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robbiezk's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
aileen_odwyer's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
vanishingworld's review against another edition
4.0
This is an instance where, I think, translation matters. I checked this book out electronically from my library--the only copy in the entire system--and realized too late that it was a Barnes & Noble production with an anonymous translator. In the preface, in fact, the translator spoke of Tolstoy as being alive, so I imagine this was translated during the author's lifetime! I have a sense that if I'd read the newer translations, I'd have gotten even more out of this. That being said, Tolstoy's genius was evident even in this fragmentary, very early work. His description of nature and natural phenomenon is second to none. His complex and deep character descriptions (rather than characterization, which I don't think had truly reached its full flower here) transfixed me, and I copied down many examples for later study. It ends abruptly, of course, because it was meant to be a much longer work, and there is, frustratingly, an entire section that the translator merely reports was not included in the original Russian. I have no idea if this means it was lost or never written.
ahis84's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
mon49's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
arantzaaa's review against another edition
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
laurenelizabeth43's review against another edition
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
marc129's review against another edition
3.0
Three booklets that more or less autobiographically reflect the youth of the author, in the person of Nikolaj Petrowitjs Irtenjew, a boy who grows up in a very protective aristocratic environment. The pieces of this coming-of-age story were published in 1852, 1853 and 1856 and immediately brought Tolstoi some recognition in the literary world.
The first part, Childhood, describes his blissful time as a little boy at the parental domain in Petrovskoye, the departure for Moscow and the ‘beau monde’ that opens up to him there, until the death of his mother. The book is fluently written, even starts strongly and unusually with the waking up and the morning ritual by the German tutor Karl Ivanich. The distance between child and adults is beautifully illustrated, just as the ambiguous attitude of the child towards the adult world: sticking to conventions, but having different feelings.
Part two, Youth, is set again in Moscow, where the now motherless boy is raised in the home of the distant and very conventional grandmother. Little Niko clearly has a hard time with those conventions. The prepubescent problems culminate in an apotheosis, spying on his father's inappropriate behavior at a family party. Nikolaj (aka Lev) here first discovers the the "social problem": the existence of another world, full of limitations.Stylistically again it offers high quality with especially in the beginning the description of the storm.
Part three, Youthhood, is much more factual and descriptive: how sixteen-year-old Niko is preparing for his university entrance exam, clearly having problems with the people in his immediate and wider environment (as a result of a haughty attitude with which he wants to impress), how he neglects his studies and gets absorbed in society life and eventually fails his exams and is exposed as a loser. This part is less captivating and especially less sparkling than the previous one. Still, it shows a fantastic literary talent in the making.
The first part, Childhood, describes his blissful time as a little boy at the parental domain in Petrovskoye, the departure for Moscow and the ‘beau monde’ that opens up to him there, until the death of his mother. The book is fluently written, even starts strongly and unusually with the waking up and the morning ritual by the German tutor Karl Ivanich. The distance between child and adults is beautifully illustrated, just as the ambiguous attitude of the child towards the adult world: sticking to conventions, but having different feelings.
Part two, Youth, is set again in Moscow, where the now motherless boy is raised in the home of the distant and very conventional grandmother. Little Niko clearly has a hard time with those conventions. The prepubescent problems culminate in an apotheosis, spying on his father's inappropriate behavior at a family party. Nikolaj (aka Lev) here first discovers the the "social problem": the existence of another world, full of limitations.Stylistically again it offers high quality with especially in the beginning the description of the storm.
Part three, Youthhood, is much more factual and descriptive: how sixteen-year-old Niko is preparing for his university entrance exam, clearly having problems with the people in his immediate and wider environment (as a result of a haughty attitude with which he wants to impress), how he neglects his studies and gets absorbed in society life and eventually fails his exams and is exposed as a loser. This part is less captivating and especially less sparkling than the previous one. Still, it shows a fantastic literary talent in the making.
sthbkma's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0