The kindle edition tells you where you are in the novel. I'm at 2%. This quote stuck out to me, describing Oblonsky and his friend Levin."They were fond of one another in spite of the difference of their characters and tastes, as friends are fond of one another who have been together in early youth. But in spite of this, each of them, though in discussion he would even justify the other's career, in his heart despised it. It seemed to each of them that the life he led himself was the only real life, and the life led by his friend was a mere phantasm."
I think this must be much more typical than we think. Indeed I have not a few friends whose careers I consider unreal, unworthy of their time, and as legitimate as a phantasm. But that doesn't always affect the way I see the friend. I think we have sufficiently alienated person from labor that it is not hard to separate the merits of a person's character from the merits, or lack thereof, of her work.
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