The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy, author of Anna Karenina, my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/03/anna-karenina-by-leo-tolstoy-one-of.html together with thousands of other reviews - 9 out of 10

 

The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy, author of Anna Karenina, my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/03/anna-karenina-by-leo-tolstoy-one-of.html together with thousands of other reviews

 

9 out of 10

 

Leo Tolstoy was one of the most respected, best known writers ever, his Anna Karenina, War and Peace and The Death of Ivan Ilych https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-death-of-ivan-ilych-by-leo-tolstoy.html are among The 100 Greatest Books of All Time, although as a human being, the novelist was less resplendent

 

Anna Karenina is one of the most overwhelming love stories and ‘All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’ the first line is one of the most used quotes, the fate of the heroine has stayed with me ever since high school, when the end (is there a need for a spoiler alert, there here it is) …

Was used by the professor of literature, the great Anton Chevorchian, as a material to explain the differences in style, a naturalist, or was it hyper realist author would give all the details of the suicide, the blood, everything connected with the train, gruesome aspects, while others would avoid such gory description

 

Professor Chevorchian also explained what we find in magnum opera – he was of the opinion of Milan Kundera https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being-9-put.html in that we are too wasteful with terms like genius, there were only Leonardo Da Vinci, Einstein, Shakespeare and just a few more

A crime plot is necessary, in Anna Karenina we have another set of ingredients that are necessary and have been set by Aristotle https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/aristotle-in-ninety-minutes-by-paul.html who wrote that we have to have a climax, but also a reversal, a surprise if you will, and the death of the main character is a shock

 

War and Peace is a vast fresco, I am just wondering how many of the young ones will find the time to take it on, it was criticized, indeed, the idea of reading Russians, now that they have invaded Ukraine is anathema for millions, just as multitudes embrace Putin and such monsters, nevertheless, we may have to separate the two

Besides, there is the fabulous Intellectuals https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/intellectuals-by-paul-johnson.html by Paul Johnson in which you find gory details from the lives of Leo Tolstoy, Henrik Ibsen, Ernest Hemingway, Jean Jacques Rousseau, the latter abandoned his children at the door of an orphanage, and nine of ten died in such circumstances, although a cynical mind might look at this and say six of ten did anyway

 

I was reading in The Economist – more precisely, somebody read it for me, I have been using the audio version for many years now, and started reading this fantastic publication about four decades back, at the British Library, under the Ceausesc regime, which I have helped topple, the link is at the end – about the War

Which is at the center of War and Peace, in anew book on…horses, there are some striking details, how they have been the most important weapon of war – we used the dear animal for millennia – and have influenced so much, fashion for instance, the first pants belonged to a man who had mounted a horse, then the genes

 

As for the invasion of Napoleon, this horse book argues that it was not so much the death of the troops, which covers so many chapters in War and Peace, what with the occupation of Moscow, the fires, guerrilla fighting, the traps set by the general – I think it was Kutuzov – who allowed the French to appear victorious

Only it was a Pyrrhic one ‘which is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat’ Napoleon only occupied some territory, which was in fact the temptation that would cut him down, but it may be that the loss of so many horses that did it for them, the most important blow

 

As for The Death of Ivan Ilych, it is less known than the two massive masterpieces, you can read it in a few hours – is it about six – but it is fundamental, fantastic, looking at death, as the title makes plain, the protagonist has to face his imminent departure, with all the challenges, the fears, refusal, humility, pain and suffering

It is something that I may need to take up again, although it has been through my hands twice – I have offered a link, up there, at the start of this, and now there is another dispatch, to a second look https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-death-of-ivan-ilych-by-leo-tolstoy.html as if you were interested

 

Alas, there is almost no interest, I have this blog, with a pitiful audience, 5 clicks per day, but then we have to be ‘merit finders, not fault finders’, in the words of Harvard Professor Tal Ben Shahar https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/04/choose-life-you-want-by-tal-ben-shahar.html the upside is I can write whatever

Nobody reads it anyway, and then as The Death of Ivan Ilych brutally shows, the end is near, and then what comes next can be upsetting – a few hours ago, my business partner called to say that those that sell goods through us are no longer reliable, the Germans have raised prices to the point were sales are very low…

He has a meeting next week, to see if there is some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, but what if the news are still negative, it is really another bad situation, just like we were wondering what to do about food, after the 2008 crisis

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”