Picked this fantastic book a few weeks ago.. Rosamund Bartlett has written the first long and detail
Picked this fantastic book a few weeks ago.. Rosamund Bartlett has written the first long and detailed life of Tolstoy in decades. As we know, he was a hardworking writer and a gifted idealist, and after the successes of “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina”, he turned more to the emancipation of the serfs by educating their children on his own estate, Yasnaya Polyana. We have, for example, long discussions of topics for child education, including “Electricity” and “Magnetism”, which go on for hundreds of pages. But he was also a Count, and from this privileged position in Russian society, he was able, especially later in life, to attack the Orthodox Church in favor of his own pacifist ideas - which eventually gained worldwide adherents, including Gandhi. His stubborn idealism eventually led to disagreements with his wife, and we know that, after a particularly strong disagreement at the age of 82, he left his home and boarded a train headed east, only to catch a cold and die in a remote train station, 200 miles from home. We have photos showing long lines of his admirers waiting patiently in the snow to bid farewell to their admired writer/teacher. This is one of the best biographies that I’ve ever read. It gave me great insight about many of Tolstoy’s life experiences that found their ways into his many works. Most interestingly, it contained the fascinating story of a complex human being and his often unusual relations with his family, his wife, his fellow authors, the peasants, the government, the church hierarchy, et al. The scholarship in letters and diaries of Tolstoy and many others is quite impressive. This book has encouraged me to re-read Tolstoy’s extremely long novels. Required reading to understand Tolstoy. #literatura #reading #books #tolstoy #library #literature https://www.instagram.com/p/Cdwt9MPJ0RH/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI= -- source link
#literatura#reading#tolstoy#library#literature