Dostoevsky's and Tolstoy's moments.

I am closing in on my long-held goal of reading the six great novels by Dostoevsky and Tolstoy: my first time through Demons (in the Pevear-Volokhonsky translation), mostly during 2006, follows The Idiot in 2005, Anna Karenina in 2004, Brothers Karamazov in 2003, War and Peace in 2000, and Crime and Punishment in 1999. I have been struck by the different character- or plot-defining kinds of moments particular to each author. The Tolstoyan moment is one of sheer fullness of life, joyful communion with all of the cosmos. The Dostoevskian moment, on the other hand, is a sudden moment of unexpected transgression, violation, or sometimes just discovery of a fact that implies transgression or violation. While it may be tempting to think of Tolstoy's moments as those of full humanity and Dostoevsky's as humanity reduced to animal or primordial nature, it may be more meaningful to speak of them both as moments of full humanity, the one affirming the best in humans and the other, the worst.