Biography
One of the most influential writers of all time, Leo Tolstoy is the godfather of Russian literature and is the author of classic novels such as War & Peace and Anna Karenina. The fourth of five children of Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, Leo was born in 1828 at Yasnaya Polyana, the family estate just south of Moscow. Following the death of his mother when he was two and his father when he was nine, he was brought up by relations, and in 1844 entered university to study law and oriental languages. An indifferent student, he left halfway through his studies and embarked on a hedonistic life of leisure instead. Aged 23, he published his first novel, Childhood, a fictitious account of his early life.
Running up massive gambling debts, he left to join the army in 1851, serving as an officer in the Crimean War. Appalled by the brutal nature of warfare, he left the army after the war and converted from a high society author to a pacifist anarchist (in later life, he inspired a young Mahatma Gandhi).
Travelling in Europe between 1860-61, he made friends with Victor Hugo, whose recently published Les Miserables would greatly influence Tolstoy’s masterpiece War & Peace. Upon returning to Russia, he founded 13 schools for the children of Russian peasants, who had just been released from serfdom.
In 1865, a serialised version of War & Peace was published. Originally entitled The Year 1805, it would be completely rewritten and republished as a novel in 1869. Chronicling the French invasion of Russia and its aftermath, it enjoyed immediate success with the public and mixed reviews from the press, but it has gone on to become one of the greatest examples of realist fiction ever written.
Realistically depicting Russian society, Tolstoy’s novels accurately reflect life in 19th century Russia, as well as exploring universal themes such as love, war, morality and social justice. Transcending time and culture, Tolstoy’s novels ask some of the most complex questions about what it means to be human.
