Articles about Leo Tolstoy

The Book of Anna – Carmen Boullosa

In Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, it is mentioned in passing that Anna is writing a book. Carmen Boullosa has taken this idea and written what amounts to a fan fiction. The main characters are new, but they do interact with characters from the original novel. There are some mind-bending metafictional effects too – the characters from Anna Karenina know they are fictional, and the other characters know it too, and it is a point of discussion amongst them. Tolstoy himself appears as well, unsurprisingly having a rough time being in the page instead of writing it.

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War and Peace — Leo Tolstoy

The War is Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812, which disrupts the Peace of Russian high society in Moscow, Petersburg and various country estates. We follow several aristocratic families as the war begins, gets worse, turns around and finally ends. Lots of characters, but mostly in the upper classes so everything is viewed through that lens.

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Anna Karenina — Leo Tolstoy

Many people consider this to be the greatest novel ever written, and who am I to argue — I loved it. The main characters are well-rounded and believable — I especially liked the man-about-town Oblonsky (he of the famous unhappy family which is unhappy in its own way) and the solid and thoughtful Levin (Tolstoy under another name).

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