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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
Was holding my breath the whole time because I always felt something terrible was going to happen, but it never really does. Tolstoy has a knack for speeding through months or years in a couple of paragraphs and then slowing way down for a beautiful nature scene. As usual society plays one of the villains, but the real moral here is that love changes over the course of a relationship -- things work when you don't dwell on what was.
The enthralling pain that this book brought me will have me sorrowfully ponder on it for days, I'm sure.
Usually I stray away from short stories, since it never feels like they can live up to the complexity and emotional investment of a novel of 350+ pages. A ridiculous claim, to be sure, which I now understand was folly.
Thankfully this is the work that made me question my baseless assumption.
I didn't know how I will react to Tolstoy, having it been 2 years since I read half of Anna Karenina, and waiting for it to once again arrive in the mail so that I can reread it, I decided to delve into another short Tolstoy.
I didn't have much hope that books or authors I loved as a youth will still remain close to my heart, since most of the times it's a disappointing reencounter.
Oh, how wrong I was and how I cherish the fact that this was but an illusion. The feelings I had reading Anna Karenina were brought back tenfold with this short novel, as if I had been living through this turbulous, beautiful book myself.
This book is a beautiful example of life that your soul can relate to.
A heartwrenching story that permits you to be angry and sad, but that at the same time gives you an ending that no matter how much you're angry at it, it's not a fully unhappy one. In fact, melancholically, I can't decide what exactly the end is.
The thing that I understood from this book is the thing that I kept denying for years, and that I thought wasn't so.
The thing that everyone tells you:
"You'll understand when you're older".
Your naive face and eyes looking at the lips of the face that sounded those words, your initial response being the immediate "No, I want to understand now".
Whilst you understand nothing, and with time and age and growing up, you learn that you do actually, inevitably, understand when you're older. It's just that as a child you can't comprehend the state of change as well as you can when you're an adult. You think your mind will stay the same, as your interests, as your friends, which clearly isn't true.
This was exactly the problem of Masha, and the problem of Sergey, for knowing that the case is so with this young girl, and giving in to the silly thing called love, infatuation.
Family Happiness is a book about a difference in age, about growing up, about change and about the stunning differences between men and women. With these differences being so fudamentally different between the two genders, adding an age difference of more than 20 years makes this story a sad but true reflection of the obstacles that these two faced, and makes itself relatable by presenting the relationship of a woman and a man.
Men and women are different, and have different needs and ideas of right and wrong. Just as a person of any age, and even personality, has different needs than the next one, with varying moral ideas.
This makes the mix of two people a tricky thing, a thing that needs to be examined, evaluated and nurtured, without silence and refraining from confrontation being the dominating factor.
This book is a lesson that needs to be learned and applied so that the endings of our own stories won't end up bitter, melancholic and sad.
Usually I stray away from short stories, since it never feels like they can live up to the complexity and emotional investment of a novel of 350+ pages. A ridiculous claim, to be sure, which I now understand was folly.
Thankfully this is the work that made me question my baseless assumption.
I didn't know how I will react to Tolstoy, having it been 2 years since I read half of Anna Karenina, and waiting for it to once again arrive in the mail so that I can reread it, I decided to delve into another short Tolstoy.
I didn't have much hope that books or authors I loved as a youth will still remain close to my heart, since most of the times it's a disappointing reencounter.
Oh, how wrong I was and how I cherish the fact that this was but an illusion. The feelings I had reading Anna Karenina were brought back tenfold with this short novel, as if I had been living through this turbulous, beautiful book myself.
This book is a beautiful example of life that your soul can relate to.
A heartwrenching story that permits you to be angry and sad, but that at the same time gives you an ending that no matter how much you're angry at it, it's not a fully unhappy one. In fact, melancholically, I can't decide what exactly the end is.
The thing that I understood from this book is the thing that I kept denying for years, and that I thought wasn't so.
The thing that everyone tells you:
"You'll understand when you're older".
Your naive face and eyes looking at the lips of the face that sounded those words, your initial response being the immediate "No, I want to understand now".
Whilst you understand nothing, and with time and age and growing up, you learn that you do actually, inevitably, understand when you're older. It's just that as a child you can't comprehend the state of change as well as you can when you're an adult. You think your mind will stay the same, as your interests, as your friends, which clearly isn't true.
This was exactly the problem of Masha, and the problem of Sergey, for knowing that the case is so with this young girl, and giving in to the silly thing called love, infatuation.
Family Happiness is a book about a difference in age, about growing up, about change and about the stunning differences between men and women. With these differences being so fudamentally different between the two genders, adding an age difference of more than 20 years makes this story a sad but true reflection of the obstacles that these two faced, and makes itself relatable by presenting the relationship of a woman and a man.
Men and women are different, and have different needs and ideas of right and wrong. Just as a person of any age, and even personality, has different needs than the next one, with varying moral ideas.
This makes the mix of two people a tricky thing, a thing that needs to be examined, evaluated and nurtured, without silence and refraining from confrontation being the dominating factor.
This book is a lesson that needs to be learned and applied so that the endings of our own stories won't end up bitter, melancholic and sad.
Above all — le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.
'Our garden and woods and fields which I had known so long, became suddenly new and beautiful to me. He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others. At the time his words seemed to me strange, and I did not understand them; but by degrees this became a conviction with me, without thinking about it. He revealed to me a whole new world of joys in the present, without changing anything in my life, without adding anything except himself to each impression in my mind. All that had surrounded me from childhood without saying anything to me, suddenly came to life. The mere sight of him made everything begin to speak and press for admittance to my heart, filling it with happiness.'
"Yes, my dear, it is little to give you,” he continued; “you have youth and beauty. I often lie awake at night from happiness, and all the time I think of our future life together. I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbour — such is my idea of happiness. And then, on the top of all that, you for a mate, and children perhaps — what more can the heart of man desire?”
(***1/2 - review under construction)
'Our garden and woods and fields which I had known so long, became suddenly new and beautiful to me. He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others. At the time his words seemed to me strange, and I did not understand them; but by degrees this became a conviction with me, without thinking about it. He revealed to me a whole new world of joys in the present, without changing anything in my life, without adding anything except himself to each impression in my mind. All that had surrounded me from childhood without saying anything to me, suddenly came to life. The mere sight of him made everything begin to speak and press for admittance to my heart, filling it with happiness.'
"Yes, my dear, it is little to give you,” he continued; “you have youth and beauty. I often lie awake at night from happiness, and all the time I think of our future life together. I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbour — such is my idea of happiness. And then, on the top of all that, you for a mate, and children perhaps — what more can the heart of man desire?”
(***1/2 - review under construction)
A longer novella (80 pages) in two parts, written early on in the career of Tolstoy (1859). The first part describes the life of a 16-year-old girl, left in a sorry state after the death of her parents. She gets attracted to her much older uncle, and the feeling is mutual. They both struggle with their relationship, but all ends well. Tolstoy portrays them as the happiest couple in the world.
Part 2 sketches a quite different evolution. After the marital bliss, distance grows between them, even more so when they move to Saint-Petersburg and society life absorbs all of the young woman’s attention. It comes to a mental break-up, but she comes to her senses and after some deep conversations in which they expose their heart and soul, they find happiness again.
Does this sound too sweet-romantic to today's taste? Anyway, Tolstoy claims he has written it from personal experience. It’s a beautiful, intimate story, though it has some structural flaws, and carries a traditional view on gender (it’s mainly the woman that is to blame). But I’ve got to admit that it testifies to the enormous psychological empathy of the writer and to his refined writing skills.
Part 2 sketches a quite different evolution. After the marital bliss, distance grows between them, even more so when they move to Saint-Petersburg and society life absorbs all of the young woman’s attention. It comes to a mental break-up, but she comes to her senses and after some deep conversations in which they expose their heart and soul, they find happiness again.
Does this sound too sweet-romantic to today's taste? Anyway, Tolstoy claims he has written it from personal experience. It’s a beautiful, intimate story, though it has some structural flaws, and carries a traditional view on gender (it’s mainly the woman that is to blame). But I’ve got to admit that it testifies to the enormous psychological empathy of the writer and to his refined writing skills.
I found it quite interesting that Tolstoy has written this story from the POV of a teenage girl and her growth along with falling in love, getting married and entering the complicated world of being an adult. It is a very sensitive matter and I specially enjoyed the first half of the book where she was still so young, however even in the later parts the confusion of the first character was described beautifully and with a melodramatic story plot, the whole experience of reading this book is a very challenging one. I intend to read more from this powerful writer.
Why do we grasp life only when it’s too late to change its course? This recurrent thought kept accompanying me as I flipped through the last pages of this novella. Reading this was similar to revisiting one’s intimate experiences; youthful love, dreams of happiness, endless toil, self-sacrifice and questionable affairs are dear subjects to my mind due to what one lives through as a young man, and Tolstoy laid-out the entire quest of seeking truth in those intertwined areas in such a wholesome manner that my torn-heart is nonetheless satisfied.
What an amazing piece of writing. I so far have only ventured in Tolstoy's novellas but I am more and more inclined to tackle his other massive literary work, inspired by my loving absolutely everything I've read by him so far. I think that the first thing I should say about this is that he writes from a female perspective, and he handles it perfectly well. You could have fooled me into thinking this was written by a woman had I not been aware of the author beforehand. He explores the psychology of this character really well as she changes and grows and develops new understandings of the world around her. I get why some people could get an uneasy feeling from this book, thinking it inspires women to abandon their freedom and embrace the domestic bliss that society often expects them to feel. But I didn't feel this while reading it, and I actually felt it was really honest the way the book represents that women may love their children and still feel the need to go out and live their lives. And I think it's really mature the way it portrays how love changes throughout time by nobody's fault, and that the only truly healthy option in a relationship is to accept this. I feel like I will definitely revisit this in the future.
it’s like Tolstoy has lived in everyone’s minds and hearts and just really gets it
Timeless book with excellent writing, a great message & ridiculously realistic interpersonal relationships especially within a family. The book also looks at Tolstoy's "will to love" with love being the driver for life much like will to power or will to meaning.
The idea of accepting your past & emphasis on how one has to learn from experience is linked in so well with the storyline & character arcs.
Not only does the story end well but it shows the journey of the two characters through life which followed along with the message of importance of experience excellently.
The book also touched on the difference in attitude & perspective that comes with age & life experience. As well as the contrast between the main characters throughout in terms of age which acted to highlight the message & themes throughout.
The idea of accepting your past & emphasis on how one has to learn from experience is linked in so well with the storyline & character arcs.
Not only does the story end well but it shows the journey of the two characters through life which followed along with the message of importance of experience excellently.
The book also touched on the difference in attitude & perspective that comes with age & life experience. As well as the contrast between the main characters throughout in terms of age which acted to highlight the message & themes throughout.