Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy

A.D.P. Briggs (University of Bristol)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.2.1.00: Slavic and Russian Writing and Culture: Old, Medieval and Tsarist, 700-1917.
Vol. editors: Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

Dates

Born 9 Sep 1828
Died 7 Nov 1910
Activity 1852-1910

Places

Born in Russia
Active in Russia

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Story-writer

Other

Autobiographer
Educationalist
Essayist
Playwright / Dramatist
Political Philosopher
Political writer
Religious writer

Resources

An outstanding moral philosopher and religious thinker, Lev Tolstoy was also one of the greatest of all novelists. Superlatives are needed to describe him: he was a big, strong man with a formidable intellect, powerful emotions, and extraordinary qualities and defects that ran to extremes. He lived a long life, and left behind written works filling ninety large volumes, the biggest and richest individual contribution to the treasure house of Russian culture that flourished in the nineteenth century.

Tolstoy was born in 1828 into the Russian aristocracy, at Yasnaya Polyana, 130 miles south-west of Moscow. Both of his parents died while he was young, but he grew up happily, cocooned by female relatives. The family moved to Kazan,…

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3032 words

Citation: Briggs, A.D.P.. "Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 April 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4413, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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