Reading..

It has been quite sometime that I wrote. Not that nothing occurred to me, but just that when they did, I could not write.

Past couple of weeks I have had a strong urge to again start reading the kind of books I love the most, which are essentially the very rich texts from the late 19th to early 20th century (around the time of the Victorian Era i.e 1837-1901). Books from great writers like Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy and the likes.

Right now I am reading 'The death of Ivan Ilyich' by Leo Tolstoy. I began with this book just to get a feeler of Tolstoys writing style before starting with his very famous 'War and Peace'. However, now that I am near to completing the novella, I think I would read 'Anna Karenina' before I read 'War and Peace'.

I am simply awe stuck at the beauty with which Tolstoy has written every line in this book. It is commonly believed that this book also gives a glimpse of how his life was during the time he wrote this book.

Having read quite a few books from authors of the Victorian Era, what ammuses me further is that unlike popular belief, human reactions and behavioural patterns have really not changed over the centuries. The characters that these works of fiction have are characters we can relate to even now. What I mean is that the 'progression', if I may call it so, that the modern era has brought about has actually failed to transcend or alter the very essense of human behaviour. How men and women think, how the society works, what were the driving forces, what were the basic desires, how various professions functioned and what was thought of them.. All of that is almost same in the fundamental level, its just that, carriage has become car, candles have become lights, card games have become casinos, hats have lost its glory and most importantly the words have lost their royalty.

Will write about Anna Karenina once I finish reading that.