Leo Tolstoy: Difference between revisions

{{Infobox writer

| name = Leo Tolstoy

| alt =

| pseudonym =

| native_name = Лев Николаевич Толстой

| module = {{Listen| embed=yes |filename= Tolstoy Vremya prishlo.ogg |title= Leo Tolstoy's voice |type= speech |description= recorded 1908}}

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[[Count]] '''Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy'''<ref group=note>Tolstoy pronounced his first name as {{IPA-ru|lʲɵf|}}, which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. ({{cite book |last=Nabokov |first=Vladimir |title= Lectures on Russian literature |page=216 }})</ref> ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|oʊ|l|s|t|ɔɪ|,_|ˈ|t|ɒ|l|-}};<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tolstoy "Tolstoy"]. ''[[Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary]]''.</ref> {{lang-ru|link=no|Лев Николаевич Толстой}},<ref group=note>In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as {{lang|ru-petr1708|Левъ Николаевичъ Толстой}} in [[Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution reform|pre-reformed Russian]].</ref> {{IPA-ru|ˈlʲef nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tɐlˈstoj|IPA|Ru-Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy.ogg}}; {{OldStyleDate|9 September|1828|28 August}}{{snd}} {{OldStyleDate|20 November|1910|7 November}}), usually referred to in English as '''Leo Tolstoy''', was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time.<ref name="Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia |url= https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leo-Tolstoy |title=Leo Tolstoy |encyclopedia=[[Britannica.com]] |access-date=4 September 2018}}</ref> He received nominations for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] every year from 1902 to 1906 and for the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in 1901, 1902, and 1909; the fact that he never won is a major [[Nobel Prize controversies#Literature|controversy]].<ref>{{Cite web| url= https://old.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=9303| title=Nomination Database| website= nobelprize.org|access-date=8 March 2019| archive-date=6 October 2019| archive-url= https://archive.today/20191006000718/https://old.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=9303|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| url=https://www.nobelprize.org/ceremonies/proclamation-sent-to-leo-tolstoy-after-the-1901-years-presentation-of-nobel-prizes/|title=Proclamation sent to Leo Tolstoy after the 1901 year's presentation of Nobel Prizes| website= nobelprize.org|language=en-US| access-date=8 March 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| url= https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1950/10/winning-the-nobel-prize/305480/|title=Winning the Nobel Prize|last=Hedin|first=Naboth|date=1 October 1950| work= [[The Atlantic]] | language=en-US|access-date=8 March 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/07/nobel-prize-in-literature_1_n_752826.html|title=Nobel Prize Snubs In Literature: 9 Famous Writers Who Should Have Won |date=7 October 2010|work=Huffington Post| access-date=8 March 2019| language= en-US}}</ref>

 

== Life and career ==

Tolstoy was born at [[Yasnaya Polyana]], a family estate {{convert|12|km|mi}} southwest of [[Tula, Russia|Tula]], and {{convert|200|km|mi}} south of Moscow. He was the fourth of five children of [[Count]] Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy (1794–1837), a veteran of the [[French invasion of Russia|Patriotic War of 1812]], and Princess Mariya Tolstaya (née [[Volkonsky|Volkonskaya]]; 1790–1830). His mother died when he was two and his father when he was nine.<ref name="AuthorDataSheet" /> Tolstoy and his siblings were brought up by relatives.<ref name="Britannica" /> In 1844, he began studying law and oriental languages at [[Kazan University]], where teachers described him as "both unable and unwilling to learn".<ref name="AuthorDataSheet">{{cite web |url=http://www.macmillanreaders.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ads.leotolstoy.pdf |title=Author Data Sheet, Macmillan Readers |publisher=Macmillan Publishers Limited |access-date=22 October 2010 |archive-date=7 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210807174656/http://www.macmillanreaders.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ads.leotolstoy.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Tolstoy left the university in the middle of his studies,<ref name="AuthorDataSheet" /> returned to Yasnaya Polyana and then spent much time in Moscow, Tula and Saint Petersburg, leading a lax and leisurely lifestyle.<ref name="Britannica" /> He began writing during this period,<ref name="AuthorDataSheet" /> including his first novel ''[[Childhood (Tolstoy novel)|Childhood]]'', a fictitious account of his own youth, which was published in 1852.<ref name="Britannica" /> In 1851, after running up heavy gambling debts, he went with his older brother to the [[Caucasus (geographic region)|Caucasus]] and joined the [[Imperial Russian Army|army]]. Tolstoy served as a young artillery officer during the [[Crimean War]] and was in Sevastopol during the 11-month-long [[Siege of Sevastopol (1854–55)|siege of Sevastopol]] in 1854–55,<ref name="BBCTen" /> including the [[Battle of the Chernaya]]. During the war he was recognised for his courage and promoted to lieutenant.<ref name="BBCTen">"[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3GL3DPct7D5GPQzB7GlrrBW/ten-things-you-didnt-know-about-tolstoy Ten Things You Didn't Know About Tolstoy]". BBC.</ref> He was appalled by the number of deaths involved in warfare,<ref name="AuthorDataSheet" /> and left the army after the end of the Crimean War.<ref name="Britannica" />

 

 

== Novels and fictional works ==

Tolstoy is considered one of the giants of Russian literature; his works include the novels ''[[War and Peace]]'' and ''[[Anna Karenina]]'' and novellas such as ''[[Hadji Murat (novel)|Hadji Murad]]'' and ''[[The Death of Ivan Ilyich]]''.

 

 

== Critical appraisal by other authors ==

Tolstoy's contemporaries paid him lofty tributes. [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]], who died thirty years before Tolstoy, admired and was delighted by Tolstoy's novels (and, conversely, Tolstoy also admired Dostoyevsky's work).<ref name="Dosteoevsky">{{cite book | author = [[Lyubov Dostoevskaya|Aimée Dostoyevskaya]] | year = 1921 | title = Fyodor Dostoyevsky: A Study| location = Honolulu, Hawaii| publisher = University Press of the Pacific | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=n7fb7eH6nRUC&dq=dostoyevsky+admired+tolstoy&pg=PA218 p. 218] }}</ref> [[Gustave Flaubert]], on reading a translation of ''War and Peace'', exclaimed, "What an artist and what a psychologist!" [[Anton Chekhov]], who often visited Tolstoy at his country estate, wrote, "When literature possesses a Tolstoy, it is easy and pleasant to be a writer; even when you know you have achieved nothing yourself and are still achieving nothing, this is not as terrible as it might otherwise be, because Tolstoy achieves for everyone. What he does serves to justify all the hopes and aspirations invested in literature." The 19th-century British poet and critic [[Matthew Arnold]] opined that "A novel by Tolstoy is not a work of art but a piece of life."<ref name="Britannica" /> [[Isaac Babel]] said that "if the world could write by itself, it would write like Tolstoy."<ref name="Britannica" />

 

 

==Ethical, political and religious beliefs==

 

===Schopenhauer===

After reading [[Arthur Schopenhauer|Schopenhauer]]'s ''[[The World as Will and Representation]]'', Tolstoy gradually became converted to the ascetic morality upheld in that work as the proper spiritual path for the upper classes. In 1869 he writes: "Do you know what this summer has meant for me? Constant raptures over Schopenhauer and a whole series of spiritual delights which I've never experienced before....no student has ever studied so much on his course, and learned so much, as I have this summer."<ref>Tolstoy's Letter to A.A. Fet, 30 August 1869</ref>

 

In Chapter VI of ''[[Confession (Leo Tolstoy)|Confession]]'', Tolstoy quoted the final paragraph of Schopenhauer's work. It explains how a complete [[self-denial|denial of self]] causes only a relative nothingness which is not to be feared. Tolstoy was struck by the description of Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu ascetic renunciation as being the path to holiness. After reading passages such as the following, which abound in Schopenhauer's ethical chapters, the Russian nobleman chose poverty and formal denial of the will: <blockquote> But this very necessity of involuntary suffering (by poor people) for [[eternal salvation]] is also expressed by that utterance of the Savior ([[Matthew 19:24]]): "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Therefore, those who were greatly in earnest about their eternal salvation, chose [[simple living|voluntary poverty]] when fate had denied this to them and they had been born in wealth. Thus Buddha [[Sakyamuni]] was born a prince, but voluntarily took to the mendicant's staff; and [[Francis of Assisi]], the founder of the [[mendicant orders]] who, as a youngster at a ball, where the daughters of all the notabilities were sitting together, was asked: "Now Francis, will you not soon make your choice from these beauties?" and who replied: "I have made a far more beautiful choice!" "Whom?" "''La povertà'' (poverty)": whereupon he abandoned every thing shortly afterwards and wandered through the land as a mendicant.<ref>Schopenhauer, ''[[Parerga and Paralipomena]]'', Vol. II, §&nbsp;170</ref></blockquote>