Tolstoy (1988)

This is the first biography of Tolstoy I have read. I am a devoted fan of Tolstoy and have read everything of his that I've been able to find in the library (luckily, I haven't read everything yet - it will be a sad day when there is no more Tolstoy to discover.)

I thought this biography was very well written. I liked the fact that the author would sometimes interject with 'I find that...' or 'for me...' This is something that doesn't get done very often in biographies, and I wish it were done more often. Biographies can be terribly dry and academic and inevitably present one person's view of the subject - the author's - as if it were objective, when actually that's impossible.

However, although the book comprehensively covers all the 'major' novels and a couple of short stories and non-fiction works which the author obviously felt were significant enough to describe, it completely skips even MENTIONING any of the other many other short stories Tolstoy wrote in his lifetime. It's understandable, perhaps, to not describe these stories in detail (considering that the book is already quite long!) but to not even mention that they exist is terrible. What if someone who was completely unaquainted with Tolstoy read this book in the hope of finding out what he'd written? They'd go away thinking he only wrote War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Ressurection and a heap of moralistic religious twaddle (the latter description being what the author seems to think of it, not my opinion of it).

Having said that, it's still a good biography and although I might have made it sound like the short stories aren't mentioned at all, some of them are, although mostly not in great detail. ( )

Let's put it this way. I had no interest in reading a biography of Tolstoy when I started this. It was part of a book club decision. Given that, it was a delightful surprise to get sucked into this wonderful book. A.N. Wilson's writing is warm and engaging, and I have since sought out many books by him. The story of Tolstoy and his transformation from youthful debaucher, to Greatest Author Ever™ and on to National Saint is quite the rollicking tale, actually. An engaging portrait of a towering figure in literature and history. And now, having read this, I might just be ready to dive into War and Peace. ( )