Tolstoy's Diaries

"An important and long-overdue contribution to our knowledge of Tolstoy." (D. M. Thomas, Sunday Times). Volume 2 of Tolstoy's Diaries covers the years 1895-1910. These Diaries were meticulously edited by R.F. Christian so as to reflect Tolstoy's preoccupations as a writer (his views on his own work and that of others), his development as a person and as a thinker, and his attitudes to contemporary social problems, rural life, industrialisation, education, and later, to religious and spiritual questions. Christian introduces each period with a brief and informative summary of the main biographical details of Tolstoy's life. The result is a unique portrait of a great writer in the variegation of his everyday existence. "As a picture of the turbulent Russian world which Tolstoy inhabited these diaries are incomparable - the raw stuff not yet processed into art." (Anthony Burgess). "A model of scholarship, one of the most important books to be published in recent years." (A. N. Wilson, Spectator).