The Kreutzer Sonata - Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy in general

Tolstoy's last great novel, this is full of his opinion and philosophy. The ideas and approach to life mentioned in his epics, and at the heart of his short stories, are personified in two characters that experience a spiritual resurrection. At the same time, all around them is the decadent and bustling world of Russia at the end of the nineteenth century. The novel's hero, Nekhlyudov, starts as more of an anti-hero. He embodies the chattering, self-indulgent world that Tolstoy came to reject. The Prince is suddenly prompted to question this existence by a chance encounter with the woman he seduced twelve years before. The price of his youthful indiscretion is revealed in a ...

War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

I am not a great reader of classic books, but I make it my aim to read a few of the best admired books in my lifetime, just to see what all the fuss has been about. (I hate to think I am missing out on something good!) Well, War and Peace was a challenge, and it took me years to muster up the courage to tackle it. I saw Anna Karenina on screen, so was familiar with that story. This stimulated my interest in reading the book, just to see if I liked Tolstoy's style of writing (plus it is around half the size of W&P, so less intimidating). After reading and loving that book, I waited until my summer break from university before buying W&P. A year ...

War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy's famous novel is infamous for its length. Over one and a half thousand pages, its size seems overwhelming, Yet such is his talent as a storyteller, the quality of his characters and the drama of the events that every page is justified. He tells the story of not just a few characters, but an entire country, Russia at the time of the Napoleonic wars. Whole families are characterised in detail, and the reader follows their stories through the epic events. The story crosses Europe, from the Imperial courts of Tsar Alexander and Emperor Napoleon to homes, streets and villages. During the epic events of battles or the capture of cities, Tolstoy looks through the eyes of ...