Novelists and characters

Well, I have been reading Anna Karenina. Tolstoy can really create people on the page--the way they look, their mannerisms, the way their voices sound, their motives. But he doesn't have the warm love and compassion for his characters that George Eliot has. Tolstoy shows you how they really are in kind of a cold light, and many are the characters whom he despises. Eliot shows you how they really are, but also shows why they are worthy of respect and how once you understand them you can't help but love them, flaws and all.

I think my favorite George Eliot novel is Silas Marner. As for Tolstoy, I like War and Peace better than Anna Karenina.