Tolstoy's books. Childhood, education, flourishing of the writer's work

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Tolstoy's books are known to any educated person all over the world. Lev Nikolaevich is perhaps the most famous Russian writer and thinker. His eight-volume work "War and Peace" terrifies some with its appearance, others admire the depth of detail. But this is an unambiguous classic, which is rightfully included in all the world's tops of the best works. Even during his lifetime, Tolstoy's books made him a recognized master of Russian literature. His work influenced the development of realism as a trend, as well as European humanism.

Childhood and education

Leo Tolstoy is a representative of an ancient noble family. They came from an associate of Peter the Great. Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 on his maternal estate, Yasnaya Polyana. After the death of his parents, the future writer and his brothers were first educated by a distant relative Ergolskaya, andthen father's sister Osten-Saken. It was at the latter in Kazan that young Leva first thought about the need for self-improvement of the individual. All future books by Tolstoy will necessarily reflect this theme. Initially, the German Roselman was invited to teach Leo Tolstoy. He was good-natured and loved the boy very much. In the story that Tolstoy later wrote (“Childhood”), he portrayed his former teacher in the form of Karl Ivanovich. After Roselman, the boy was educated by the Frenchman Saint-Thomas (Saint-Jerome from Boyhood). Like his three brothers, Tolstoy studied at Kazan University. The first year he almost did not study science, and only in the second he became interested in the works of Montesquieu.

First literary delights

In 1847, while being treated in the hospital, Leo Tolstoy began to keep a diary. He did not stop this occupation until the end of his life. In it, he, like Benjamin Franklin, set himself goals and objectives for self-development, noted successes and failures, analyzed his thoughts and actions. He never returned to the university. A major card loss in Moscow forced Lev to join military service. After passing the exam, the future writer entered the Starogladovsky Cossack village as a cadet. From here, for the first time, he sent his first work, the autobiographical story Childhood, to the editors of the Sovremennik magazine. If it had not been accepted, then, with a high probability, Tolstoy's other books would never have been born. He participated in many skirmishes with the highlanders, and then in the defense of Sevastopol. In 1965 Tolstoy left military service. Hewrote "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina". Most of all, Tolstoy was interested in the development of the personality, the possibilities of its moral perfection.

War and Peace

Work on the most famous work of the writer was preceded by work on the novel "The Decembrists". He returned to it many times throughout his life, but never finished. Like all other books by Tolstoy, War and Peace is a novel about the moral growth of a person. This is a unique phenomenon in world literature. All strata of Russian society, a variety of characters and ages are widely represented in it against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars in 1805-1812. "War and Peace" is the favorite brainchild of the writer, the crown of his work. In this work, the genius of Leo Tolstoy was reflected in its entirety. The first excerpt from the multi-volume novel was published in the Russky Vestnik magazine in 1865, which was immediately received very warmly. This large-scale work vividly reflected Tolstoy's philosophy: "Sharp historical turns are not the work of one person, but the result of collective work."

Anna Karenina

Tolstoy has repeatedly described "War and Peace" as "a book about the past." "Anna Karenina" was originally conceived by the writer as a work about modern life. And there are no historical events here. But the real human soul and its development are shown. There are no coincidences in this novel. Everything ends where it began, that is, on the railroad. Still on the way to Moscow for reconciliation with her brother Annalearns about Alexei Vronsky. Her next door neighbor is his mother. All four meet on the platform and learn that the watchman died under the wheels of the trip. This "bad sign" warned of the imminent destruction of the family. The tragic love of the married Karenina and Vronsky is contrasted by the happy family life of Katya Shcherbatskaya and Konstantin Levin, who is close to the people. The novel was first published in 1875 in Russkiy Vestnik.

Tolstoy's works are well known not only in the post-Soviet countries, but all over the world. They are read with love and each time they are surprised to find something new, one small detail that shifts the focus and gives a different meaning. Therefore, Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy is a genius of Russian literature, whose books are relevant at any time.