I have been meaning to read this for years, but thought I should read more Dostoyevsky first.
Steiner wrote this in his late 20’s and his precocious intelligence is immediately apparent. How can someone have read and absorbed some much European Literature in their late 20’s?
It begins with a lengthy and I thought pretty accurate comparison between Madam Bovary and Anna Karenina, the latter being a much better book.
The gist of the main thesis is that Tolstoy is epic and in the tradition of Homer, Dostoyevsky dramatic and in the tradition of Shakespeare. I am sure this is broadly right although I have never read Homer, and find it quite difficult to place another novelist against Shakespeare. Who writes novels as fractured and non continuous in plot as Dostoyevsky? But maybe this is the point. I am struggling to compare Dostoyevsky ( a novelist) with Shakespeare, but I read very little of him, although am familiar with most of his plots from school, university and TV/film adaptations.
The later chapters, comparing the religious thinking/theologies of both men was a bit beyond me, perhaps because I have no religion, although always cogently and coherently written.
So, very good and challenging!
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