The Cambridge Companion to Tolstoy

Key dimensions of Tolstoy's writing and life are explored in this collection of specially commissioned essays.

Donna Tussing Orwin (Edited by)

9780521520003, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 19 September 2002

288 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.43 kg

'… superb … Every essay in this collection exhibits a high quality of arguement, knowledge, insight and clarity of exposition. Specialists and general readers alike will want to read them all, and in so doing will find their understanding of Tolstoi, as man, artist and public figures, greatly enriched.' Journal of European Studies

Best known for his great novels, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy remains one the most important nineteenth-century writers; throughout his career which spanned nearly three quarters of a century, he wrote fiction, journalistic essays and educational textbooks. The specially commissioned essays in The Cambridge Companion to Tolstoy do justice to the sheer volume of Tolstoy's writing. Key dimensions of his writing and life are explored in essays focusing on his relationship to popular writing, the issue of gender and sexuality in his fiction and his aesthetics. The introduction provides a brief, unified account of the man, for whom his art was only one activity among many. The volume is well supported by supplementary material including a detailed guide to further reading and a chronology of Tolstoy's life, the most comprehensive compiled in English to date. Altogether the volume provides an invaluable resource for students and scholars alike.

Notes on contributors
Editor's preface
Acknowledgements
Notes on editions, citations and transliterations
Chronology
Introduction: Tolstoy as artist and public figure Donna Tussing Orwin
Part I. The Three Novels: 1. War and Peace Gary Saul Morson
2. Anna Karenina Barbara Lönnqvist
3. Resurrection Hugh McLean
Part II. Genres: 4. Tolstoy as a writer of popular literature Gary R. Jahn
5. The long short story in Tolstoy's fiction Richard Freeborn
6. Tolstoy staged in Paris, Berlin and London W. Gareth Jones
Part III. General Topics: 7. The development of style and theme in Tolstoy Liza Knapp
8. History and autobiography in Tolstoy Andrew Wachtel
9. Women, sexuality, and the family in Tolstoy Edwina Cruise
10. Tolstoy in the twentieth century George R. Clay
11. Courage in Tolstoy Donna Tussing Orwin
12. Tolstoy's aesthetics Caryl Emerson
Guide to further reading
Index to Tolstoy's works and characters
General index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: general [DSB]