So we can add theatre to the list of things Mo knows nothing about

[Sir C]

They are both writers. They both write novels. The difference is that Tolstoy's concern the vast sweep of history, religion, philosophy, man's inhumanity to man and the human condition, while Jackie Collins' concern people in Beverley Hills having rather unconvincing sex.

I understand that. But why does that make Tolstoy's novels better? More to your taste, perhaps. More educational, so better in some vague moral sense? For the average punter Tolstoy's writing will be dull when it isn't indecipherable; and a writer who cannot make himself understood has failed, no?