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Tolstói: A Biografia (2010)

by Rosamund Bartlett(Favorite Author)

4.05 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Biblioteca Azul

review 1: Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) remodeled the modern novel with "War and Peace," making it as much a work of history as of literature. Historians may find fault with this or that detail, but in his handling of such crucial events as the battle of Borodino -- where Napoleon won the Pyrrhic victory that virtually doomed his invasion of Russia -- Tolstoy prevails as the colossal chronicler of the clash between major characters and events.Then Tolstoy remodeled the modern novel again with "Anna Karenina," a searing portrayal of marriage and estrangement and love that brought new psychological depth to narrative prose. Opposed not only to adultery but to women's rights, Tolstoy -- himself the father of an illegitimate child -- nevertheless understood the passion and anguis... moreh of his heroine.For these two novels alone, Tolstoy would deserve multiple biographies probing his contradictions and contrarian behavior. A nobleman (he was Count Tolstoy) proud of his ancestry, he identified with his peasants and invented a one-piece costume for himself patterned on their clothing. A fervent hunter, he reluctantly relinquished his sport because it conflicted with his humanitarian beliefs. An army officer, he later transformed himself into a teacher of peasant children and the author of primers designed for peasant children. A habitual gambler, he racked up enormous losses. Tolstoy was also a self-absorbed writer who quarreled with nearly everyone (even staunch supporters like Ivan Turgenev), and a rather boorish husband who kept his wife constantly pregnant (even as she copied out his manuscripts and contributed telling details to his famous novels). And the list could go on -- as it does in Rosamund Bartlett's absorbing and pitch-perfect biography.As Bartlett points out, there are actually few really good biographies of Tolstoy written in English. The most recent notable one, she says, is A.N. Wilson's, published in 1988. But Bartlett, besides writing well, is also a translator of Russian and author of a well-received biography of Chekhov. As such, she is able to situate Tolstoy in his milieu, a strategy that results in a breathtaking exploration of his unique position in pre-revolutionary Russia. There was simply no one like him, willing to take on every aspect of Russian life and demanding reform.Bartlett does not ignore the quirks and even the inhumanity of Tolstoy the man, who had a personality -- Rebecca West once declared -- akin to those found among the lower criminal classes. He played the imperial despot even as he decried the outdated and decadent czarist regime. But Bartlett is not in the business of name-calling. Rather, she lets the man and his work and his 19th-century Russia emerge in compelling and authoritative detail.
review 2: “Nobody is perfect.” It's an accepted cliché, but I often think it is something we rely on to comfort us when we come up short. It may even go beyond “rely on,” edging towards something we need and will go to great lengths to prove and protect. History is full of individuals who asymptotically approached perfection, coming closer than any of us ever thought or wanted to believe was possible. We ended up killing most of them; those we didn't kill we took great pains to drag off their “high horse.”I knew nothing about the life of Lev Tolstoy before reading Rosamund's Bartlett's fine work Tolstoy: A Russian Life. Aside from the initial problem I had of trying to keep track of the many names for each individual, there is nothing I did not enjoy about this book, even down to the way the the order of the pictures paralleled the order of the biography. Bartlett's sensible organization of Tolstoy's life and the smooth flow of her sentences, along with her keen insights made for many an unexpected late night with Lev.As for Tolstoy, I find my previous ignorance of the life of this man embarrassing; such noble lives as his deserve to be recognized. Born into comparative wealth, “painfully shy and acutely self-conscious, which interfered with his enjoyment of life,” Tolstoy, “a repentant nobleman,” dedicated the bulk of his life to making the lives of others more dignified, free, and prosperous, to the extreme of giving away most of his fortune and land – though not to the degree he desired – in an attempt to come as close as possible to the “true” message of Christ. The church excommunicated him.Sure we could point out how it may be easier to “give-up” the niceties of life when one knows the pipeline of niceties is not going to run dry any time soon. Or one may ask how Tolstoy's view of women could be so insensitive – from the unfair vantage point of our time and culture - given his otherwise high level of concern for the human condition. However, I think we gain more, inch closer to perfection, not by attempting to drag down Tolstoy but by celebrating the nature of his character.Obviously I never knew Tolstoy personally, although I now feel as if I did thanks to Bartlett, but I don't think I'd be too far from right by concluding that with all the work Tolstoy did to improve the lives of people he didn't know at all Lev Tolstoy comes closer than the vast majority of us to being a truly “perfect stranger.” less

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