Leo Tolstoy

"Tolstoy" and "Lev Tolstoy" redirect here. For other uses, see Tolstoy (disambiguation) and Lev Tolstoy (disambiguation).

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Nikolayevich and the family name is Tolstoy.

Leo Tolstoy
Лев Толстой
Man with long white, whispy beard wearing a blue button-down shirt
Tolstoy in 1908
Born(1828-09-09)9 September 1828
Yasnaya Polyana, Tula Governorate, Russian Empire
Died20 November 1910(1910-11-20) (aged 82)
Astapovo, Ryazan Governorate, Russian Empire
Resting placeYasnaya Polyana, Russia
Occupation
  • Writer
  • religious thinker
EducationImperial Kazan University (dropped out)
PeriodModern
Genres
Subjects
Literary movementRealism
Years active1847–1910
Notable worksList
Notable awardsGriboyedov Prize (1892)
Spouse
​
(m. 1862)​
Children14
Signature
Leo Tolstoy's voice
recorded 1908

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy[note 1] (/ˈtoʊlstɔɪ, ˈtɒl-/;[1] Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой,[note 2] IPA: [ˈlʲef nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tɐlˈstoj] ⓘ; 9 September [O.S. 28 August] 1828 – 20 November [O.S. 7 November] 1910),[2] usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time.[3][4] 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.

Born into an aristocratic family, Tolstoy's notable works include the novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1878),[5] often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction[2] and two of the greatest books of all time.[3][4] He first achieved literary acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852–1856), and Sevastopol Sketches (1855), based upon his experiences in the Crimean War. His fiction includes dozens of short stories such as "After the Ball" (1911), and several novellas such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886), Family Happiness (1859) and Hadji Murad (1912). He also wrote plays and essays concerning philosophical, moral and religious themes.

In the 1870s, Tolstoy experienced a profound moral crisis, followed by what he regarded as an equally profound spiritual awakening, as outlined in his non-fiction work Confession (1882). His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him to become a fervent Christian anarchist and pacifist.[2] His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1894), had a profound impact on such pivotal 20th-century figures as Mahatma Gandhi,[6] Martin Luther King Jr.,[7] James Bevel,[8] and Ludwig Wittgenstein.[9] He also became a dedicated advocate of Georgism, the economic philosophy of Henry George, which he incorporated into his writing, particularly in his novel Resurrection (1899).

Tolstoy received praise from countless authors and critics, both during his lifetime and after. Virginia Woolf called Tolstoy "the greatest of all novelists",[10] and Gary Saul Morson referred to War and Peace as the greatest of all novels.[11] Tolstoy never having won a Nobel Prize was a major Nobel Prize controversy, and remains one.[12][13]


Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ "Tolstoy" Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
  2. ^ a b c "Leo Tolstoy". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 28 September 2018. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  3. ^ a b Burt, Daniel S. (2009). The Literary 100, Revised Edition: A Ranking of the Most Influential Novelists, Playwrights, and Poets of All Time. Facts On File. pp. 13–16.
  4. ^ a b Popova, Maria (30 January 2012). "The Greatest Books of All Time, as Voted by 125 Famous Authors". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 5 May 2020. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  5. ^ Beard, Mary (5 November 2013). "Facing death with Tolstoy". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 16 May 2023. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  6. ^ Hellman, Martin E. "Resist Not Evil". Stanford University. Archived from the original on 20 November 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2023. Originally published in Gandhi, Arun, ed. (1994). World Without Violence. M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence.
  7. ^ King, Martin Luther Jr.; Carson, Clayborne; et al. (2005). The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Vol. V: Threshold of a New Decade, January 1959 – December 1960. University of California Press. pp. 149, 269, 248. ISBN 978-0-520-24239-5.
  8. ^ The Children, 1999, David Halberstam
  9. ^ Monk, Ray (1991). Ludwig Wittgenstein: the duty of genius. New York: Penguin Books. p. 115 et passim. ISBN 978-0-14-015995-0.
  10. ^ Tolstoy, Leo (2023). "First Recollections". New England Review. 44 (2): 180–182. doi:10.1353/ner.2023.a901453. ISSN 2161-9131.
  11. ^ Morson, Gary Saul (2019). "The greatest of all novels". The New Criterion. Archived from the original on 28 December 2023. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  12. ^ Hedin, Naboth (1 October 1950). "Winning the Nobel Prize". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 31 October 2020. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  13. ^ Lichtman, Marshall A. (31 July 2022). "Controversies in Selecting Nobel Laureates: An Historical Commentary". Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal. 13 (3): e0022. doi:10.5041/RMMJ.10479. ISSN 2076-9172. PMC 9345763. PMID 35921488.