A review by howie904
Tolstoy by Henri Troyat
3.0
It is interesting to look at Tolstoys life after reading War and Peace and Anna Karenina since Tolstoy draws on so much from his real life for the characters in those books.
The biography took me a long time to finish and I needed to read other books in between sections to prevent burnout but overall it was a worthwhile read.
Tolstoy's written ideals matched up against his real life make an interesting comparison. He created more or less a Christian cult preaching love, self-sacrifice, non-violence, living by your means, not owning anything. Yet his own life was marked by wealth and his family situation was not filled with love or peace.
It was also interesting that as I learned about Tolstoy I was also learning about Russia as a whole as Tolstoy interacted with the great Russian artists, monarchs, and politicians of that time.
The biography took me a long time to finish and I needed to read other books in between sections to prevent burnout but overall it was a worthwhile read.
Tolstoy's written ideals matched up against his real life make an interesting comparison. He created more or less a Christian cult preaching love, self-sacrifice, non-violence, living by your means, not owning anything. Yet his own life was marked by wealth and his family situation was not filled with love or peace.
It was also interesting that as I learned about Tolstoy I was also learning about Russia as a whole as Tolstoy interacted with the great Russian artists, monarchs, and politicians of that time.