American high schoolers still read it, at least I had to. Personally, I saw Dickens and "Great Expectations" as less of a fairy-tale writer (and story) and more of a writer of the old school, who understood that the audience needed to be hooked in some way. The fantastic notes of the story I felt were primarily to maintain the interest of the reader. By the time Tolstoy and "Anna Karenina" had come around, perhaps the tastes of the reading public had changed.
American high schoolers still read it, at least I had to. Personally, I saw Dickens and "Great Expectations" as less of a fairy-tale writer (and story) and more of a writer of the old school, who understood that the audience needed to be hooked in some way. The fantastic notes of the story I felt were primarily to maintain the interest of the reader. By the time Tolstoy and "Anna Karenina" had come around, perhaps the tastes of the reading public had changed.
Thanks! Yes, if anything, the two go together as he draws on older sources of entertainment, as opposed to the stricter realism that prevailed later.