. Though he makes the characters very lifelike, I can't help but think that there is a missing dimension to them. Shakespeare is a much greater character builder because his characters seemed to have an much deeper inner life, while Tolstoy seems to concentrate a lot on the exterior and most basic of emotions. I'm reading the Maude translation, not pic related.