Cheers for Oprah and Leo

If you told your neighbor that the top-selling novel in the nation today was written by "The Count," he'd think you meant the muppet on Sesame Street or maybe Dracula. Or maybe you'd coined a new monicker for Bill Clinton.

The name Leo Tolstoy would not come to mind.

But thanks to Oprah Winfrey's revamped Book Club, the author of "War and Peace," "The Death of Ivan Illich" and "Anna Karenina" is now coming to mind some 100 years after his death. On best-seller lists this month, Count Leo Tolstoy rules.

It's somewhat surprising, and gratifying, to see "Anna Karenina," a novel with so much physical and philosophical heft, ascend so high. And unlike the Hollywood mavens, Winfrey should be congratulated for not "underestimating the intelligence of the American people."

Last year, a budding literary wordsmith angered Winfrey when he said her book club was too low-brow for the likes of his novel. But Winfrey's mother didn't raise a fool. And Winfrey hasn't amassed a fortune by being outflanked. Oprah has now based her club around literary classics that have so much cache that her snooty, young critic's novel would not even qualify for her book list.

Bravo, Oprah.

Recently, Winfrey included the novel "100 Years of Solitude," the groundbreaking work by Colombia's Gabriel Garcia Marquez, on that list. The novel, published more than 30 years ago, was a watershed moment for Garcia Marquez and also for Latin American literature. It is a tricky yet fascinating read. It weds daily life to notions of the supernatural in what has become known as "Magic Realism." The book spawned the Latin American "Boom" movement, has generated hundreds of imitators and has created a generation of young writers — the McOndo Movement — who write as a reaction against it.

The novel is a perfect snapshot of Latin American literature, much as Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" is a snapshot of the Russian literary light and genius of its era.

Readers now anxiously await to see what the Winfrey club will showcase next.

Many people talk about the "dumbing down" of American culture, the lack of classic art and literature in the lives of the nation's citizens. Oprah Winfrey and her international band of book clubbers, however, are doing something about it.

Count Leo would be amazed and grateful. And, if he was anything like Mark Twain, he also would be annoyed that he is not seeing any royalties from this newfound interest in his works of genius.