Thorlby, Anthony, Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina (Cambridge, 1997).
Turner, C. J. G., A Karenina Companion (Waterloo, Ont., 1993).
Wachtel, Andrew, ‘Death and Resurrection in Anna Karenina’, in Hugh McLean (ed.), In the Shade of the Giant: Essays on Tolstoy, California Slavic Studies, 13 (Berkeley, 1989), 100–14.
Criticism and Reception
Gifford, Henry (ed.), Leo Tolstoy: A Critical Anthology (Harmondsworth, 1971).
Knowles, A. V. (ed.), Tolstoy: The Critical Heritage (London, 1978).
Sorokin, Boris (ed.), Tolstoy in Prerevolutionary Russian Criticism (Miami, 1979).
Wasiolek, Edward (ed.), Critical Essays on Tolstoy (Boston, 1986).
General Critical Studies
Bayley, John, Tolstoy and the Novel (London, 1966).
Christian, R. F., Tolstoy: A Critical Introduction (Cambridge, 1969).
Eikhenbaum, Tolstoy in the Seventies, trans. Albert Kaspin (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1982).
Gifford, Henry, Tolstoy (Oxford, 1982).
Gustafson, Richard, Leo Tolstoy: Resident and Stranger (Princeton, 1986).
Medzhibovskaya, Inessa, Tolstoy and the Religious Culture of His Time: A Biography of a Long Conversion, 1845–1887 (Lanham, Md., 2008).
Orwin, Donna Tussing, Tolstoy’s Art and Thought: 1847–1889 (Princeton, 1993).
Orwin, Donna Tussing (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Tolstoy (Cambridge, 2002).
Sankovitch, Natasha, Creating and Recovering Experience: Repetition in Tolstoy (Stanford, 1998).
Silbajoris, Rimvydas, Tolstoy’s Aesthetics and His Art (Columbus, Ohio, 1991).
Steiner, George, Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: An Essay in the Old Criticism (New York, 1959).
Wasiolek, Edward, Tolstoy’s Major Fiction (Chicago, 1978).
Weir, Justin, Tolstoy and the Alibi of Narrative (New Haven, 2010).
Biography
Bartlett, Rosamund, Tolstoy: A Russian Life (London, 2010).
Christian, R. F. (ed.), Tolstoy’s Letters, 2 vols. (London, 1978).
Christian, R. F. (ed.), Tolstoy’s Diaries (London, 1985).
Maude, Aylmer, The Life of Tolstoy (Oxford, 1929).
Nickell, William, The Death of Tolstoy. Russia on the Eve, Astapovo Station, 1910 (Ithaca, 2010).
Paperno, Irina, ‘Who, What Am I?’: Tolstoy Struggles to Narrate the Self (Ithaca, 2014).
Porter, Cathy (ed.), The Diaries of Sophia Tolstoy, rev. edn. (London, 2009).
Simmons, Ernest J., Leo Tolstoy (Boston, 1945–6).
Wilson, A. N., Tolstoy (London, 1988).
A CHRONOLOGY OF LEO TOLSTOY
Tolstoy’s works are dated, unless otherwise indicated, according to the year of publication. Dates marked ‘OS’ (Old Style) refer to the Julian calendar.
1828
28 August (os): born at Yasnaya Polyana, province of Tula, fourth son of Count Nikolay Tolstoy. Mother dies 1830, father 1837.
1844-7
Studies at University of Kazan (Oriental Languages, then Law). Leaves without graduating.
1851
Goes to Caucasus with elder brother. Participates in army raid on local village. Begins to write Childhood (publ. 1852).
1854
Commissioned. Boyhood. Active service on Danube; gets posting to Sevastopol.
1855
After its fall returns to Petersburg, already famous for his first two Sevastopol Sketches. Literary and social life in the capital.
1856
Leaves army. A Landlord’s Morning.
1857
Visits Western Europe. (August) returns to Yasnaya Polyana.
1859
His interest and success in literature wane. Founds on his estate a school for peasant children. Three Deaths; Family Happiness.
860–1
Second visit to Western Europe, in order to study educational methods.
1861
Serves as Arbiter of the Peace, to negotiate land settlements after Emancipation of Serfs.
1862
Death of two brothers. Marries Sofya Behrs, daughter of a Moscow physician. There were to be thirteen children of the marriage, only eight surviving to adulthood. Publishes educational magazine Yasnaya Polyana.
1863
The Cossacks; Polikushka. Begins War and Peace.
1865-6
1805 (first part of War and Peace).
1866
Unsuccessfully defends at court-martial soldier who had struck officer.
1869
War and Peace completed; final volumes published.
1870
Studies drama and Greek.
1871-2
Working on Primer for children.
1872
A Prisoner in the Caucasus.
1873
Goes with family to visit new estate in Samara. Publicizes Samara famine. Begins Anna Karenina (completed 1877).
1877
His growing religious crisis. Dismay over Russo-Turkish War.
1879
Begins A Confession (completed 1882).
1881
Letter to new Tsar begging clemency for assassins of Alexander II.
1882
What Men Live By. Begins Death of Ivan Ilyich and What Then Must We Do? (completed 1886).
1883
Meets Chertkov, afterwards his leading disciple.
1885
Founds with Chertkov’s help the Intermediary, to publish edifying popular works, including his own stories. Becomes vegetarian, gives up hunting.
1886
The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Writes play The Power of Darkness.
1889
The Kreutzer Sonata completed. Begins Resurrection.
1891-2
Organizes famine relief.
1893
The Kingdom of God Is Within You published abroad.
1897
Begins What is Art? (publ. 1898) and Hadji Murat.
1899
Resurrection.
1901
Excommunicated from Orthodox Church. Seriously ill. In Crimea meets Chekhov and Gorky.
1902
What is Religion? completed. Working on play, The Light Shineth in Darkness.
1903
Denounces pogroms against Jews.
1904
Shakespeare and the Drama completed. Also Hadji Murat (publ. after his death). Pamphlet on Russo-Japanese War, Bethink Yourselves!