Tolstoy - Softcover

Wilson, A.N.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0449904490 ISBN 13: 9780449904497

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1989

Synopsis

In "Tolstoy", accomplished novelist and biographer A. N. Wilson narrates with dazzling, witty, wonderfully readable prose 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, 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 re-creating 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. Most of all, Wilson fathoms, as no other biographer has done, the true nature of Tolstoy the man.

About this title

About the Author:

A. N. Wilson is the author of the acclaimed biographies Tolstoy, C. S. Lewis, Jesus, and Paul; God's Funeral, and several celebrated novels. He lives in London.

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

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0449904490
• ISBN 13: 9780449904497
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 632