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Jan. 22nd, 2013 04:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elle_white I've been reading my first Tolstoy novel, Anna Karenina, and ... he really doesn't impress me that much as a writer so far. It's slow and wonders so much; it's extremely frustrating. Normally, I wouldn't mind that too much, but it takes around 19 chapters for Anna Karenina (the titular character) to show up and start impacting the plot.
I'm up to the conversation with Anna and her sister-in-law, Dolly. Dolly's husband Stepan committed adultery. Anna tries to tell her that her brother feels guilty and is suffering because of his actions. Dolly agrees, and says that it's "always worse for the guilty than the innocent." That line frustrated me so much that I had to put the book down after that. I know there's often going to be problematic aspects in old novels, but that moment pissed me off so much.
There are also many awkward sentences. And the way Tolstoy uses brief moments of inner monologue in a novel that's otherwise written in the third person is awkward too. I don't know if I want to finish it. I might now that I'm so far through it, but I don't feel like reading anymore for the moment.
I'm up to the conversation with Anna and her sister-in-law, Dolly. Dolly's husband Stepan committed adultery. Anna tries to tell her that her brother feels guilty and is suffering because of his actions. Dolly agrees, and says that it's "always worse for the guilty than the innocent." That line frustrated me so much that I had to put the book down after that. I know there's often going to be problematic aspects in old novels, but that moment pissed me off so much.
There are also many awkward sentences. And the way Tolstoy uses brief moments of inner monologue in a novel that's otherwise written in the third person is awkward too. I don't know if I want to finish it. I might now that I'm so far through it, but I don't feel like reading anymore for the moment.