Product Description

In this biography of Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, A.N. Wilson narrates the complex drama of the writer's life: his childhood of aristocratic privilege but emotional deprivation, his discovery of his literary genius after aimless years of gambling and womanizing, and his increasingly disastrous marriage. Wilson sweeps away the long-held belief that Tolstoy's works were the exact mirror of his life, and instead traces the roots of Tolstoy's art to his relationship with God, with women, and with Russia. He alsorecreates the world that shaped the great novelist's life and art - the turmoil of ideas and politics in 19th-century Russia and the literary renaissance that made Tolstoy's work possible.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #334862 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 624 pages

Customer Reviews

Tolstoy without the heart
Great biographers let their subjects speak, and bring them to life again. Wilson however, allows his own decision to turn away from Christianity to colour his approach to Tolstoy. He dismisses the heart of the great writer's philsophy of life, which also came close to the anarchism of fellow Russian aristocrat Kropotkin as "silly", and ignored what for Tolstoy was the essence of his existence, his faith that where love is, there God is. Faith not in Church, or ritual, priests or popes, but that the kingdom of God is in all of us, and in the core of Christian belief and practice - Jesus and the sermon on the mount. And so instead of a biography of a great man and humble Christian who influenced Gandhi, who turned from wealth to life with the peasants, who extolled simplicty and living in harmony nature, who has inspired generations of anti-war actvists amd pacifists, we have a biography which skims the surface of Tolstoy. We have another book about Wilson, by Wilson. I recommend Derrick Leon or Aylmer Maude - they may be older and more sympathetic biographers, but they get to the heart of the man.

Read it!
Simply put, I enjoyed this biography immensely. As a reader, and re-reader, of Tolstoy since adolescence, this biography served to renew and sharpen my interest in Tolstoy's novels, and moreover to bring the man to life in my mind, and he was a very big character -- thus an apt subject for biography. I am surprised that this admirable, highly-entertaining work by the clever AN Wilson (his Iris Murdoch book is v. good too, a hoot in fact) is not better known and more widely-read than it is. To my mind, it is a gem. It shines with Wilson's own enthusiam, and renews ones own enthusiasm for this brilliant Russian writer.

Amazing Book
Wilson writes a biography which is more thrilling and moving than many novels. As Tolstoy's life (and the book) progressed and got nearer to the end I started to feel sad about his death just like if I did not know it was going to happen. For admirer's of Tolstoy's non-fictional work it may seem a little patronizing but there's an obvious effort of accuracy in the way Wilson describes facts and shares his opinions. Tolstoy's life is interconnected with Russian history which is very well written (in a summarized and pleasent way) and the book has plenty of little curious stories (like the one in which Tolstoy learned greek in 3 months and had to prove it to a Professor who deemed it to be impossible) that make it an enormous pleasure for any reader who's interested in Tolstoy's work and/or character.