Daniel Lomax’s Reviews > All Art is Propaganda: Critical Essays > Status Update

Why is it that Tolstoy's grasp seems to be so much larger than Dickens's — why is it that he seems able to tell you so much more about yourself? It is not that he is more gifted, or even, in the last analysis, more intelligent. It is because he is writing about people who are growing. His characters are struggling to make their souls, whereas Dickens's are already finished and perfect.