Tolstoy: A Biography [Paperback]

A. N. Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2001

"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 writer’s 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 Tolstoy’s works were the exact mirror of his life, and instead traces the roots of Tolstoy’s art to his relationship with God, with women, and with Russia. He also breaks new ground in recreating the world that shaped the great novelist’s life and art—the turmoil of ideas and politics in nineteenth-century Russia and the incredible literary renaissance that made Tolstoy’s work possible. "Admirable. . . . Absorbing. . . . Superb."—Anthony Burgess "Stands as a model of the biographer’s art: intelligent and opinionated, yet judicious—and, what’s more, deliciously readable."—Michiko Kakutani, New York Times 24 pages of black and white illustrations

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Of this "major new biography," PW commented: "Without debunking, Wilson never lets his titanic subject off the hook; the result is the most human portrait of Tolstoy to date. This biography is a magnificent achievement, a work of seamless scholarship. It is also a pleasure to read." Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Admirable. . . . Absorbing. . . . Superb. -- Anthony Burgess

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

Stands as a model of the biographer's art: intelligent and opinionated, yet judicious--and, what's more, deliciously readable. -- Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (March 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393321223
• ISBN-13: 978-0393321227
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #315,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wilson's Tolstoy -- not the person we thought we knew..., August 28, 2000

By 

Thomas J. Brucia "Tom B" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tolstoy (Paperback)

A. N. Wilson writes idiosyncratic books. The author states (p. 207), "This book is the story of Tolstoy, as a writer and thinker." When I began reading, I mistakenly thought I was reading biography. As I plowed on I discovered that Wilson's "Tolstoy" is only about 30 percent biography. It is also a book of literary criticism, 19th century Russian history, character and psychological analysis, and ruminative essay. In short, it is "an intellectual history." Wilson includes all the helps a reader could ask for: photographs (53 of them!), an extensive bibliography, and a handy time line, (as well as the usual aids like the index, foreword, notes, acknowledgements, and table of contents).

Wilson states: "This book is primarily the story of a novelist... a great genius whose art grew out of his three uneasy and irresolvable relationships: his relationship with God, ... with women, ... with Russia. In all cases, the relationships were stormy, full of contradictions." Hmmpf, gross understatement!! While many readers may have no image whatsoever of Tolstoy, some (like me) visualized an icon: a saintly, dreamy, old man at odds with a lowbrow wife, and persecuted by a corrupt government. How wrong I was! His wife was for many years a full partner in his productivity. Only toward the end did Tolstoy and she become each other's torturers. The government forgave Tolstoy, a well-connected aristocrat, much that would have (and did) put other dissidents in czarist labor camps (e.g. poor Dostoyevsky!). [Though Tolstoy was a contemporary of Dostoyevsky, the two men made a deliberate point of never meeting each other.] - - - - One of the fascinations of this book is that one gets to know Leo Tolstoy "with all the warts". He was no saint, either as a selfish young man, or as an opinionated old fool. In fact, throughout his life he was an unpleasant person. His saving grace was that he was a genius when it came to writing fiction! Tolstoy shamelessly took others' tragedies, and turned them into highly saleable fiction. But he did it so very, very well!

Tolstoy's life began three years after the Decembrist Uprising of 1825, and ended seven years before the Russian Revolution of 1917 - a fascinating period in Russian history! His life spanned the rule of four czars: Nicholas I (1825-1855), Alexander II (1855-1881), Alexander III (1881-1894) and Nicholas II (1894-1917). In a nation run by an autocracy out of touch with its population, Tolstoy became a folk hero simply for being a merely decent person (NOT quite a good person, much less a saint!) He was a college dropout. He fought in Chechnya with the czar's army. He "sowed his wild oats" with hundreds of young ladies, (and - predictably -- contracted gonorrhea). He was a spoiled brat. In later years, the Orthodox Church excommunicated him. His bizarre behavior led the czarist secret police to ransack his home to see if he was a dangerous revolutionary (he was, but not in the way they thought!). When Tolstoy left his home and wife to die, at age 82, in a railroad station, he did not die alone and forgotten. An early film crew was there! Crowds of people recognized him and flocked around. His wife even made it there on a later train, just in time to be there before he expired. Leo Tolstoy died in the midst of a "media circus"!

Wilson, in his own style, brings all these disparate threads together. His tapestry is fascinatingly beautiful.

And of course, Wilson makes his own points - trenchantly! For example, regarding Tolstoy's decision to live according to the Gospels, Wilson remarks: "It is possible to read [Tolstoy's last] thirty years as an extraordinary demonstration of the fact that the Sermon on the Mount is an unlivable ethic, a counsel of craziness which, if followed to its relentless conclusion as Tolstoy tried to follow it will lead to the reverse of peace and harmony and spiritual calm which are normally thought of as the concomitants of the religious quest. Tolstoy's religion is ultimately the most searching criticism of Christianity which there is. He shows that it does not work."

I left this book with a burning desire to read more of Tolstoy. This phenomenon always happens to me when I read A.N. Wilson. Unfortunately, reading Tolstoy's opus would be quite impractical: his collected works run to 90 volumes! So now I must choose!

39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A decent, albeit slanted, introduction., January 21, 2006

By 

Skylansky "sklyansky82" (Hope, AK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tolstoy: A Biography (Paperback)

Wilson's book is similar to books published by an author such as Robert Payne in that its entertaining and informative, but isn't the sort of book that would be very helpful in conducting graduate research or something of that sort. Much like the biographies of Robert Payne, there's a number of factual inaccuracies that would be patently obvious to scholars of the era.

If you're searching for a brisk and entertaining read, and aren't too hung up on some small detail that Wilson got wrong, then I would definitely recommend Wilson's book. But if you're trying to write a MA thesis, and need the most thorough and accurate information on Tolstoy available, you might want to look elsewhere; as this would probably fit more into the genre of popular biography. Unfortunately, no book exists that is analogous to Joseph Frank's 5 volume biography of Dostoevsky, that focuses on his counterpart Leo Tolstoy, so the best option for someone doing a research paper would probably be Henri Troyat's.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not the average biography, February 6, 2003

By 

M. A Newman (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tolstoy: A Biography (Paperback)

Tolstoy is one the greatest writers during what must be considered the heroic age of novel writing. He never makes a wrong move in his writing, but probably was one of the most unpleasant people ever to live. Wilson here gives us a view of both the sublime artist and the opinionated gad fly of his friends, family and country and presents a fairly complete picture of a divided man. This is a tell all book, but not in the usual sense. Wilson focuses on the inner life of Tolstoy rather than his day to day experiences which probably were not as meaningful to him as what went on inside. This probably is the best biogrpahy of Tolstoy in English. It is good for those who are familiar with Tolstoy's works and for those who are not.