Dear God I am so glad I chose to listen to the audiobook.
I can certainly see why this is a classic. However, the exciting bits happened so far apart and the details of their everyday upper class Russian lives was incredibly tedious to listen to. I most certainly would have DNFed this if I had read the book. I understand it was written well before radio, films and TV; folks had more time on their hands and were entertained more easily. I can appreciate it's cultural significance.