A photograph of Tolstoy playing tennis. (h/t Elif Batuman and these intrepid Italians on Pinterest)
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A photograph of Tolstoy playing tennis. (h/t Elif Batuman and these intrepid Italians on Pinterest)

“Нового шага, нового собственного слова они всего больше боятся.” (“Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.”)  -Fyodor Dostoevsky in honor of his apparent win in the other day’s showdown.
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“Нового шага, нового собственного слова они всего больше боятся.” (“Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.”) 

-Fyodor Dostoevsky in honor of his apparent win in the other day’s showdown.

So on Facebook, it turns out twice as many of you prefer Dostoevsky to Tolstoy.

Tolstoy or Dostoevsky? 8 Experts on Who’s Greater Which do you prefer? Cast your vote here. [Image via Scriptorium]
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Tolstoy or Dostoevsky? 8 Experts on Who’s Greater

Which do you prefer? Cast your vote here.

[Image via Scriptorium]

Tolstoy or Dostoevsky? Cast your vote!

Which a sonata will you be
Hidden by me in – with a care?
How uneasily, for me
Will call you, utterly unfair
Because so close and so good
You were for me, tho’ for a moment…
Your dream – dissolving in a solvent,
Where death – just levy to the mute.
Anna Akhmatova, “The Call”
Vasily Grossman with the Red Army in Schwerin, Germany (1945). They just don’t take author photos like they used to.
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Vasily Grossman with the Red Army in Schwerin, Germany (1945). They just don’t take author photos like they used to.

Dmitri Nabokov, son of Vladimir, passed away this week at the age of 77. His stewardship of his father’s literary estate is admirable and worth remembrance.
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Dmitri Nabokov, son of Vladimir, passed away this week at the age of 77. His stewardship of his father’s literary estate is admirable and worth remembrance.

It is necessary that every man have at least somewhere to go. For there are times when one absolutely must go at least somewhere!
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, tr. Pevear & Volokhonsky
For the past month my almost-three-year-old son and I have shared a joke. In idle moments, sitting around the table or on the playroom floor, we’ll make eye contact and start to grin. Then one or the other of us will whisper quietly, “Stinking Lizaveta,” and we’ll laugh and say it again and again in happy singsong voices.
Reading The Brothers Karamazov: Even a Toddler Knows a Funny Name When He Hears One by Kevin Hartnett