Tolstoy (1828— 19 10) is a Russian writer, reformer and moral thinker. Tolstoy's immortal reputation is mainly attributed to his two novels War and Peace and Anna karenin. Tolstoy's heart is full of profound contradictions. He was an individualistic aristocrat, but in his later years, he tried to live a poor peasant life, but he was very unsuccessful. He was addicted to debauchery at first, but eventually he became a thorough puritan; He has extraordinary vitality, but he is almost always afraid of death. This peculiar dual character made him give up his simple career as a novel writer in middle age and become a devout Christian. In his endless stream of papers, pamphlets and most short stories and plays, he preached his belief in a life full of love and loyalty, and his contempt for property and artificial systems such as the government and the church.
Early Years and Marriage Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was born in Yasnaya Pogliana (Tula Province), a family estate about 160 km south of Moscow, on September 9, 828 (August 28 of the old calendar). Tolstoy's parents died when he was a child, and he was raised by relatives. He was taught by his tutor in his early years and entered Kazan University at the age of 16. However, he was disappointed with the rigid teaching in this school. On 1847, he returned to Paulia in Jasna to run his own manor and arrange his studies. He failed in both aspects, so he gave up his pastoral life and joined the noisy social circles in Moscow and St. Petersburg. He described his moral deviance in his diary. In the diary full of youthful vitality, I have shown that I am good at exploring the hidden motives of my behavior in a realistic way, showing unusual analytical ability.
Tolstoy was tired of this mediocre life, and in 185 1, he defected to his brother Nikolai, who was a soldier in the Caucasus. The next year, he joined the army and showed courage in several battles with mountain tribes. He spent most of his spare time writing, and wrote his first published work, Childhood, which was published in Modern People magazine.
1854, Tolstoy was transferred to the Danube front and participated in the siege of Sevastopol in the Crimean War. He described these experiences in The Story of Sevastopol, in which he compared the simple heroic fighting of ordinary soldiers with the pretentious bravery of upper-level officers. 1856 after the war, he left the army and went to St. Petersburg, where he became the object of worship by some competing literary groups, which competed for his support for their social and aesthetic views. As an individualist with a clear attitude, he flatly abandoned these literati circles and returned to Jasna and Polynesia.
1857 to France, Switzerland and Germany.
1862 Tolstoy married Bells, who came from a well-educated middle-class family. He interrupted his educational activities and devoted all his enthusiasm to his marriage for the next 15 years. Most of the time after marriage was warm and happy, and they had 13 children. He managed the manor well and started writing again, creating two of his greatest masterpieces, War and Peace and Anna karenin.
Tolstoy, two masterpieces, spent nearly seven years writing his epic masterpiece War and Peace, which is generally regarded as one of the two or three greatest novels in world literature. No matter the scope involved or the writing style, this masterpiece far exceeds his previous works. In this novel, all the life materials are interwoven into magnificent and colorful pictures, and the rich materials and numerous characters are treated and described objectively. Probably no novel can successfully reflect the whole face of a complete natural life by accurately grasping the realistic details and surprisingly subtle and diverse psychological analysis.
Although Anna karenin is at least similar to War and Peace in narrative method and style, it is more unified in art. During the writing of these two books, Tolstoy's philosophy of life gradually changed. War and Peace is an optimistic novel that loves life. Its main characters are morally sound, and they can control their inner conflicts. Anna karenin, which describes Russian society from 65438 to 1960, is pessimistic. The inner conflicts of his characters are often unresolved, and sometimes lead to human disasters.
Old Tolstoy strongly felt the contradiction between the pampered life of his family and the life he wanted to live (a simple life, a monastic hermit who got rid of worldly material desires and served others wholeheartedly). He realized that his situation was a mockery of his declared beliefs. Finally, the deteriorating family situation forced Tolstoy to secretly run away from home one night. Accompanied by the doctor and his youngest daughter Alexandra, he hopes to find a hiding place where he can live quietly and get closer to God. A few days later,165438+1October 20th (old calendar165438+1October 7th), he died of pneumonia at the remote Astabovo railway station in Ryazan province.
Commenting on Tolstoy's outstanding achievements as a writer, critics have never questioned; He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in the world. Although Tolstoy never followed Russian writers before him, and he was probably influenced by some foreign writers such as Rousseau, Stern, Standahr and Thackeray later, people never agreed on his reputation as a thinker. However, the duality of Tolstoy's moral and rational development has been more thoroughly understood by modern scholars who study his thoughts. When he tirelessly explores the truth, he tries his best to seek the absolute truth in a world with incomplete knowledge and imperfect human beings. As a result, he refused to compromise, insisted on a thorough rational explanation, and often pushed his theory to the point of absurdity; Many people think that his views on history, non-violence, education and art are very close to this absurd situation. But as long as we study his thought systematically, we will find its relationship with various liberalism thoughts in the19th century. He believes that the whole history of 2000 is mainly composed of personal moral progress and government moral corruption. Tolstoy pinned his faith on people's moral progress, which he thought was a decisive answer to the phenomenon that most people were generally oppressed by a few people. He believes that, contrary to Marxist economic determinism and the theory of class struggle by violence, the progressive movement to promote human beings to achieve classless and stateless state depends on each individual's pursuit of the highest law of love, so he abandons any form of violence: through all this, he makes himself morally perfect. Although Tolstoy developed his rationalism to the extreme, he is still recognized as one of the most influential moralists in the19th century.