Leo Tolstoy

[Tolstoy's] urge to shed distractions and commitments is one of the continuities that Andrei Zorin, a cultural historian at Oxford, traces in his beautiful account of Tolstoy's long, astonishing life . . . In an ingenious, seamless approach that distinguishes his biography from others, Mr Zorin treats the events of Tolstoy's life and his writing as a single, indivisible whole. * The Economist 'Books of the Year' *
Andrei Zorin's Leo Tolstoy illuminates Tolstoy's personal prejudices and passions as the core of his fiction. Zorin's biography has confirmed my amateurish guess that Tolstoy's main obsession was his fear of the uncontrollable forces of sex, music and violence ruling his life. * Zinovy Zinik, TLS 'Books of the Year' *
The figure that emerges from these pages is a complex one. For left-wing progressives, Tolstoy was a reactionary; while conservatives saw him as a self-destructive nihilist . . . A pious religious fanatic with a messianic complex might be somewhat closer to the truth. But even Christ himself would have found it impossible to live by the perfect moral order Tolstoy was always attempting to build: both in life and in art. * Sunday Independent, Dublin *
Zorin provides a skeleton of nineteenth-century Russian history, but his strengths do not lie there. His governing metaphor is not socio-political but intensely emotional, taken from Tolstoy’s earliest memory as a swaddled infant: a helpless person irrationally bound, held down by others and desperately wanting out . . . Zorin helps us to move beyond the canonical image of Tolstoy as a fabulously fun-loving, life-affirming parent. Inventive, curious and charismatic he certainly was (these are the traits of a born teacher of children, and Zorin devotes much attention to Tolstoy’s pedagogical projects and peasant schools). * TLS *
There is a trend now to publish short biographies for busy people. Such books can be assigned to provide context in one author courses. It is helpful to read more than one such biography, because great writers, even one like Tolstoi who stresses simplicity, are so complex that they deserve and need multiple perspectives. Professors Knapp and Zorin bring out different aspects of Tolstoi’s life and works. And just because they disagree in some places does not mean that either of them is all wrong. This reviewer, having read both biographies, has profited from them and recommends them both to readers who are fascinated by the genius whose life they describe. * Slavonic and East European Review *
I know of no other biography of Tolstoy as succinct, as objective, as readable or as thought-provoking as Andrei Zorin’s. * Donald Rayfield, Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian, Queen Mary University of London *
After years of intense debate about the status and relevance of biographical knowledge within cultural history, Andrei Zorin’s life of Tolstoy marks the arrival of a new genre . . . it inverts the traditional assumption that describing an author’s world helps us understand his books. In four densely documented and beautifully written chapters this innovative “literary biography” offers the possibility of an immersion into Russian nineteenth-century culture, with an intensity that transcends what conventional history writing has achieved . . . Zorin has produced a masterpiece where erudition and intellectual elegance intersect. * Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Albert Guérard Professor in Literature, Emeritus, Stanford University *
Andrei Zorin’s brilliant book not only tells the story of Tolstoy’s life vividly and concisely in the context of Russian history, but profoundly illuminates Tolstoy’s character, values, and sensibility, while providing new insights into the way that his personal story shaped his fictional creations. * Larry Wolff, New York University, author of Inventing Eastern Europe *