Top Ten World Literati: Leo Tolstoy

Author: Tong Yiqiu (Editor)
Publisher:
Publish Date: April 1, 2003
Features: Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910), the greatest writer of 19th-century Russia. Born into an aristocratic family, he entered Kazan University in 1840 and was influenced by Enlightenment thinkers such as Rousseau and Montesquieu. In 1847, he dropped out of school and returned to his hometown to attempt reforms in serfdom on his own estate. From 1851 to 1854, he served in the Caucasus army and began writing. From 1854 to 1855, he participated in the Crimean War. His years of military service not only exposed him to the corruption of high society but also laid the foundation for his realistic depiction of war scenes in his masterpiece War and Peace. In November 1855, he entered the literary world in St. Petersburg, and his famous works include the autobiographical novels Childhood (1855) and Boyhood (1857), which reflect his critical stance toward aristocratic life, his advocacy of "moral self-cultivation," and his skill in psychological analysis. His novella A Landowner’s Morning (1856) shows him advocating reforms from above, based on a liberal aristocratic perspective, but failing in his experiments on his estate. In 1857, Tolstoy traveled abroad and observed the contradictions of capitalist society but found no way to eliminate social evils, instead calling for people to live according to "eternal religious truths." These views are reflected in his short story Lucerne (1857) and later works such as Three Deaths and The Happy Family, which explore themes of life and death, suffering and happiness. From 1860 to 1861, he traveled abroad to study European education, meeting Herzen, listening to lectures by Dickens, and meeting Proudhon. He believed that Russia should build its ideal society on the basis of small-scale agriculture and that peasants were the embodiment of the highest moral ideals, while the aristocracy should "become common." These ideas are vividly reflected in his novella The Cossacks (1852–1862). From 1863 to 1869, Tolstoy wrote his long historical novel War and Peace, a milestone in his creative career. The novel follows the interwoven relationships of four families, depicting the vast social life of Russia at the time and powerfully reflecting a series of major historical events between 1805 and 1820, particularly the patriotic and heroic struggle against Napoleon led by Kutuzov in 1812. It celebrates the patriotic spirit and heroic struggle of the Russian people while primarily exploring Russia’s future and destiny, especially the status and of the aristocracy. The novel is grand in structure, with a large cast of characters and vivid, fully realized figures, making it a monumental work with epic and chronicle-like characteristics. From 1873 to 1877, after 12 revisions, he completed his second milestone masterpiece, Anna Karenina, which reached artistic perfection. In the late 1870s, Tolstoy’s worldview underwent a profound transformation, leading him to write Confessions (1879–1882). In the 1880s, he wrote the plays The Power of Darkness (1886) and The Fruits of Education (1891), the novellas The Devil (1911), The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886), The Kreutzer Sonata (1891), and Hadji Murad (1886–1904); the short story After the Ball (1903); and especially the long novel Resurrection (1889–1899), which summarized his long-term intellectual and artistic exploration and offered a comprehensive, profound, and powerful critique of Russian society, becoming one of the immortal masterpieces of world literature. In his later years, Tolstoy sought a simple, commoner’s life. In October 1910, he left his home, and on November 7, he died at a small station at the age of 82, marking the end of the journey of this great literary figure.