The greatest form of writing is melodrama, the acme of literature at which letter becomes scripture. But only Fyodor Dostoevsky has written that kind of melodrama. George Steiner, the "European metaphysician," takes on the difficult task of comparing him with Count Leo Tolstoy.
Fyodor Dostoevsky, the man with God's print etched on his heart, is once again the unconventional hero, in George Steiner's book Tolstoy or Dostoevsky. An older and perhaps wiser Steiner in his preface makes it clear that he wrote the book as a young man. What does Steiner mean by that?
Maybe, it is that we shouldn't judge Steiner's later work by this. But why shouldn't one, since the book itself is a masterpiece of literary criticism?
Steiner often comes close to confessing his partiality to Dostoevsky, but suddenly pulls back when he starts thinking of Tolstoy, the Russian Hercules. Under the looming shadow of Leo, he flinches. George Steiner flinches in slow motion, over 300 pages, and is a delight to read.
Dostoevsky wrote intense classics that throw light on the dark crevice of the human mind. Tolstoy, on the other hand, was more adept in composing fugues that could be played till the end of time. The key to both these masters lie in their religious conscience, that is, predominantly Christian.
There must have been a point at which Dostoevsky could have taken the mystical path and become a guru, like Tolstoy, inspiring generations and even people like Gandhi (the settlement that Gandhi founded in South Africa was named after Tolstoy). But Dostoevsky plodded on, searching for those truths that he was convinced lay deeper still. Beyond was a great waste, an oblivion. Fyodor showed the utmost integrity in depicting it. But Steiner, who obviously likes him better, is in awe of Count Leo Tolstoy.
One is never in awe of Dostoevsky, like one is never in awe of Jesus. Steiner hints that Doestoevsky was the Christian and Tolstoy, the pagan. Dostoevsky, with his prophetic insight into the soul of man, turned history, religion and psychology into chapters in his great books. Tolstoy on the other hand, expended his creative urge to the end, aided by superhuman stamina and nervous capacity. Dostoevsky was weak of body, like Nietzsche, but not weak of soul. Tolstoy shared his physical strength with the great German writer, Goethe.
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