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/lit/ - Literature

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6493719 No.6493719 [Reply] [Original]

Where do I begin?

>> No.6493729

the greeks

>> No.6493736

T

>> No.6494093

>>6493719
The Kingdom of God is Within You.

>> No.6494118

>>6493719
Sevastopol Sketches

>> No.6494134

>>6493719

Start with the short-stories.

The Death of Ivan Ilicht;
Kholstomer, the story of a horse;
The Devil;
How Much Land Need a Man;
Father Sergey;
Two Hussars;
Master and Man;
The Forged Coupon;
The Snowstorm.

If you want help choosing one to read first, I would suggest Kholstomer or The Death of Ivan Ilicht.

>> No.6494141

Tolstoy isn't difficult. Start with a book you find interesting.

>> No.6494153

>>6494141

This. It's not like you need to warm up to his style of anything. You can even start with War & Peace, which isn't very difficult. It's just long and there's a lot of characters. If you plebs can read George R.R. Martin over and over again, you can certainly handle War & Peace.

>> No.6494159

>>6493719
don't listen >>6494134
start with WaP, then go on chronologically. don't forget "the confession" between anna k. and the death of Ivan Ilicht

>> No.6494170

>>6493719
Hadji Murad
Death of Ivan Ilyich

>> No.6494485

>>6494159
>don't forget "the confession"

You don’t know shit. Tolstoy was a wonderful artist, but also one of the greatest egocentrics of all time. He took pride in his sins and his wild youth, and his “confession” was just one of the first stones in his project of becoming not only a great landowner and supreme artist, but also a prophet and saint. Tolstoy’s eyes were always on public opinion, always on others. To him the spiritual quest was nothing if the whole world wasn’t paying attention. He wanted to be the greatest in every single aspect of life. To the very end of his life he was dominated by egocentrism.

His theories and philosophy are aspects of this enormous desire to be envied, admired and feared. All his efforts to alleviate famine or to help others were made with the desire to impress. Also: Tolstoy never lost his noble manners and the great lord persona that was used to order and be obeyed. To take his philosophy seriously is stupid, because the man himself didn’t follow his precepts. And his attacks against art were, in the hearth of hearths of Tolstoy, an attack against any other name that could face his name in the podium of greatest artist of all time. He hated to admit that others might be as great or even greater than him, and to see the word praising the name of others as geniuses was something that never ceased to annoy him.

So to OP: forget Tolstoy’s confession. Focus in his art and study his life, but don’t be naïve and actually let his philosophy dominate you.

>> No.6494796

>>6494485
It's not like he wasn't aware of this himself, he constantly lambasted himself for being vain, but I guess he couldn't stop himself. Either way "A Confession" is still a fantastic little book even if it doesn't require you to agree with him. Same thing with The Kingdom of God is Within You.

>> No.6494960

>>6494485
1. the confession is a great intro for the post anna k. books.
2. Read tolstoy without caring about his conversion is a waste
3. OP can judge the book with his head, reading it don't make you a tolstoyan or something