Leo Tolstoy - Libros y biografía

It once occurred to a certain king, that if he always knew the right time to begin everything; if he knew who were the right people to listen to, and whom to avoid; and, above all, if he always knew what...

'How truth thickens and deepens when it migrates from didactic fable to the raw experience of a visceral awakening is one of the thrills of Tolstoy's stories'Sharon Cameron in her preface to The Kreutzer...

'How truth thickens and deepens when it migrates from didactic fable to the raw experience of a visceral awakening is one of the thrills of Tolstoy's stories'Sharon Cameron in her preface to The Death...

'How truth thickens and deepens when it migrates from didactic fable to the raw experience of a visceral awakening is one of the thrills of Tolstoy's stories'Sharon Cameron in her preface to Hadji Murad...

Towards the end of 1880, when he was fifty-two, Tolstoy one day approached the young tutor who lived in his house at Yasnaya Polyana, and in great agitation asked him to do him a service. The tutor, seeing...

'The beautiful illusion, when reading Tolstoy, is that one is looking directly at the world, as opposed to a depiction' Andrew O'Hagan from his preface to Childhood, Boyhood and YouthPublished in 1852,...

Something entirely new, unseen and unheard-of formerly, has lately shown itself in our country districts. To our village, consisting of eighty homesteads, from half a dozen to a dozen cold, hungry, tattered...

On comparing with the original Russian some English translations of Count Tolstoi's works, published both in this country and in England, I concluded that they were far from being accurate. The majority...

In 1884 I wrote a book entitled "My Religion," wherein I formulated my creed. While affirming my faith in the doctrine taught by Christ, I could not refrain from manifesting at the same time the reason...

I remember the astonishment I felt when I first read Shakespeare. I expected to receive a powerful aesthetic pleasure, but having read, one after the other, works regarded as his best: "King Lear," "Romeo...

All is quiet in Moscow. The squeak of wheels is seldom heard in the snow-covered street. There are no lights left in the windows and the street lamps have been extinguished. Only the sound of bells, borne...

During the last years of his life, Leo Tolstoy kept one book invariably on his desk, read and reread it to his family, and recommended it to all his friends: a compendium of wise thoughts gathered over...

A group of rich Russians gather one night for hospitality and conversation, all admitting that they aren't happy and aren't optimistic that their children will ever find happiness either. They agree that...

Moscow is lost, occupied by Napoleon's French hordes. Is Russia lost? Is all lost? Students of history will already know the answer. But whether or not you do, Leo Tolstoy's 'War and Peace IV' is an extraordinary...

The third quarter of 'War and Peace' is where the rubber really hits the road (or the cannonballs hit the walls). The story centres on one of history's most famous periods, Napoleon's March on Moscow....

"Family Happiness" is a relationship novel which tells the story of the seventeen-year-old Mashechka and the thirty-six-year-old Sergey. Their passionate love leads to marriage but only after it, do they...

Many consider 'Anna Karenina' to be the greatest novel of all time. A profound and exhaustive exploration of Russian life and the human condition. Tolstoy creates one of the most complex heroines in literature...

Serving on a jury board at the trial of a prostitute accused of murder, Prince Nekhlyudov is appalled to discover that the defendant is a woman he had once seduced and then abandoned when she was only...

"You always wished to appear original (...) but your originality is really nothing but excessive self-esteem."Nineteen-year-old Nekhlyudov writes to his aunt that he has given up his university studies...

"I'm not looking for 'War and Peace'" is a modern way of saying "keep it short". However, "I am looking for 'War and Peace'" should be on our lips. Leo Tolstoy's masterpiece is a complete semester of...

"He is a regular dare-devil, you know: a gambler, a duellist, a seducer, but a jewel of an hussar - a real jewel."A handsome young hussar rides through a small town, seduces a young widow and leaves nothing...

"Everybody knows it's our business to score. You don't get a chance to get a bite of any thing, and you don't get to bed till two o'clock o' nights, but you're always being screamed at to bring the balls."One...

"Bethink yourselves!" Or, in more modern parlance: "Wake up! Get a grip!"Leo Tolstoy, known for the epic 'War and Peace', is far more blunt in this book.The Russian novelist and philosopher wrote 'Bethink...

How many letters can be claimed to have been as influential as this?Leo Tolstoy's 'Letter to a Hindu' was originally sent to the Indian revolutionary and scholar Tarak Nath Das.Its circulation saw it...

It isn't always easy being a demon.As Luci, the demon in Matt Groening's Netflix series 'Disenchantment' will agree, not everybody is easy to tempt.Leo Tolstoy's 'The First Distiller' features a very...

The young nobleman, Dmitri Ivanovich Nekhlyudov, had no care in the world when he seduced a young maid, Katerina (Katusha) Maslova, only to cruelly abandon her. Unaffected by the situation he carries...

Imagine if your entire village's survival depended on what the dead told the landowner at a seance.That is the crazy scenario in Leo Tolstoy's satirical play 'Fruits of Culture'.Written at a time when...

For some, it is a four-letter word. But for Leo Tolstoy, "work" is one of the main reasons that we are here.The author and philosopher urges us to comply with the "eternal law of humanity" - to "labour...

Alcohol abuse is one of societies great levellers.It does not matter whether you are a prince or a peasant, when the demon drink controls you, you are the same.That is the message at the heart of Leo...

Leo Tolstoy was never a man to choose the easy path.When he wasn't turning his satirical guns on the Russian aristocracy in works including 'War and Peace' and the play 'Fruits of Culture', he was targeting...