Tolstoy Appreciation Thread /tol/

[Anonymous No.20789441]

What are your favorite Tolstoy quotes, books and/or short stories?

>A Calendar of Wisdom
>The Gospel in Brief
>The Death of Ivan Ilyich
>The Candle
>Alyosha the Pot


Many, if not all, of Tolstoy's works are in the public domain which means you can access them for free online.

[Anonymous No.20789443]

>>20789441

[One !cwcv5N5qmU No.20789447]

>>20789441
Tolstoy is boring. It's like Wagner and Tolkien. Good idea, shameful execution. In general, Russia can't create

Also, the thought of reading Russian literature translated to English makes me barf. I can barely read it as-is, let alone dehumanized further through the Anglo bugman translator.

[Anonymous No.20789449]

>>20789441
The hero of my tale, whom I love with all the power of my soul, whom I have tried to portray in all his beauty, who has been, is, and will be beautiful, is Truth.

[Anonymous No.20789467]

>>20789447
What of Tolstoy's have you read?

[Anonymous No.20789483]

>>20789447
>Wagner and Tolkien
>shameful execution
t.Non-reading LARPer

[Anonymous No.20789490]

>>20789441
I just read the part near the end of W&P where Andrei is not doing too good... Hit too close to home, reminded me of when my dad was sick. I like Tolstoy but there sure is a lot of suffering with just tiny moments of joy sprinkled in.

My favorite part so far was when Nikolai and Natasha spend Christmas with their uncle who sings Russian folk songs for them. Probably the most pure and happy part of the book.

[One !cwcv5N5qmU No.20789524]

>>20789483
it's precisely because I read and am sincere that i have these takes, loser

[One !cwcv5N5qmU No.20789528]

>>20789449
yada yada yada. good idea, boring execution

if you want someone to worship, worship someone who has a good idea and isn't boring. Pynchon is one example. Love craft is another

[Anonymous No.20789566]

>>20789528
What about A Calendar of Wisdom?

Tolstoy basically compiled knowledge from several philosophers, writers, thinkers and assigned them to a date. Its pretty cool and not really a novel or story but quotations.

[Anonymous No.20789589]

>>20789528
just googles Pynchon - pretty interesting person. Does he write any philosophy or history or just mostly fiction novels?

[Anonymous No.20789650]

>>20789447
Good idea? Like what, the premises? Are these largely domestic scenarios such incredible premises? What makes them good is the execution.
Also this is "Tolstoy appreciation" thread

[Anonymous No.20789847]

I've read Anna Karenina translated to Arabic and I didn't like it that much, it just seemed to focused on drama and affairs and such. Is the translation just bad or is there more to it?

[Anonymous No.20789860]

>>20789524
>i think your author sucks!

[Anonymous No.20789909]

>>20789441
>Tolstoy
Never heard of him.

[Anonymous No.20789922]

>>20789447
77 years and counting

[Anonymous No.20789986]

I've read W&P, AK and a huge collection of short stories by - as well as folk stories retold by -Tolstoy. Basically everything except his late work when he went nuts. Of the ones not everyone has read, I highly recommend The Two Pilgrims, How Much Land Does a Man Need? and Master And Man

[Anonymous No.20790026]

>>20789986
He never went nuts. His last novel Resurrection, features best prose he has ever done. If you'll pick 2 different paragraphs from W&P and Res-on, you'll notice that no otver author during his lifetime (not ones that i know of), grew already from a titan of lit, into a divinity status.
I have no aspiration to become a writer, but for someone who would, I promise (and not only me) they wouldnt find a better studying material than The Resurrection. Only peak Maupassant and Celine, can ever scratch the ceiling Tolstoy have raised with that book.

[Anonymous No.20790235]

[Anonymous No.20790334]

>>20790026
>Only peak Maupassant
What's an example of peak Maupassant? I wanted to read that guy.

[Anonymous No.20790712]

>>20789441
I cling deeply to this quote:
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

Personally he was a very inconsistent man (preaching celebicy while having tons of kids/his attitude with wealth and his own riches). He must have struggled deeply.

The quote still stands - In a world with social media where the amount of finger pointing and display of vanity has never been easier to display, we have to control our own personal lives as best as we can to not be hypocritical and effect change in whatever small way that it may manifest itself. It makes small acts of kindness seem so much more grand.

What a positive influence he has had in my life.

[Anonymous No.20791183]

>>20790334
Fuck me and the Anglos. I was searching for last paragraphs of his last unfinished/barely started novel Angelus. And couldnt find a single free pdf.
Significance of showing exactly this part is related to the fact, that due to dissatisfaction with his work, he attempted a suicide, which left him in coma for remaining 2 years of his life. Dissatisfaction with the work, that Im sure, even immortalised writers would stand in awe from. I instantly dropped the idea of translating it, due to ESL reasons.

[Anonymous No.20791312]

Forged Coupon a goat

[Anonymous No.20791493]

>>20789441
Is Anna Karenina a good starting point or should i read some of his short stories girt?

[Anonymous No.20791499]

>>20791493
Im dumb and typed the captcha on the post, don't mind the last bit

[Anonymous No.20791520]

>>20789447
>let alone dehumanized further through the Anglo bugman translator.
Yeah, that's why I just can't get into Crime and Punishment. It's like I'm reading some soulless ESL textbook exercise.

[Anonymous No.20791671]

>>20789441
I've read a fair amount of Tolstoy, but W&P, which is the first Tolstoy work I read, will always have a special place in my heart. I was 18-19, and I picked up W&P because my family is from the former USSR and always praised Russian literature. It was one of the first "serious" works of literature I read. Anyway, these were formative years and something that's hard to put into words really stuck with me. I always remember the scene in the field hospital after Andrei gets injured, the one where he sees Anatole. It probably sounds silly but W&P and that scene in particular are associated in my mind with a certain change that took place in me at the same time period. A kind of mellowing out. Things that I believed that used to make sense stopped making sense. I think I've been chasing that kind of "high" since.

[Anonymous No.20792892]

>>20791493
Anna Karenina is a good place to start. I like his short stories but they tend more toward simple parables than his deep dramatic novels, girt.

[Anonymous No.20792907]

>>20790712
>his attitude with wealth and his own riches
tbf when he came to his beliefs later in life he wanted to give it all away but was browbeaten by his wife and kids.

[Anonymous No.20792917]

>>20790026
interesting. I read Resurrection and quite enjoyed it but did not get similar feelings to you. What about the writing do you think was particularly elevated?

[Anonymous No.20792927]

>>20789441
Resurrection
The Devil
Kreutzer Sonata
Letters to the Tzars

[Anonymous No.20792958]

>>20789986
>>20790026
You are both correct: refusing society altogether is what nuts people do - that's the definition of nuts - but that doesn't mean that they are not coherent to their beliefs and/or that they are wrong
>>20790712
>Personally he was a very inconsistent man (preaching celebicy while having tons of kids/his attitude with wealth and his own riches).
Everyone has contradictions
>He must have struggled deeply.
Yeah, that's pretty much the point
>>20792917
not the same anon
You have to realize that Resurrection is in fact the story of his life: a bored rich dude who loved hunting, drinking and gambling, fucked a servant and didn't think much of it. Later he realized that all society is a lie, that the "sinners" are actually closer to Christ than the "believers", because in fact the latter ones sin 100x more than the peasant scum. He creates some extremely interesting imagery (remember that this is from fucking 1889)


>Simonson, in rubber jacket and similar galoshes, bound with whip-cord over woolen socks (he was a vegetarian and did not use the skin of animals), was also awaiting the departure of the party. He stood near the entrance of the house, writing down in a note-book a thought that occurred to him. “If,” he wrote, “a bacterium were to observe and analyze the nail of a man, it would declare him an inorganic being. Similarly, from an observation of the earth’s surface, we declare it to be inorganic. That is wrong.”

[Anonymous No.20792965]

>>20792917
Again, from fucking 1889

All the efforts of several hundred thousand people, crowded in a small space, to disfigure the land on which they lived; all the stone they covered it with to keep it barren; how so diligently every sprouting blade of grass was removed; all the smoke of coal and naphtha; all the cutting down of trees and driving off of cattle could not shut out the spring, even from the city. The sun was shedding its light; the grass, revivified, was blooming forth, where it was left uncut, not only on the greenswards of the boulevard, but between the flag-stones, and the birches, poplars and wild-berry trees were unfolding their viscous leaves; the limes were unfolding their buds; the daws, sparrows and pigeons were joyfully making their customary nests, and the flies were buzzing on the sun-warmed walls. Plants, birds, insects and children were equally joyful. Only men—grown-up men—continued cheating and tormenting themselves and each other. People saw nothing holy in this spring morning, in this beauty of God's world—a gift to all living creatures—inclining to peace, good-will and love, but worshiped their own inventions for imposing their will on each other.

[Anonymous No.20793209]

I liked The Death of Ivan Ilyich. When the doctor starts talking to Ivan Ilyich about the state of his health, about the functioning of the kidneys, stomach, liver, intestines, he talks for a long, long time, so long that Ivan Ilyich gradually realizes that it is not about the liver and intestines, but about life and death. HIS life and death. And here the author gives the reader the opportunity to independently make the next move. To understand that this is not a story about the death of a middle-class Russian official living in the second third of the 19th century, but a story about the death of a person as such. That is, the reader himself.

[Anonymous No.20793408]

>>20789441
Reading war and peace rn and it's really good, wanted to get into Thomas Manns main works but gotta read his literary idol first.
The fact Russian and German are my native languages really cheers me up sometimes anons...

[Anonymous No.20793429]

>>20793408
>Russian and German are my native languages
Scheisse-blyad
How the fuck some people are so lucky
in 9 hours I have to be at my workplace

[Anonymous No.20793442]

>>20789847
>it just seemed to focused on drama and affairs and such.

Yeah, Tolstoy's big novels are basically soap operas. That doesn't make them bad though, they're the best damn soap operas you'll ever read. You would probably enjoy Levin's parts, his story is more about moral and ethical quandaries than the drama. You will certainly hate Anna and Vronsky's story though, that is just schlock for women.

[Anonymous No.20793514]

>>20792958
>You have to realize that Resurrection is in fact the story of his life
AK also has the self-insert which at distant review today i would think better written but who am i to judge. I'm extremely sympathetic to his views on the Church/Christianity/society so Res hit nicely on all of that but idk it seemed a fair bit repetitive at times when he tries to hammer home his point. The prison chapel scene definitely sticks with me still.

>>20792965
you right this one is really good.

[Anonymous No.20793518]

>>20793442
>You will certainly hate Anna and Vronsky's story though, that is just schlock for women.
but that has karenin's cuck redemption arc which is clearly written for the boys.

[Anonymous No.20794583]

I love Tolstoy

[Anonymous No.20796251]

OP here, Tolstoy bump

[Anonymous No.20796445]

>i-i-i-i-it's p-p-p-p-recisely because I r-r-r-read and am s-s-s-sincere that i have these takes, loser

[Anonymous No.20796452]

>>20789524
>i-i-i-i-it's p-p-p-p-recisely because I r-r-r-read and am s-s-s-sincere that i have these takes, loser

[Anonymous No.20797512]

>>20789447
Utterly plebian take namefag. Filtered.

[Anonymous No.20798622]

Bump for OP because I love Tolstoy
W&P > AK
But I love both dearly. The scene where Levin and Kitty make up with the chalk is the best written love chapters ever. The way Levin can’t sleep from excitement and leaves his window open in winter, just gazing out into the street.

[Anonymous No.20799747]

This claymation is so wholesome - Martin the Cobbler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W91E_iE97Nc