The New Classics?

[FarrahWaters]

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,2020...207349,00.html

I thought it was funny to see The Road and Bridget Jones Diary on the same list.

[Levin]

The Road better than Into Thin Air? This list has no credibility.

[SeattleUte]

This may be the worst of these sorts of lists I've ever seen. And I'm a McCarthy fan. But consider the source.

[Coach McGuirk]

They did the same thing for movies and it was the worst list of movies I have ever seen.

[SeattleUte]

The secret purpose of the best of these lists is not to get the right ranking, but to have a subtext, a theme.

Here is a great one from the Guardian:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/art...061083,00.html

I call it great not because I adopt the ranking. I don't. I like how it makes a statement. The subtext? Story over literary pretense. Note Joyce gets the smack down. Ulysses is obligatory, but relegated to number 45, and nothing else from Joyce. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man always shows up on these lists, but not here. Also, there's a heavy bias for novels originally written in English (of course, the Guardian is in London), despite the ironic no. 1, which no one could strongly argue against since it is likely the first Western novel ever written.

[Levin]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

The secret purpose of the best of these lists is not to get the right ranking, but to have a subtext, a theme.

Here is a great one from the Guardian:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/art...061083,00.html

I call it great not because I adopt the ranking. I don't. I like how it makes a statement. The subtext? Story over literary pretense. Note Joyce gets the smack down. Ulysses is obligatory, but relegated to number 45, and nothing else from Joyce. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man always shows up on these lists, but not here. Also, there's a heavy bias for novels originally written in English (of course, the Guardian is in London), despite the ironic no. 1, which no one could strongly argue against since it is likely the first Western novel ever written.

Aargh!

"27. Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
The supreme novel of the married woman's passion for a younger man."

Why don't people ever talk about Levin! Seriously, Anna's descent is only used as a foil for Levin's rise! It's the title that throws people off.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by Levin

Aargh!

"27. Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
The supreme novel of the married woman's passion for a younger man."

Why don't people ever talk about Levin! Seriously, Anna's descent is only used as a foil for Levin's rise! It's the title that throws people off.

Levin was the least likeable character in the novel. Totally full of himself, pious, judgmental, blind to the plight of his serfs and his wife, impractical, a latent socialist living off the fat of the land, lacking in self-awareness. He's probably the reason I much prefer several other Tolstoy novels. Oblonsky would be a lot more fun to go have a vodka with or shoot some birds with, I know that much.

[Surfah]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

Levin was the least likeable character in the novel. Totally full of himself, pious, judgmental, blind to the plight of his serfs and his wife, impractical, a latent socialist living off the fat of the land, lacking in self-awareness. He's probably the reason I much prefer several other Tolstoy novels. Oblonsky would be a lot more fun to go have a vodka with or shoot some birds with, I know that much.

So Oblonsky is redemptive because he would be more fun to shoot birds and vodka with?

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by Surfah

So Oblonsky is redemptive because he would be more fun to shoot birds and vodka with?

I think that was more of an aside. Oblonsky was a very flawed person, but likeable in some ways nevertheless. He was very charming and polite. I think he really tried to help his sister. But Levin was pretty indifferent to Anna after his wife was so horrified at his infatuation with that adulteress. That was his reaction, first infatuation, then dismissal. Levin was insufferable in many ways. (Tolstoy's wife said Levin was a self-portrait; maybe she secretly loathed him.) The characters in War and Peace are more endearing and in some ways better developed, in my humble opinion.

[Surfah]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

I think that was more of an aside. Oblonsky was a very flawed person, but likeable in some ways nevertheless. He was very charming and polite. I think he really tried to help his sister. But Levin was pretty indifferent to Anna after his wife was so horrified at his infatuation with that adulteress. That was his reaction, first infatuation, then dismissal. Levin was insufferable in many ways. (Tolstoy's wife said Levin was a self-portrait; maybe she secretly loathed him.) The characters in War and Peace are more endearing and in some ways better developed, in my humble opinion.

I was joking more than anything. I liked Oblonsky much more than Anna. Anna often irritated me probably the way Levin made you disinterested. I always picture Oblonsky as Jude Law for some reason. Probably cause he shacked up with his kids' nanny too.

I have heard that Levin was Tolstoy himself which I can buy. Tells you much about Tolstoy himself.

I'd probably rather want to shoot birds and vodka with Oblonsky than do farm work with Levin and his serfs myself.