Customer Reviews

The Wisdom of Human Kind

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Tolstoy (known today only for his novels) attempted to complete his philosophical conceptions by unifying the basic moral conceptions of all religions and this is a condensed (and more manageable) form of his final work. Although emphasising pure Christianity it also blends this with traditional eastern concepts and creates a good complete summary of proper moral behavior. He seems also to convey a certain passion and love, giving the book a spirited tone. It preaches non-violence and even vegetarianism. I was surprised to learn that Tolstoy's ideas were much regarded 100 years ago and even were an inspiration for Ghandi. Depending on your background in world religions, the contents may or may not provide you with any new knowledge. It is certainly not out of date or only for readers of Tolstoy's novels. Five stars, although there may be better books out there (?).

This is the greatest book that I have ever read in my life. Within this book there are answers to all that human beings seek in order to be happy. It is a how to book if one is interested in living a moral life and in becoming a more complete human being. Leo Tolstoy with Guy De Mallac has written a masterpiece, a truly great piece of work from one of the most justifying minds of our times, Leo Tolstoy.

Guy de Mallac has given us a masterpiece through his translation of one of Leo Tolstoy's last works.

In this book, chapters are devoted to such things as "Effort", "Love", "God" and "False Science" and upon which Leo Tolstoy makes comments about the things he believed were most apposite to each subject, and which, when practiced, would make a person a better person in this life. He spent the last years of his life devoted almost exclusively to this matter, which was near and dear to his heart.

Leo Tolstoy lived his life at the Yasnaya Polyana estate, an estate which would later cause strife in his marriage as he came to believe that land ownership was immoral when there were people who were able and willing to work, but could not for lack of land. When he sought to give much of the land away, acrimony in his marriage soon followed. Near the time of his father's death, the estate held approximately 2000 books. Throughout Tolstoy's life, and especially after his conversion to Christianity after his near suicide at the age of 51, he sought to spend all of his time learning from the great minds throughout history. This meant studying Greek so he could ready ancient texts, studying Hebrew for several years so he could study the original Old Testatment, and this also meant that much of his life was studying any religion which he felt could prove useful to all humanity. Near the end of his life, the Yasnaya Polyana collection swelled to nearly 32,000 books!

A chapter at the end of the book details his search for wisdom, and what he thought of each of the religions; some he had more favorable opinions of than others, as he was not a person who believed in strict adherence to any dogma which was immutable, even if facts proved it incorrect later in time. This was the first I had ever read of some of his opinions on these matters.

"The Wisdom of Human Kind" gives us a glimpse of how Leo Tolstoy thought people should live to make their lives meaningful.

A must have for anyone who is interested in Tolstoy's spiritual writings.