Tag Archives: Leo Tolstoy

Reading During Hurricane Irene

Posted on August 30, 2011 by readersquest

How – and what – does one read in the midst of a hurricane? Our hometown, on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay, lay right in the western edge of Hurricane Irene’s path northward.  We were fairly certain that the storm … Continue reading →

Posted in Journey, Quest, Reading | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Robert Coover’s “Matinée”: Projection, Distortion, and Just Maybe, Infection

Posted on August 16, 2011 by readersquest

This morning (with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony spilling out of my desktop MP3 player, because the Wagner was interesting but when it’s playing I can’t think), I’m sipping at a cooling cup of coffee and trying to decide whether or not I liked … Continue reading →

Posted in Leo Tolstoy, Literary Criticism, Reading, Stories | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

What Art Isn’t – Tolstoy Disses Beethoven and Wagner

Posted on August 14, 2011 by readersquest

Leo Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana, May 1908. Color photograph by Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky. I spent a considerable chunk of last week reading Leo Tolstoy’s lengthy post-conversion essay What Is Art? In the essay, Tolstoy pontificates on aesthetic questions that are still being wrestled over in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Leo Tolstoy, Literary Criticism | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Torment and Ecstasy, Pleasure and Punishment: Reading Pushkin’s “Prisoner of the Caucasus”

Posted on August 8, 2011 by readersquest

Last week I read several fables and tales from a large number that Tolstoy compiled to use in teaching his serfs to read.  Although they’re not exactly “short stories” in a modern  sense, they were a delightful way to ease … Continue reading →

Posted in Aleksandr Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Quest, Reading, Stories | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Bookstores, Banya Hats and Baltika 7 in Brighton Beach

Posted on August 5, 2011 by readersquest

In a perfect world, I’d have begun my month of reading Leo Tolstoy with a day trip to Yasnaya Polyana, the historic Tolstoy family estate near Tula.  The countryside around Moscow is beautiful in late July and early August – a … Continue reading →

Posted in Journey, Leo Tolstoy, Quest | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment