Is Anna Karenina and War and Peace Hard to Read?

Anna Karenina and War and Peace, Are these two masterpieces hard to read. Have you finished reading them?

Some books are catchy and catch readers' thoughts, and the more they read, the more they love to read. 

But there are some books that are difficult to understand, easy to get lost in thought, or difficult to understand. 

Then, these two books Anna Karenina and War and Peace are recognized as difficult books. Have you finished reading them?

Anna Karenina

"Anna Karenina", which is the masterpiece of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, is a great novel. 

Say that classics are difficult to read, many people think that the names in foreign classics are relatively long and relatively unfamiliar, 

especially this book, through two major clues: the tragic love of the heroine Anna, and Levin's crisis in the countryside The reforms and explorations carried out portrayed a vast and colorful picture of Russia from Moscow to the provinces and villages. 

It described more than 150 characters in total, which can be called social encyclopedia-like work.

War and Peace

"War and Peace" is beautiful. "War and Peace" is the greatest novel in the world. It has vast scenes and many characters. Not only has no one written such a novel before but it also will never be written again.

 

It is a well-deserved "epic". "War and Peace" is a complete portrait of all things in which one finds one's happiness and sorrow, greatness and shame.

The spirit of the times permeates this large-scale work, which describes social life and individual life in Russia at the turn of the century with great skill. 

"War and Peace" enables a more direct and accurate understanding of the character and temperament of the Russian people, and of life in Russia as a whole, than reading hundreds of works of ethnology and history.

The creation background of "War and Peace": In 1855, Alexander II came to the throne. At that time, the tsarist government was weakened by military defeats during the Crimean War, peasant uprisings were raging, and calls for reform were growing from all quarters.

In this situation, Alexander II was forced to abolish serfdom and implement some liberal reform policies. The Decembrists exiled to Siberia for the failed uprising of 1825 were also pardoned at this time.

The serfdom reform in 1861 marked that the Russian serfdom society was collapsing and was rapidly moving towards capitalism of Western civilization. After searching up and down from the 1850s to the early 1860s, Tolstoy finally released "War and Peace".

In the early 19th century, Russia experienced two counterattacks to the invasion of Napoleon's army. Those were two just wars of defending the homeland and defending the country. 

The Russian people united together unprecedentedly, regardless of rich or poor, high or low, even men, women, old and young. They powerfully blocked the attack of Napoleon's army and defeated Napoleon's conquest.

Tolstoy believed that in order to solve the problem of its own social direction in Russia in the 1860s, it was necessary to go back to this period of history and return to the struggle of the upper and lower levels in this period of history, so he created "War and Peace".

The Russian writer Babel commented on this book:

In fact, a person does not need to read too many books in his life, seven or eight books are enough; however, in order to find the seven or eight books that are most worth reading, he must first read two or three thousand books. Among the thousands of Russian literary masterpieces, "War and Peace", the greatest work of the greatest writer, is undoubtedly one of the few books that should be read the most.

In fact, while reading masterpieces, some people find it easy to read, and some people find it difficult. On the one hand, the reason is related to their own experience. 

Let a junior high school student read "Anna Karenina", and the same university professor read it. It's definitely not the same as understanding that. 

So choose the books that suit you, and only by accumulating bit by bit can you make continuous progress.