Author · 106 titles

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was born to a titled family at Yasnaya Polyana, served in the Crimean War, and wrote the two novels that made Russian fiction a world event: War and Peace and Anna Karenina. The first holds a nation at war and at home; the second holds a marriage until it breaks. Later he turned from the worldly novel toward essays and moral tales, arguing with church, property, and his own fame. One hundred and six titles here. The achievement is not only size. It is the habit of putting a whole life — meals, hunts, councils, conscience — on the same page, as if nothing human were a subplot.

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