TOLSTOY, LEO

born Aug. 28 [Sept. 9, New Style], 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, Russian Empire died Nov. 7 , 1910, Astapovo, Ryazan province Tolstoy also spelled Tolstoi, Russian in full Lev Nikolayevich, Count (Graf) Tolstoy Russian author, one of the world's greatest novelists. The son of a landed noble family, Tolstoy was educated at Kazan University but, dissatisfied with the teaching, returned in 1847 to his estate at Yasnaya Polyana. Joining his brother Nikolay in the Caucasus in 1851, he entered the army a year later. He saw action in local engagements against hill tribesmen and at the siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War. He visited France, Switzerland, and Germany in 1857 and on returning started a school for peasant children at Yasnaya Polyana. In 1862 he married Sonya (Sofya) Andreyevna Bers, the daughter of a prominent Moscow physician. Tolstoy had already acquired a reputation as a brilliant short-story writer with his Sevastopolskiye rasskazy (185556; Sevastopol Sketches) and as a novelist with Kazaki (1863; The Cossacks). The publication of Voyna i mir (186569; War and Peace), however, established him as the preeminent Russian novelist. The book is set in Russia during the Napoleonic Wars and examines the lives and experiences of a large cast of characters, each of whom is differently affected by the French invasion of their country in 1812. Subtle psychological analysis and detailed social observations are handled by the author with the utmost objectivity in this monumental narrative. The structure of War and Peace, with its flawless placement of complex characters in a turbulent historical setting, is regarded as one of the great artistic achievements in the history of the Western novel. Tolstoy's second major novel, Anna Karenina (187577), centres on a married woman whose life ends in tragedy and early death after she deserts her husband out of misguided love for a younger man. The novel is similar to War and Peace in its use of parallel sets of characters whose circumstances resemble one another but whose personalities and outlooks on life differ. Anna Karenina shows Tolstoy's increasing emphasis on moral conflict in his fiction and dwells on a theme first broached in War and Peace, that of the ultimate meaning and purpose of human existence. In Ispoved (187879, published 1884; My Confession) Tolstoy gave an account of the spiritual crisis he endured in his search for an answer to the meaning of life. He eventually turned to a form of Christian anarchism and devoted himself to social reform. In Chto takoye iskusstvo? (1898; What Is Art?) Tolstoy developed an aesthetic system that gave art a religious and moral function. He wrote one more full-length novel, Voskreseniye (1899; Resurrection), and plays dealing with social problems, including Vlas tmy (performed 1888; The Power of Darkness). Torn between his urge to live as a wandering ascetic and his responsibilities as a landed proprietor and successful artist, Tolstoy left home one night and died a few days later at a remote railway junction. born Aug. 28 [Sept. 9, New Style], 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, Russian Empire died Nov. 7 , 1910, Astapovo, Ryazan province Tolstoy also spelled Tolstoi, Russian in full Lev Nikolayevich, Count (Graf) Tolstoy Russian author, a master of realistic fiction and one of the world's greatest novelists. Tolstoy is best known for his two longest works, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, which are commonly regarded as among the finest novels ever written. War and Peace in particular seems virtually to define this form for many readers and critics. Among Tolstoy's shorter works, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is usually classed among the best examples of the novella. Especially during his last three decades Tolstoy also achieved world renown as a moral and religious teacher. His doctrine of nonresistance to evil had an important influence on Gandhi. Although Tolstoy's religious ideas no longer command the respect they once did, interest in his life and personality has, if anything, increased over the years. Most readers will agree with the assessment of the 19th-century British poet and critic Matthew Arnold that a novel by Tolstoy is not a work of art but a piece of life; the 20th-century Russian author Isaak Babel commented that, if the world could write by itself, it would write like Tolstoy. Critics of diverse schools have agreed that somehow Tolstoy's works seem to elude all artifice. Most have stressed his ability to observe the smallest changes of consciousness and to record the slightest movements of the body. What another novelist would describe as a single act of consciousness, Tolstoy convincingly breaks down into a series of infinitesimally small steps. According to the English writer Virginia Woolf, who took for granted that Tolstoy was the greatest of all novelists, these observational powers elicited a kind of fear in readers, who wish to escape from the gaze which Tolstoy fixes on us. Those who visited Tolstoy as an old man also reported feelings of great discomfort when he appeared to understand their unspoken thoughts. It was commonplace to describe him as godlike in his powers and titanic in his struggles to escape the limitations of the human condition. Some viewed Tolstoy as the embodiment of nature and pure vitality, others saw him as the incarnation of the world's conscience, but for almost all who knew him or read his works, he was not just one of the greatest writers who ever lived but a living symbol of the search for life's meaning. Additional reading Biographies and recollections of Tolstoy The best portrait of Tolstoy the person is Maxim Gorky, Reminiscences of Leo Nicolaevich Tolstoy (1920, reprinted 1977; originally published in Russian, 1919). There are several biographies of Tolstoy. Aylmer Maude, The Life of Tolstoy, 2 vol. (190810, reissued 2 vol. in 1, 1987), is a highly detailed account, written by a friend sympathetic to Tolstoy's teachings. Ernest J. Simmons, Leo Tolstoy (1946, reissued in 2 vol., 1960), is useful for its generous selection of intriguing quotations concerning Tolstoy's life, though it is weak on Tolstoy's works. Henri Troyat, Tolstoy (1967, reprinted 1980; originally published in French, 1965), captures the drama of Tolstoy's life; it is marred, however, by the use of autobiographical fiction as if it were nonfictional documents. Because Troyat is skeptical of Tolstoy's religious teachings, his biography is a useful counterpoint to Maude's. A whimsical biography by a prominent Russian writer and critic is Victor Shklovsky (viktor Shklovskii), Lev Tolstoy (1978; originally published in Russian, 1963). Also of interest is A.N. Wilson, Tolstoy (1988). N.N. Gusev, Letopis' zhizni i tvorchestva L'va Nikolaevicha Tolstogo, 2 vol. (195860), is a chronology of facts.Informative works on Tolstoy's wife are The Diaries of Sophia Tolstoy, trans. by Cathy Porter (1985); and S.A. Tolstaia, Autobiography of Countess Tolstoy, trans. from Russian by S.S. Koteliansky and Leonard Woolf (also published as The Autobiography of Countess Sophie Tolstoi, 1922). Accounts of the Tolstoy's marriage are Cynthia Asquith, Married to Tolstoy (1960); Anne Edwards, Sonya: The Life of Countess Tolstoy (1981); and Louise Smoluchowski, Lev and Sonya: The Story of the Tolstoy Marriage (1987). Alexandra Tolstoy, Tolstoy: A Life of My Father (1953, reissued 1975; originally published in Russian, 2 vol., 1953), presents another view. Criticism A number of anthologies include Russian and Western criticism spanning the period from Tolstoy's time to the present. Especially useful are Henry Gifford (ed.), Leo Tolstoy: A Critical Anthology (1971); A.V. Knowles (ed.), Tolstoy: The Critical Heritage (1978); and Edward Wasiolek (ed.), Critical Essays on Tolstoy (1986). Other collections of historical criticism are Donald Davie (ed.), Russian Literature and Modern English Fiction: A Collection of Critical Essays (1965); Harold Bloom (ed.), Leo Tolstoy (1986); and Ralph E. Matlaw (ed.), Tolstoy: A Collection of Critical Essays (1967). Collections of recent criticism include Malcolm Jones (ed.), New Essays on Tolstoy (1978); and Hugh McLean (ed.), In the Shade of the Giant: Essays on Tolstoy (1989). A number of excellent works of Russian criticism are available in translatione.g., Konstantin Leontiev, The Novels of Count L.N. Tolstoy: Analysis, Style, and AtmosphereA Critical Study, in Spencer E. Roberts (ed. and trans.), Essays in Russian Literature: The Conservative View (1968), pp. 225356; and Dmitri Merejkowski (Dmitry S. Merezhkovsky), Tolstoi As Man and Artist (1902, reprinted 1970; originally published in Russian, 1901). Boris Eikhenbaum, The Young Tolstoi (1972; originally published in Russian, 1922), Tolstoi in the Sixties (1982; originally published in Russian, 1931), and Tolstoi in the Seventies (1982; originally published in Russian, 1960), are three works by a writer who is, by common consent, the greatest Tolstoy critic, although many disagree with his preference for purely formal explanations.General overviews of Tolstoy's works may be found in George Steiner, Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: An Essay in the Old Criticism (1959, reprinted 1985), a lively study; Edward Wasiolek, Tolstoy's Major Fiction (1978); R.F. Christian, Tolstoy: A Critical Introduction (1969); and John Bayley, Tolstoy and the Novel (1966, reissued 1988). An influential view of Tolstoy as a lifelong religious thinker is Richard F. Gustafson, Leo Tolstoy: Resident and Stranger: A Study in Fiction and Theology (1986).Studies on War and Peace include Isaiah Berlin, The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History (1953, reprinted 1993); R.F. Christian, Tolstoy's War and Peace (1962); Gary Saul Morson, Hidden in Plain View: Narrative and Creative Potentials in War and Peace (1987); and the essays in the Norton critical edition of the novel cited above. On Anna Karenina, the essays in the Norton critical edition, also cited above, are helpful, especially the piece by Barbara Hardy, Form and Freedom: Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, pp. 877899. Tolstoy's Short Fiction, ed. and trans. by Michael R. Katz (1991), a Norton critical edition, contains an excellent selection of criticism.Tolstoy's views of art are outlined in the brief work by George Gibian, Tolstoj and Shakespeare (1957, reprinted 1974); and Rimvydas ilbajoris, Tolstoy's Aesthetics and His Art (1991). Tolstoy and sexuality are dealt with in Peter Ulf Mller, Postlude to The Kreutzer Sonata: Tolstoj and the Debate on Sexual Morality in Russian Literature in the 1890s (1988; originally published in Danish, 1983). Much fine material appears in Tolstoy Studies Journal (annual). Gary Saul Morson Major Works: Novels and novellas Detstvo, Otrochestvo, and Yunost (respectively, 1852, 1854, and 1857; Childhood, Boyhood, Youth, 1886); Kazaki (1863; The Cossacks: A Tale of the Caucasus in 1852, 1878); Voyna i mir (186569; War and Peace, 1886); Anna Karenina (187577; Eng. trans., 1886); Smert Ivana Ilicha (1886; The Death of Ivan Ilyitch, in Ivan Ilyitch, and Other Stories, 1887); Kreytserova sonata (1891; The Kreutzer Sonata, 1890); Voskreseniye (1899; Resurrection, 1899); Khadzhi-Murat (1912; Hadji Murad, 1912); Otets Sergy (1912; Father Sergius, in Father Sergius, and Other Stories, 1912). Stories Rubka lesa (1855; The Wood-Cutting Expedition, in The Invaders, and Other Stories, 1887, better known as The Woodfelling); Chem lyudi zhivy (1882; What People Live By, 1886); Mnogo li cheloveku zemli nuzhno (1885; Does a Man Need Much Land, in Ivan Ilyitch and Other Stories, 1887, better known as How Much Land Does a Man Need?); Dva starika (1886; The Two Pilgrims, 1887, better known as Two Old Men); Kholstomer (1886; Kholstomir: A Story of a Horse, in The Invaders . . . , 1887); Dyavol (1911; The Devil, 1926). Plays Zhivoi Trup (1911; The Living Corpse, 1911, also known as The Man Who Was Dead); Vlast Tmy (1912; The Dominion of Darkness, 1890, better known as The Power of Darkness). Philosophical and social writings Tsarstvo bozhiye vnutri vas (first publication in French, 1893; The Kingdom of God Is Within You, 1893); Ispoved (1884; My Confession, 1887); V chyom moya vera? (1884; What I Believe, 1886); Issledovaniye dogmaticheskogo bogosloviya (1891; Critique of Dogmatic Theology, in My Confession; Critique . . . , 1904); Chto takoye iskusstvo? (1898; What Is Art?, 1898); Tak chto zhe nam delat? (1906; What To Do?, 1887, also known as What Shall We Do Then? or What Then Must We Do?). Editions in Russian and in English translation The definitive edition in Russian is the Jubilee collection: Polnoe sobranie sochenenii, ed. by V.G. Chertkov, 90 vol. (192858). Comprehensive, though incomplete, collections of his works in English include The Works of Leo Tolsty trans. by Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude, 21 vol. (192837), known as the Tolsty Centenary Edition; and The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy, trans. by Leo Wiener, 24 vol. (190405, reprinted 1968).There are numerous translations of Tolstoy's major works. War and Peace, trans. by Ann Dunnigan (1968, reissued 1993), is the superior version; also good is the translation by Constance Garnett, 3 vol. (1904), and available in many later printings. The widely available Norton critical edition, War and Peace: The Maude Translation: Backgrounds and Sources: Essays in Criticism, ed. by George Gibian (1966), succeeds less well in capturing tone, in addition to changing Tolstoy's division of the book into sections and adding plot summaries to each chapter. Anna Karenina, ed. and rev. by Leonard J. Kent and Nina Berberova (1965), a revision of the Garnett translation, is the best version; it is followed by the Norton critical edition, Anna Karenina: The Maude Translation: Backgrounds and Sources: Essays in Criticism, ed. by George Gibian (1970).As a general rule, where translations by Dunnigan or Garnett are not available, translations by the Maudes are to be preferred. The Maude versions of many of Tolstoy's works have been included in Oxford University Press's series The World's Classics; especially worth consulting are their translations in this series titled Twenty-Three Tales (1906, reprinted 1975), their well-known edition of Tolstoy's short, didactic stories; What Is Art? and Essays on Art (1930, reissued 1975); Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1930, reissued 1969); and A Confession, The Gospel in Brief, and What I Believe (1940, reissued 1974). For Tolstoy's short stories, a good choice is Short Stories, compiled by Ernest J. Simmons (1964), the Modern Library edition which, in addition to several Maude translations, includes George L. Kline's version of Tolstoy's first experiment in fiction, A History of Yesterday. Modern Library has also reproduced Maude translations of his Short Novels (1965); and Selected Essays (1964). Tolstoy's The Forged Coupon (1985) is the best version of this posthumously published story.Tolstoy's plays, which are often replete with peasant dialect and many of which were left unfinished, have until recently resisted good translation. Two early collections are Plays, trans. by Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude (1914, reissued 1950); and The Dramatic Works of Lyof N. Tolsto, trans. by Nathan Haskell Dole (1923). A superior edition is Tolstoy: Plays (1994 ), trans. by Marvin Kantor and Tanya Tulchinsky.An excellent selection of Tolstoy's correspondence is Tolstoy's Letters, ed. and trans. from Russian by R.F. Christian, 2 vol. (1978). Selections from his diaries (which run to 13 volumes in the Jubilee edition) are collected in Tolstoy's Diaries, ed. and trans. from Russian by R.F. Christian, 2 vol. (1985). The intriguing record of Tolstoy's last year is Last Diaries, ed. by Leon Stilman (1960, reprinted 1979). Some other versions are marred by inaccuracy or the suppression of passages for the sake of propriety: The Journal of Leo Tolstoi, trans. by Rose Strunsky (1917, reissued 1993), covering the years 18951899; The Diaries of Leo Tolstoy, 3 vol., trans. by C.J. Hogarth and A. Sirnis (1917); and The Private Diary of Leo Tolsty, 18531857, trans. by Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude (1927, reprinted 1972).