[Borges]

If you haven't read these two novels you haven't lived.

[Gefn]

He has the scene from “Anna” where Levin proposes to Kitty by writing letters on a table in chalk. Such a beautiful scene. Always loved Levin and Kitty better than Anna and Vronsky.

[ansel12]

Having not read it until my late 20s and loving it, I learned that War and Peace is one of those books that everyone has read among upscale professionals, but if you can question them over a few drinks, you find that almost none of them actually read it.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

War and Peace

I saw the movie. The RUSSIAN version.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_and_Peace_%28film_series%29

[Mr Rogers]

Dang! I’m 56, and just learned I had never lived, and never will!

Oh well...off to go riding horses when I COULD be reading Leo “Will It Never End?” Tolstoy...

[nodumbblonde]

Anna Karenina: Every time I read it, I’m amazed all over again by how realistically he portrayed the thoughts and feelings of the female characters. Their depth is incredible and they feel as if they’ve been written by another woman. Whether or not I like them or agree with them, I find it easy to relate to and understand them. They aren’t stereotypes, they feel very real.

[defconw]

I read War and Peace two winters ago at work. It took six months but I really did enjoy it.

[ek_hornbeck]

Tolstoy always left me cold, I tried reading [i]Anna Karenina[/i] and [i]War and Peace[/i] and found both very easy to put down. Both get lost in long, rambling description, but more importantly, I never found his characters very compelling.

Reading Dostoevsky, on the other hand, was a revelation. I'd be hard-pressed to think of anything in literature that approaches the depth of The Grand Inquisitor section in The Brothers Karamazov.

[Larry Lucido]

I still wonder how War and Peace would have turned out if he used the original title, War, What Is It Good For?