Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The Lower Depths

23 Ramadhan 1432

Moving into the second half of Tolstoy's Resurrection. Astonishingly different from the big earlier novels. Sometimes an almost Dostoyevskian quality, largely a result of the focus on the lower orders of Russian society. Though only Tolstoy could have done Nekhlyudov - a lacerating self-portrait.

It's remarkable how those nineteenth century coves attempted fictions that genuinely encompassed the whole of their societies. Can't think of anyone with that range today, not offhand anyway.

Seeing things from below alters everything.

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