Tolstoy: A Biography

Must surely rank among the most impressively intelligent biographies ever written. Zena Sutherland, The Economist

In this landmark biography of Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, A. N. Wilson narrates the complex drama of the writers 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 Tolstoys works were the exact mirror of his life, and instead traces the roots of Tolstoys art to his relationship with God, with women, and with Russia. He also breaks new ground in recreating the world that shaped the great novelists life and artthe turmoil of ideas and politics in nineteenth-century Russia and the incredible literary renaissance that made Tolstoys work possible. Admirable. . . . Absorbing. . . . Superb. Anthony Burgess Stands as a model of the biographers art: intelligent and opinionated, yet judiciousand, whats more, deliciously readable. Michiko Kakutani, New York Times 24 pages of black and white illustrations