Leo Tolstoys Life, Interests and Works - Essay Example

Leo Tolstoy Developing a positive and worthy curriculum from among the hundreds of thousands of great literary works that have been produced over the centuries continues to be a major challenge to administrators, instructors and students as well. It is impossible for anyone to have read, to any great depth of understanding, all of the works available to us. However, to make things slightly easier, numerous groups have come up with lists of the 100 or so best books ever written to use as a guide for interested readers (Guardian, 2002; The Great Books, 2006). While these lists provide a useful guide to the most important, influential or insightful books in history, they do remain arbitrary, determined by a group of individuals in best cases or even by a single individual in some cases. Decisions regarding which books should be included vary widely depending upon the individual’s home country, reading status, educational level and purpose in selecting the books. Despite this, some authors continue to appear on list after list after list. One such author is the Russian Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). Tolstoy had intimate knowledge of the Russian community of his time and wrote lengthy works that examined the lifestyles, beliefs and attitudes of his fellow countrymen. It is because of the sweeping nature of his work that many, particularly younger students, have pushed to have his work removed from required reading lists. However, even a cursory look at Tolstoy’s life, interests and works proves that he should continue to be considered an important part of any literary canon. Biography Leo Tolstoy grew up in a loving and busy household in the Russian countryside. According to biographies of the man, he enjoyed spending time with his family engaged in activities outdoors as well as in. While inside, he participated in plays, music, story-telling and reading some of the twenty thousand books his father had collected written in at least 30 different languages (Merriman, 2007). Before he was 10 years old, though, the family had moved to Moscow so that the boys could attend school and his father died suddenly, leaving the devastated young boy to watch his grandmother go through a two year decline ending in death from her grief and causing him to begin questioning his spiritual beliefs. As a young man, Tolstoy attempted university studies but allowed himself to fall into a life of ill-repute for several years, involving himself in many types of debauchery despite knowing he was bringing about his own destruction. However, a tour of Russia with his brother helped him interrupt this chain of events as he began to gain some experience of the simpler life of the country peasants (Merriman, 2007). It was during this period in his life that he began writing fiction, although fiction that he would later refer to as “insincere and a clumsy confusion of truth and fiction” (Merriman, 2007). Although he continued to try to improve the lives of the peasants, particularly on his on property, he was unsuccessful in doing so and began to slide into debauchery again after he left the Russian army, but soon fell in love, which proved to be his saving grace. With the organizational skills and stabilizing influence of his young wife, Sofia ‘Sonya’ Andreyevna Behrs, Tolstoy began work on his greatest and most well-known novels – War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Interests Throughout his life, Tolstoy had struggled with questions of spirituality and a desire to be a ‘good’ and ‘happy’ man. Although he found great success as an author even from the publication of his earliest and least considered works, he continued to struggle with depression. In 1878, after the very successful publication of the entirety of Anna Karenina, “Count Tolstoy suffered the most intense bout of self-doubt and spiritual introspection yet; he became depressed and suicidal; his usually rational outlook on life became muddled with what he thought was a morally upright life as husband and father. He harshly examined his motives and criticized himself for his egotistical family cares … .concern for the increase of wealth, the attainment of literary success, and the enjoyment of every kind of pleasure” (Merriman, 2007). He felt there should be a deeper meaning to life than these material concerns and hedonism and remained convinced that the peasantry he had met through his life travels had somehow found the answer. “By emulating their life of poverty, work and simple faith, he hoped to find the secret of happiness that otherwise seemed to elude the members of the privileged class” (Ellsberg, 1997). The last quarter or so of his life was spent pursuing religious knowledge and turning his pen to more esoteric concerns. “His study of the Gospels led him increasingly to the conviction that the true essence of Christianity had become fatally encrusted by dogmatism, ritual, and subservience to secular authority. The heart of the gospel, in his opinion, was to be found in the Sermon on the Mount, with such themes as the presence of the kingdom of God within each soul, the counsel of voluntary poverty and nonresistance to evil, and the ‘law of love’” (Ellsberg, 1997). While these are recognized as concerns in his later life, examination of his novels reveals a realistic concern with exactly these same issues as they are manifested in the typical lives of his characters. The Work In keeping with the lengthy nature of his work, Tolstoy covers massive subjects with incredible detail. “Tolstoy’s most astonishing feat is to have single-handedly depicted subjects of such colossal proportions that they seemingly could not have been undertaken in one go. The star of Anna Karenina is not Anna but Russia, lovingly depicted, criticized and dissected by Tolstoy to explain the emerging tragedy of his beautiful heroine. Similarly, War and Peace takes the arc of the Napoleonic Wars for its subject” (The Authors, 2008). A brief overview of three of his most important works, which continue to grace lists of the best books ever written, highlights his greatest concerns, which, in turn, are typically among the greatest concerns pondered by the greatest thinkers of any given time period. War and Peace This lengthy novel attempts to present its readers with a deep understanding of the historical, social and personal issues at play during the Napoleonic Wars in Russia. More than simply presenting a limited cast of characters, as so many writers do as a means of focusing on the personal and social issues in depth, or a wide mix of characters only superficially developed so as to provide an overview of these same issues, Tolstoy chose to do both. There are at least 500 different characters included in the story and none seem to have been given the short stick in terms of character development. Through this rendition, Tolstoy provides the modern reader with a relatively succinct portrait, in sharp detail and focus, of what life was like in Russia from 1805 to 1820 including life for the decision makers (the ministers and generals), life for the officers and soldiers and life for the nobles and peasants. At the same time, his characters are seen to grow and mature as a result of their experiences and new knowledge. Anna Karenina Like War and Peace, Anna Karenina is a lengthy novel focused upon the social issues of Russia during his own time period. The story is ostensibly about Anna Karenina, who chooses to follow her desire in an adulterous relationship with Count Vronsky despite her husband’s unwillingness to grant a divorce. Although he does not include as many characters as his earlier novel, Tolstoy nevertheless manages to accomplish the same feat of capturing a true representation of life in Russia for a range of individuals. His numerous characters remain well-developed and fully formed, each experiencing their own struggles with life and love and pursuits of happiness. By focusing on the high society of Moscow and St. Petersburg, Tolstoy is able to examine, to deeper levels, the ways in which society was changing from the generation before as well as captures the very character of Russia in the nineteenth century. The Death of Ivan Ilyich In this novel, Tolstoy again narrows his cast, this time into a more manageable number. Ivan Ilyich undergoes a slow deterioration into death, presumably as a result of his accident when moving his family to St. Petersburg but the doctors are never able to agree on actual cause. Tolstoy illustrates the progression of Ivan’s life, illustrating again and again how he has continued to live the ‘right’ life by following all of the dictates of ‘proper’ society and culture. However, as he continues to decline, he begins to realize how much he hates his wife and how superficial his relationship with others is, particularly as he compares them with the relationship that is developing between himself and Gerasim. Gerasim is shown at the beginning of the novel to be very pragmatic regarding death, telling Peter that everyone has to die someday. This is surprising to the men now hearing of Ivan’s death because Gerasim was Ivan’s sick nurse and had been the most compassionate and caring person in Ivan’s life, something Ivan himself finally realized. By depicting the happiness and fulfillment of Gerasim as compared to the empty anxiety of the other characters, Tolstoy examines his more spiritual ideas and thus addresses a question to be faced by all individuals throughout time. Conclusion Leo Tolstoy lived during a highly dynamic period in history, when entire economies were changing in the advent of the modern age and social structures were shifting in response. Grown naturally from his early experiences, Tolstoy had a life-long interest in examining spiritual or philosophic questions regarding the meaning of life and the attainment of happiness. These are the questions that have plagued mankind since the beginning of time and will likely continue to plague him for many years into the future. At the same time that he provides his own philosophical thought on these issues, he also provides the modern world with a glimpse of life as it existed in Russia during his time period, allowing us to see both how we are the same and how we are different from our predecessors and measure how we have developed. For these reasons and more, Tolstoy should remain an important author within the literary canon. Works Cited “The Authors.” The Guardian Unlimited. 2008. February 24, 2008 Ellsberg, Robert. All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets and Witnesses for Our Time. New York: Crossroad Classic, 1997. Guardian staff. “The Top 100 Books of All Time.” The Guardian Unlimited. 2002. February 24, 2008 “(The) Great Books.” Kansas City: Access Foundation, 2006. February 24, 2008 Merriman, C.D. “Leo Tolstoy.” Literature Network. Jalic Inc., 2007. February 24, 2008 < http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/> Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina. New York: Penguin Classics, 2004. Tolstoy, Leo. The Death of Ivan Ilyich. New York: Bantam Classics, 1981. Tolstoy, Leo. War and Peace. New York: The Modern Library, 1994. Read More