Tolstoy or Dostoevsky?

You can hate annas story because she's a woman and you never had a girlfriend but you have to agree that levins story was amazing

>there are people who believe this about arguably the best novel ever written

I can acknowledge that Dosto probably has more value as a writer but I much prefer reading Tolstoy

wew lad, that's a lot of wrong opinions

I don't like Levin's story because it reminded me that I've never had a girlfriend

Tolstoy

Read The Kingdom of God is Within You

levin's moments with the peasants was good, but the match with kitty seemed like two uninteresting people boinking out ofmconvenience to contrast against the slutty anna who shall burn in hell forever. but seriously, anna karenina was not a terrible novel, but it was truly underwhelming from the perspective of greatest book of all time. I'm going to be starting War and Peace soon, and as I assume the scope will be much much larger, that I won't be so disappointed. Even dostoevsky has let me down in the form of Demons, why he chose to ruin that book with a first person perspective I'll never know.. But turgenev and gogol are probably the two best sleeper authors, notwithstanding my limited knowledge of Tolstoy. Though, I have an odd feeling that in the end, Chekhov will be my favorite, I have read only two of his stories, and they reminded me of Dubliners. I remember being bored with them at first, but I had expected an O Henryesque twist and moral to every story.. but now that I have matured a bit, Chekhov seems to be something that I'll have little chance to resist.

Oh well, i'm sorry user
I thought their relationship was quite interesting as well, kitty is basically just a stupid cute girl who tries to find meaning in religion but fails, just like levin who tries to find a deeper meaning in... i don't remember i think he just kept on thinking a lot?
But they find true happiness in seemingly meaningless things: family, children, hard physical labor. On the orher side anna has all kinds of elaborate hobbies and books and what not but none of this makes her happy, all she wants is her family. The book just feels so wholesome, so many parallels

Tolstoy, no question.

But that is not Tolstoy in your pic. It's one of his sons, who happened to be very similar to him in looks. If I am not mistaken the pic is of Ilya Tolstoy. Even the clothes in the pic are more modern, and not the type that Tolstoy used to wear at that age of his life.

Meh. Just Gogol my shit up.

I tried reading Dosto back when I was 18 and I found it boring, should I give it another shot? If yes, which book?

SOME short works I enjoyed were white nights, the gambla and dreams of a ridiculous man

Are those the only 2 Russian authors you know? Why are you comparing them? Fucking pseuds.

What's the best translation for Gogol's "Diary of a Madman"

Holy quads of truth, thank you for this.

Tolstoy is the god king of Russian literature.

Neither.

Russian authors are oppressively moraline and moralistic.

I prefer Dostoevsky

Fuck you post-modern cunt. Get out

Having read C&P and AK, I have to say Tolstoy. Dosto is probably among the GOAT, but he concerns himself with people "on the edge" which takes away from universality of his message. Tolstoy's characters are more nuanced (they aren't types or representations of specific ideas, they are conceived as real humans who only sometimes incidentally illustrate a philosophical concept) and more "normal". Levin and Rodya are both searching for meaning, but I can relate to Levin more easily. I haven't killed anyone, I'm not strongly depressed or antisocial (only a little bit), I'm more or less a normal human, and so Levin and his problems are closer to me (this is particularly felt in the last book, where he searches through science and philosophy for meaning). Dosto's characters, though painted with incredible skill, in their essence remain caricatural.
The endings of the two books also differ in quality. AK is simply more logical and more convincing, we can clearly follow every one of Levin's thoughts, as if we were reading our own, that lead us into Tolstoy's truth. In C&P it happens pretty much "off-screen" and lacks explanation.

The educational system in my country is doing at least something right. We had to read Crime and Punishment at 17, and almost everyone loved it.

Everyone loves comparing memetic art and Tolstoy and Dostoevsky are similar enough to provide some actual discussion. How could you compare Tolstoy and Gogol or Lermontov and Pushkin?

I'm Spanish and we only were forced to read books from Spanish literature.

Stupid debate but Tolstoy was the better writer and Dostoevsky the better thinker.

I'm sorry but Tolstoy can't touch Dostoevsky as a thinker.
> those shitty historical tangents in W&P
> muh Georgism!
> muh quakerist anarchist Christianity

ZZZZzzz. Whatever.

Tolstoy wrote about rich people and their body language very well. Reading him will turn you into a human lie detector. Dostoevsky wasn't a rich aristocratic who had the leisure of cosplaying as a peasant whenever he felt guilty about whipping his slave boys too much. Dostoevsky had to rush to get novels finished and survive on stale bread.

Also, Anna Karenina is only half good. I've read it 4 times and each time I find Anna and Vronsky's story less compelling and more of a dumb soap opera. They could both get killed for all I care. And of course W&P is great the historical digressions aren't amazing and when you read a little more history you find it's kind of embarrassing. Tolstoy really wanted to have all the correct answers. Dostoevsky just wanted to survive his hell.

udnerated

I'm gonna mystic meg that Tolstoy will be the more important, influential and culturally relevant novelist for the 21st century, just as he was completely overshadowed by Dosto in the 20th century on those same terms.

Im reading dostoyevsky right now (C&P specifically), and I like his sort of existentialist take on christianity. I like that theres no supernatural mumbo jumbo or anything, i feel like hes looking at religion purely from a psychological perspective. Is Tolstoy similar in this regard? What does Tolstoy tend to write about?

A lot of different things. Read The Cossacks (trans. Maudes) if you want to try a novella by him first.

Generally he writes about people, which sounds vague but when your read him, you realize that he's the only one who can actually write about people and everyone else has been producing strange puppet creatures in comparison.

Dostoevsky probably does deal with more interesting ideas in his books I'll give him that.