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Title: Tolstoy by Henri Troyat, Nancy Amphoux ISBN: 0-8021-3768-7 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: 30 March, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.62 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: tolstoy reader
Comment: an excellent informative book about tolstoy
most fascinating is his relationship described with Turgenev, doestevosky and later chekov. the ending is a cruel one to him as he describes feeling like a hypocrit as ghandi reads his works as his family fights over the spoils of his estate.
Rating: 4
Summary: Enlightening!
Comment: This book is very informative yet reads as lively as a Tolstoy novel. Reading this before, during, or after you read "War and Peace" is very enlightening. Interesting the fact that the author of "War and Peace" struggled with history in school and exclaimed that history was "nothing but a heap of myths and useless, trivial details, sprinkled with dates and names". Other wisdoms include "Bronchitis is an imaginary disease! Bronchitis is a metal!" Highly entertaining. I had to deduct one star due to the fact that there is not one picture in this biography which I find quite odd.
Rating: 3
Summary: Overly detailed and opinionated
Comment: Tolstoy's biography by Troyat is thoroughly documented, and Tolstoy certainly is an interesting subject for a book. I recommend it for people looking for an authoritative source of information.
However, taken as a book to be read, not referenced, it has serious flaws. The main one, which I find inexcusable, is Troyat's comments throughout the book "explaining" Tolstoy to the reader, and being shocked at Tolstoy's inconsistencies. Troyat will show us a scene where Tolstoy lays down a plan for virtuous conduct in his diary, then breaks his own code. Troyat exclaims: "Paradox! Tolstoy is a strange man, breaking his own code". Well, Mr. Troyat, don't we all?
Then, at another instance, he will characterize, say, Turgenev's judgement of Tolstoy, as "lacking in psychology". Troyat, of course, would have known better. In other words, Troyat doesn't try to erase himself from the book, we see his footprints all over. The book should have been named "Troyat's superior knowledge of Tolstoy".
Another related problem with this book is excessive documentation. We are witness to too many changes of opinion in Tolstoy. For, say, his doubts about his feelings for Sofya Bers, this is revealing, but we are subjected to the same ceremony for each acquaintance made by Tolstoy. The point was well taken from the beginning: Tolstoy changed his opinion of himself and others very often. And again, I don't see this as strange: many people are like that. But by the fourth time I saw Tolstoy meet someone, then write on successive days "Excellent" "Superficial" "Vain" "Far superior to me" etc. I was about to give up on the book. In contrast, we don't see enough of what others thought of Tolstoy, and that is a pity, especially since the book's excessive focus on Tolstoy's inner struggle makes it grey and humorless.
To sum it up: can serve well as a reference book, but not as a novel. Read Tolstoy himself, he is more revealing.
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Title: Tolstoy: A Biography by A. N. Wilson ISBN: 0393321223 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: March, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Anna Karenina (Modern Library Classics) by Leo Tolstoy, Mona Simpson ISBN: 067978330X Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 10 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Alexander of Russia: Napoleon's Conqueror (Grove Great Lives Series) by Henri Troyat, Joan Pinkham ISBN: 0802139493 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy ISBN: 0060830719 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 June, 1967 List Price(USD): $8.99 |
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Title: Catherine the Great by Henri Troyat, Joan Pinkham ISBN: 0452011205 Publisher: Plume Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1994 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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