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| 6/10/1881 |
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Tolstoy Reborn
On this day in 1881, Count Leo Tolstoy donned his peasant coat and homemade bark shoes, gathered his walking staff and two bodyguards, and set out from his estate for the Optina Pustyn monastery. Tolstoy was a national hero for his novels but already in the grip of the religious-political mania which would dominate his writing and trouble his life over the last three decades. |
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| 12/17/1867 |
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War and Peace Weighs In
On this day in 1867, the Moscow News made this announcement of the book that would almost immediately and permanently make most 'great novels' lists: "War and Peace. By Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy. Four volumes (80 sheets). Price: 7 rubles. Weight parcel post: 5 pounds. The first three volumes delivered with a coupon for the fourth." |
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"Echoes from Chechen guerrillas"
A review from Guardian Unlimited of Tolstoy's Hadji Murat, a work based on the struggle of a much-admired nineteenth century Chechen separatist guerrilla, which features "uncanny resonances ... with current affairs":
"The Chechens here are Muslims, and their asceticism and piety are strongly contrasted with the moral flabbiness of the Russians; yet, for all that, the way that Tolstoy and even his semi-fictionalised compatriots deal with the Chechens contrasts strongly, and not to our favour, with the way our own modern adversaries are so childishly demonised. ... Literature, as Pound said, is news that stays news. I can't at the moment think of a better illustration of this than Hadji Murat." |  | "What Is Art?"
"Leo Tolstoy, although best known for his literary works, also wrote various essays on art, history, and religion." This page features excerpts from his treatise on art. On the importance of sincerity:
"... the artist should be impelled by an inner need to express his feeling. ... It is always complied with in peasant art, and this explains why such art always acts so powerfully; but it is a condition almost entirely absent from our upper-class art, which is continually produced by artists actuated by personal aims of covetousness or vanity." | | Leo Tolstoy
A nicely designed fan site featuring a short biography and timeline, recommended links, and large image gallery. Tolstoy, on the importance of one's personal appearance:
"I am convinced that nothing has so marked an influence on the direction of a man's mind as his appearance, and not so much his appearance itself so much as his conviction that it is attractive or unattractive." | | Online Books Page
Find electronic texts including Anna Karenina, War and Peace, The Cossacks, The Devil, The Death of Ivan Ilych, Family Happiness, Ivan the Fool, The Gospel in Brief, The Slavery of Our Times, Resurrection, and other works. | |
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The TinL masthead features photography by
Natasha D'Schommer
, and the book art featured is by Jim Rosenau.
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