Tolstoi, Count Leo (1828-1910)

Tolstoi, Count Leo. Full Russian name Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoi (1828-1910)

Russian novelist, playwright, short-story writer, and essayist, known for his psychological studies of character and his panoramic pictures of Russian life in the 19th century, and later for his Primitivism and religious mysticism. Among his works are War and Peace ( 18651872), his most famous novel; Anna Karenina ( 1875-1876); The Death of Ivan Ilyich ( 1884); The Power of Darkness ( 1886), a play; The Kreutzer Sonata ( 1889); What Is Art? ( 1898), an analysis of art according to its emotional appeal; Resurrection ( 1899). Others include Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth, My Religion, and My Confession, autobiographical and introspective; The Cossacks; Sebastopol; Master and Man; What Is to Be Done?; The Kingdom of God Is Within You.

Tolstoi came of a wealthy and noble family, but eventually became discontented, developing a system of thought which emphasized simplicity, faith, love, and the Christian brotherhood of man, and deplored man-made institutions such as governments, churches, and creeds. He forswore literature and art, made an effort to renounce his material possessions, and endeavored to live as a peasant in the country. He died in a railway station after having fled from an unhappy domestic background to take refuge in a monastery.