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gnelson2's review against another edition
4.0
This is the second biography I've read on Tolstoy (Troyat's was the first), but the last was ten years ago. Bartlett humanizes and seems aware as a female author of the adverse impacts Tolstoy's contradictions had on those women close to him. In particular this biography helps see what being married to Tolstoy must have been like. The abrupt way in which she consolidates his death and then writes thirty pages on how his legacy lived on in Tolstoyans in constant strife with the state was an interesting choice, that makes me think about modern Russia's status. In particular the question, "is it possible to live with a clear conscience under a totalitarian regime?" that plagued those Tolstoyans living through the revolution, civil war, WW1 and 2, and Stalin regime is quite fascinating.
thebookthiefgirl's review against another edition
5.0
✨”Tolstoy´s life is rich and fascinating but also deeply mythologized, and he himself contributed to the process of mythologization.”✨
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No ano passado quando li as palavras de Zweig acerca de Yasnaya Polyana e da campa simples de Lev, naquele canto nos bosques onde o seu irmão Nikolay lhe disse que o segredo da felicidade humana tinha sido escrito, que senti uma vontade indescritível de ler a sua biografia. Conhecer a lenda que era mas também o homem, com os seus inúmeros defeitos.
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No ano passado quando li as palavras de Zweig acerca de Yasnaya Polyana e da campa simples de Lev, naquele canto nos bosques onde o seu irmão Nikolay lhe disse que o segredo da felicidade humana tinha sido escrito, que senti uma vontade indescritível de ler a sua biografia. Conhecer a lenda que era mas também o homem, com os seus inúmeros defeitos.
joanaprneves's review
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
This is a well written biography, easy to read and highly informative. It was a pleasure to devour. I read it because I had just finished Anna Karenina and was surprised to find not a story focusing on an adulterous woman, but a political and ideological landscape. Knowing Ghandi had been inspired by Tolstoy, I decided to learn more about him. I was not disappointed! This is why this biography is really well structured: it respects Tolstoy’s legacy as he built it, that is, almost against the novels he is famous for. It details his family life and his wife’s complex role in it (it focuses less in the children but that is understandable albeit a bit of a blind spot), his reluctance in embracing his wealth and privilege and his learned path towards an enlightened life. Bartlett substantiates her claims by listing what he read and how he accessed said knowledge. Moreover, we learn about his day to day life abs the way he accommodated his needs in order to have become the man he turned out to be. It is also a portrait of a woman’s life - Sonya lived in the shadow of her husband, devoted to him it renegaded by him when she didn’t comply to his wishes. This biography doesn’t paint him as a hero, and that is one of its utmost qualities. It portrays the man, with his qualities and his flaws. Patiently and with clarity it maps out his ideas, how they came to be, and his behaviour in a nuanced way that allows for the reader to understand the man, and to acknowledge how simultaneously exceptional and flawed he was.
karingforbooks's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
My two main complaints were the dates went back and forth (specifically when referencing people who were mentioned earlier), and it's definitely slow-going. That said, it was a well-written biography and I learned a ton I didn't know - like that it took him 5+ years to write War and Peace and Anna Karenina, he was apparently subversive related to the government and the church, and he was sexist but really into human rights. it was well-organized and I liked that she cited primary sources but not overwhelmingly.
bartendm's review
4.0
Lev Tolstoy was a very interesting and often contradictory person. He was part of the wealthy aristocracy, yet embraced the plight of the serfs, although after taking advantage of them and from his position of comfort. He had a rocky relationship with his wife, but had a very modern, almost feminist relationship with some of his grown daughters as he developed his religious views around the Sermon on the Mount and sought to live them out. He was an active and internationally known pacifist that had a significant influence on Ghandi, yet he always seemed to be fighting with someone, often old friends. He fought the established church and would not receive the last sacraments on his deathbed, despite the entreaties of his wife. He was a thorn in the Czar's side, but could get away with his social commentary due to his wealth and international fame. He took up bicycling and worked long hours in the fields in his old age. This book is long, but worth the read, partly to understand the times and his significant role in them. This biography has less focus on Tolstoy's famous works, and more on the complexities of Tolstoy the man. It also fully brings out the religious movement he founded and how the USSR tried to quelch that part of his legacy.
burbobaggins's review
4.0
This was a good biography of one of the more complicated figures in Russian literature: Leo Tolstoy. It supplies a great deal of background for 19th century Russia -- particularly the tension between the autocratic regime of the tsars and the peasants. Tolstoy's family life is richly described in context with both his literary and religious/philosophical works. It was interesting to see how his personal views and actions in the public square affected his art. There is a copious amount of footnotes for those with interest in primary sources. If you like Russian literature or Tolstoy at all this is worth reading.