5 ms·
Most people dont think War and Peace was even Tolstoys greatest novel. Anna Karenina is regarded as the greatest novel of all time by lots of authors and critic
by alex504 8y ago
Most people dont think War and Peace was even Tolstoys greatest novel. Anna Karenina is regarded as the greatest novel of all time by lots of authors and critics though of course there is no consensus and its sort of a silly notion.
- ebullientocelot 8y agoNo argument with what you're saying, but on a personal level I can't stand Anna, the character. Reminds me too much of a rather unfortunate ex, and ruins the story for me.
- dnhz 8y agoTo me, Anna Karenina is more about Levin than anyone else since Levin is basically a fictional version of Tolstoy.
- psychometry 8y agoAnna Karenina is the novel I probably read the most of without finishing. After a while, it became hard to care about rich people and their affairs and varied "nervous conditions".
- coldtea 8y agoOnly what was then "the affairs and nervous conditions" of rich people --and the rest were working wretches--, nowadays (and for the better part of last century) has been extended to the middle class, that is, to everybody.
- Endy 8y agoTo me, Anna Karenina is really mostly notable for having the second-greatest opening line in all literature.
- roel_v 8y ago"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way", to save others a google.
- ravieira 8y agoWhat's the first?
- aidenn0 8y agoAnd the greatest?
- propertius 8y ago"Call me Ishmael"?
- toufiqbarhamov 8y agoA screaming comes across the sky.
- willmhorne 8y agoNow, Everybody--- It's hard to pinpoint a "best," but I agree that this one (from Gravity's Rainbow) it quite, quite good, one I recall often.
- quantumhobbit 8y agoThere was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.
- rjf72 8y ago"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." Definitely the greatest line I've ever read. Such extensive imagery and metaphor (well beyond just the sky), tucked into 15 words.
- coldtea 8y agoAnd teens today (or soon) would not visually know what "television tuned to a dead channel" meant...
- Endy 8y agoIt's almost more profound in some ways - on a lot of modern TVs, a dead channel is displayed as being a solid field of bright blue. So, it changes the way Sprawl's sky appears to each reader, but it makes the change take place in Case's head. If it's bright blue, and a person recognizes that first as related to a TV, what does that say about the way they perceive the world? Especially with how bad Case wants digital access.
- nachexnachex 8y ago¿En un lugar de la Mancha...?
- martythemaniak 8y agoThe greatest one being, of course: "It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times."
- osullivj 8y agoIt is a truth universally acknowledged... Jane Austen, naturally.
- sramsay 8y agoI frequently find myself thinking the Greatest Novel Ever Written is either War and Peace or Anna Karenina, depending on which one I re-read most recently.