so. Only I say this, let it be a great passion and then death, rather than a false or faked purpose. Tolstoi said “No” to the passion and the death conclusion. And then drew into the dreary issue of a false conclusion. His books were better than his life. Better the woman’s goal, sex and death, than some false goal of man’s.

Better Anna Karenina and Vronsky a thousand times than Natasha and that porpoise of a Pierre. This pretty, slightly sordid couple tried so hard to kid themselves that the porpoise Pierre was puffing with great purpose. Better Vronsky than Tolstoi himself, in my mind. Better Vronsky’s final statement: “As a soldier I am still some good. As a man I am a ruin” — better that than Tolstoi and Tolstoi-ism and that beastly peasant blouse the old man wore.