Anna, Vronsky, and Vronsky’s old associate Golenishchev are talking about the work of a painter, in particular a painting of two boys fishing.
Thursday, October 13, 2022
“What they had no conception of”
Also from this novel
“The turning point of summer” : Theory of dairy farming : Toothache : Anna meta : “Brainless beef!” : “He could not help observing this” : “Official activity” : “All of this together”
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comments: 2
Good morning, Michael. Thank you for sharing this from Tolstoy. As an undergrad, I did a Tolstoy seminary with Professor Irina Paperno at Berkeley. It was the single most satisfying literature course I have ever participated in. Professor Paperno was encyclopedically knowledgeable, devastatingly funny in a very, very dry way, and heroically patient with us whose Russian was a second or third language. She would read from the Russian text, translating into English in real time, and it was like watching Nadia Comaneci on the uneven bars: elegant, perfect, and at the edge of human ability. She was (and I reckon, probably still is!) a a brilliant expositor of Tolstoy's work and milieu.
She described the semester paper I wrote for her class as "witty and erudite," and you could have seen my grin from the International Space Station that day.
Thank you for evoking this nearly thirty-year-old memory.
What a great memory. I too remember “witty” as a word of high praise.
Your prof appears to be retired but still teaching at Berkeley. I hope she reads her e-mails. : )
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