- Paperback: 624 pages
- Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.; Reprint edition (3 May 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0393321223
- ISBN-13: 978-0393321227
- Product Dimensions: 14 x 2.8 x 20.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 470,105 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
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.
About the Author
A.N. Wilson was born in 1950. He was educated at New College, Oxford and is a prolific journalist as well as being an acclaimed biographer and novelist of note. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he lives in north London with his wife and daughter.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
'And on they went, singing "Eternal Memory". . . .' Tolstoy's story begins, like Doctor Zhivago's, with a woman's funeral. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
'And on they went, singing "Eternal Memory". . . .' Tolstoy's story begins, like Doctor Zhivago's, with a woman's funeral. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a very readable and entertaining journey through the life of a great writer. AN Wilson rarely slackens the pace and all the major novels and stories plus the most important non-fiction works are subjected to his keen critical eye. His analysis of Tolstoy's technique of pouring his own life and that of his family into his fiction is very revealing and Wilson evidently has a great admiration for the old man.
This admiration does not extend to forgiving Tolstoy his occasional lunacies (e.g. his essay on Shakespeare) or submitting to the Tolstoyan version of the Gospels or his doctrines of non-violence, anarchy and non-resistance to evil although Tolstoy's bitter battle with his wife is treated sympathetically and his final flight from home is detailed with mercifully quick strokes.
The one star reviewer on Amazon has it that Wilson fails to appreciate Tolstoy because he does not agree with his version of Christianity. I think it's true that Wilson is a little unfair on Tolstoy when he says that `The Kingdom of God is Within You' "has very little to say to the slain of the trenches...or the countless millions who died" at the hands of Hitler or Stalin. Surely if more soldiers had followed the example that Wilson details of a Christian Russian conscript steadfastly refusing to do military service (despite being sent to a lunatic asylum) and eventually being released, the terrible events referred to could have been averted. The First World War in particular was surely produced by rapacious, propaganda-addicted and warmongering nationalist governments. If so-called Christians had actually followed Christ's laws, the war could not have happened. This was Tolstoy's simple, radical proposal.
One more thing: the subject matter is sometimes (necessarily) heavy but time and again I found myself chuckling at Wilson's jokes or turn of phrase.
Overall a great book which is well worth reading, especially for the Tolstoy enthusiast.
This admiration does not extend to forgiving Tolstoy his occasional lunacies (e.g. his essay on Shakespeare) or submitting to the Tolstoyan version of the Gospels or his doctrines of non-violence, anarchy and non-resistance to evil although Tolstoy's bitter battle with his wife is treated sympathetically and his final flight from home is detailed with mercifully quick strokes.
The one star reviewer on Amazon has it that Wilson fails to appreciate Tolstoy because he does not agree with his version of Christianity. I think it's true that Wilson is a little unfair on Tolstoy when he says that `The Kingdom of God is Within You' "has very little to say to the slain of the trenches...or the countless millions who died" at the hands of Hitler or Stalin. Surely if more soldiers had followed the example that Wilson details of a Christian Russian conscript steadfastly refusing to do military service (despite being sent to a lunatic asylum) and eventually being released, the terrible events referred to could have been averted. The First World War in particular was surely produced by rapacious, propaganda-addicted and warmongering nationalist governments. If so-called Christians had actually followed Christ's laws, the war could not have happened. This was Tolstoy's simple, radical proposal.
One more thing: the subject matter is sometimes (necessarily) heavy but time and again I found myself chuckling at Wilson's jokes or turn of phrase.
Overall a great book which is well worth reading, especially for the Tolstoy enthusiast.
27 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A journey into one of literature's most compelling figures
A N Wilson's authoritative biography is an excellent starting point for further knowledge of one of literature's giants. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Toby Frith
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... Read more
Published on 22 Nov 2005
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