A. D. P. Briggs

Anthony Briggs is geen somber man, dat is 1. Een glas is in zijn leefwereld halfvol, niet tot scherven gedoemd – dat maakt dat hij de grootste moeite heeft om zich voor te stellen hoe een man als Tolstoi – aan de ene kant misantroop, aan de andere kant wereldverbeteraar en auteur van een vitale roman als Oorlog en Vrede – de ene voet voor de andere zet.
Zijn poging om Tolstoi te duiden aan de hand van drie kwalijke inspirators – Rousseau, Schopenhauer en Chertkov – is bovendien, hoewel in aanvang niet geheel oninteressant, slechts een trucje om de honderd bladzijden te halen. Op de ideeën van R., S. en C. wordt daarbij amper ingegaan – het volstaat blijkbaar te zeggen dat Rousseau een kwal was, Schopenhauer een lafaard en Chertkov (die pas 8 pagina’s voor het einde voor het eerst vermeld wordt) een hypocriet. Liever dan de invloed van deze denkers op een rationele wijze te duiden, wordt Tolstoi afgeschilderd als een kritiekloze volgeling van een willekeurige bende asocialen.

Dat kan, m.a.w., beter.… (mais)

Hesperus Press has come up with another brilliant idea, commissioning experts to write a series of short (100 or so pages) biographies of famous literary figures, although this is the only one of the series that I have read so far, and, sadly, I didn't enjoy the experience much.

While I felt like I gained a little knowledge through reading Anthony Briggs's book, I came away ardently disliking Tolstoy, and not feeling much better about Briggs himself, as I found the tone in which the book was written almost insufferably stuffy; Terry Pratchett described a character in one of his novels as sounding 'like his bum was stuffed with tweed', and this book certainly brought that phrase strongly to mind.

I also felt that Briggs had a tendency to editorializing that I found irritating, especially in a book so short, and it seemed like he was sometimes more interested in giving his own opinions about the figures in Tolstoy's life, reviewing Tolstoy's works, or critiquing the writing of fellow critics and biographers.

Overall, then, I think the series is an excellent, original idea, and if you can get past Briggs's narrative style, this book is quite interesting, but, for me, it wasn't an overwhelming success.… (mais)

Anthony Briggs is a true admirer of Tolstoy. Already on the first few pages, he talks about the genius of Tolstoy, author of the best book ever written, etc. This admiration doesn't keep him from being critical about the character of Tolstoy or about some of his minor works. In just over a hundred pages we get to know this great Russian author quite well. In short chapters (which I think is a style Briggs uses on purpose. He talks quite extensively about Tolstoy's writing and the way he uses short chapters in War and Peace to produce a readible book) Briggs leads us through Tolstoy's life, describing his most important works and giving us background information on the origins of every work. In this way the reader is able to understand Tolstoy and some of the more important choices he makes in life (for instance, the influence of Rousseau and Schopenhauer on his beliefs) and you are left with a desire to actually read the books Briggs has described. Very well done and the result is a book that is a very good introduction to the author and his work.… (mais)