Understanding Tolstoy

Understanding Tolstoy PDF Author: Andrew D. Kaufman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780814252406
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Understanding Tolstoy recreates Tolstoy's lifelong artistic and spiritual journey, taking readers to the core of the writer's world through nuanced close readings of his major novels and novellas. Andrew D. Kaufman's broad and accessible analysis of Tolstoy's work speaks to the ways in which Tolstoy, despite living in a manner far removed from the experiences of most modern-day Americans, is still applicable and contemporary. From a reconstruction of Olenin's search for truth in The Cossacks to an illuminating analysis of Hadji-Murat's tragic last stand, Understanding Tolstoy brings to life the fascinating parallels between Tolstoy's personal quest and his characters' journeys. Whether writing about the ballrooms and battlefields of War and Peace or the spectrum of sexual and spiritual attachments in Anna Karenina, Tolstoy emerges as a vital, searching artist who continually grows and surprises us, yet is driven by a single, unchanging belief in universal human truths.Understanding Tolstoy is a treasure trove of critical and philosophical insights that will appeal to Tolstoy aficionados of all kinds, from advanced scholars to undergraduate students. The book offers an eminently readable guide to those entering Tolstoy's world for the first time or the tenth, and it invites them to grapple alongside the writer and his characters with the most urgent existential questions of our time, and all times.

Understanding Tolstoy

Understanding Tolstoy PDF Author: Andrew D. Kaufman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780814252406
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Get Book

Book Description
Understanding Tolstoy recreates Tolstoy's lifelong artistic and spiritual journey, taking readers to the core of the writer's world through nuanced close readings of his major novels and novellas. Andrew D. Kaufman's broad and accessible analysis of Tolstoy's work speaks to the ways in which Tolstoy, despite living in a manner far removed from the experiences of most modern-day Americans, is still applicable and contemporary. From a reconstruction of Olenin's search for truth in The Cossacks to an illuminating analysis of Hadji-Murat's tragic last stand, Understanding Tolstoy brings to life the fascinating parallels between Tolstoy's personal quest and his characters' journeys. Whether writing about the ballrooms and battlefields of War and Peace or the spectrum of sexual and spiritual attachments in Anna Karenina, Tolstoy emerges as a vital, searching artist who continually grows and surprises us, yet is driven by a single, unchanging belief in universal human truths.Understanding Tolstoy is a treasure trove of critical and philosophical insights that will appeal to Tolstoy aficionados of all kinds, from advanced scholars to undergraduate students. The book offers an eminently readable guide to those entering Tolstoy's world for the first time or the tenth, and it invites them to grapple alongside the writer and his characters with the most urgent existential questions of our time, and all times.

Understanding Tolstoy

Understanding Tolstoy PDF Author: Andrew Kaufman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780814211649
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Understanding Tolstoy recreates Tolstoy's lifelong artistic and spiritual journey, taking readers to the core of the writer's world through nuanced close readings of his major novels and novellas. Andrew D. Kaufman's broad and accessible analysis of Tolstoy's work speaks to the ways in which Tolstoy, despite living in a manner far removed from the experiences of most modern-day Americans, is still applicable and contemporary. From a reconstruction of Olenin's search for truth in The Cossacks to an illuminating analysis of Hadji-Murat's tragic last stand, Understanding Tolstoy brings to life the fascinating parallels between Tolstoy's personal quest and his characters' journeys. Whether writing about the ballrooms and battlefields of War and Peace or the spectrum of sexual and spiritual attachments in Anna Karenina, Tolstoy emerges as a vital, searching artist who continually grows and surprises us, yet is driven by a single, unchanging belief in universal human truths. Understanding Tolstoy is a treasure trove of critical and philosophical insights that will appeal to Tolstoy aficionados of all kinds, from advanced scholars to undergraduate students. The book offers an eminently readable guide to those entering Tolstoy's world for the first time or the tenth, and it invites them to grapple alongside the writer and his characters with the most urgent existential questions of our time, and all times.

Understanding Tolstoy

Understanding Tolstoy PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780814270622
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description


Give War and Peace a Chance

Give War and Peace a Chance PDF Author: Andrew D. Kaufman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451644728
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
“This lively appreciation of one of the most intimidating and massive novels ever written should persuade many hesitant readers to try scaling the heights of War and Peace sooner rather than later” (Publishers Weekly). Considered by many critics the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is also one of the most feared. And at 1,500 pages, it’s no wonder why. Still, in July 2009 Newsweek put War and Peace at the top of its list of 100 great novels and a 2007 edition of the AARP Bulletin included the novel in their list of the top four books everybody should read by the age of fifty. A New York Times survey from 2009 identified Warand Peace as the world classic you’re most likely to find people reading on their subway commute to work. What might all those Newsweek devotees, senior citizens, and harried commuters see in a book about the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s? War and Peace is many things. It is a love story, a family saga, a war novel. But at its core it’s a novel about human beings attempting to create a meaningful life for themselves in a country torn apart by war, social change, political intrigue, and spiritual confusion. It is a mirror of our times. Give War and Peace a Chance takes readers on a journey through War and Peace that reframes their very understanding of what it means to live through troubled times and survive them. Touching on a broad range of topics, from courage to romance, parenting to death, Kaufman demonstrates how Tolstoy’s wisdom can help us live fuller, more meaningful lives. The ideal companion to War and Peace, this book “makes Tolstoy’s characters lively and palpable…and may well persuade readers to finally dive into one of the world’s most acclaimed—and daunting—novels” (Kirkus Reviews).

Tolstoy

Tolstoy PDF Author: Rosamund Bartlett
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0547545878
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 581

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Book Description
This biography of the brilliant author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina “should become the first resort for everyone drawn to its titanic subject” (Booklist, starred review). In November 1910, Count Lev Tolstoy died at a remote Russian railway station. At the time of his death, he was the most famous man in Russia, more revered than the tsar, with a growing international following. Born into an aristocratic family, Tolstoy spent his existence rebelling against not only conventional ideas about literature and art but also traditional education, family life, organized religion, and the state. In “an epic biography that does justice to an epic figure,” Rosamund Bartlett draws extensively on key Russian sources, including fascinating material that has only become available since the collapse of the Soviet Union (Library Journal, starred review). She sheds light on Tolstoy’s remarkable journey from callow youth to writer to prophet; discusses his troubled relationship with his wife, Sonya; and vividly evokes the Russian landscapes Tolstoy so loved and the turbulent times in which he lived.

Thinking with Tolstoy and Wittgenstein

Thinking with Tolstoy and Wittgenstein PDF Author: Henry W. Pickford
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 0810131714
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
In this highly original interdisciplinary study incorporating close readings of literary texts and philosophical argumentation, Henry W. Pickford develops a theory of meaning and expression in art intended to counter the meaning skepticism most commonly associated with the theories of Jacques Derrida. Pickford arrives at his theory by drawing on the writings of Wittgenstein to develop and modify the insights of Tolstoy’s philosophy of art. Pickford shows how Tolstoy’s encounter with Schopenhauer’s thought on the one hand provided support for his ethical views but on the other hand presented a problem, exemplified in the case of music, for his aesthetic theory, a problem that Tolstoy did not successfully resolve. Wittgenstein’s critical appreciation of Tolstoy’s thinking, however, not only recovers its viability but also constructs a formidable position within contemporary debates concerning theories of emotion, ethics, and aesthetic expression.

Leo Tolstoy and the Alibi of Narrative

Leo Tolstoy and the Alibi of Narrative PDF Author: Justin Weir
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300153856
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
One hundred years after his death, Tolstoy still inspires controversy with his notoriously complex narrative strategies. This original book explores how and why Tolstoy has mystified interpreters and offers a new look at his most famous works of fiction.

God and Man According To Tolstoy

God and Man According To Tolstoy PDF Author: A. Boot
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230623026
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
With a critical look at Tolstoy's persona, faith, and thought, this book treats the writer as a midwife of modern counterculture. It shows and tries to correct the metaphysical blunder on which Tolstoy's philosophy was based.

Tolstoy in Search of Truth and Meaning

Tolstoy in Search of Truth and Meaning PDF Author: Leo Tolstoy
Publisher: Courier Dover Publications
ISBN: 0486852385
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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Book Description
This collection of inspirational quotes represents Tolstoy's lifelong quest to find meaning and understand life's purpose. Gathered from various writings throughout his lifetime, Tolstoy covers multiple topics, including self-improvement, marriage, good and evil, war, and civil disobedience.

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy PDF Author: Daniel Moulin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472504844
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
How do we know what we should teach? And how should we go about teaching it? These deceptively simple questions about education perplexed Tolstoy. Before writing his famous novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy opened an experimental school on his estate to try and answer them. His experiences there incited his life-long inquiry into the meaning and purpose of religion, literature, art and life itself. In this text, Daniel Moulin tells the story of the course of Tolstoy's educational thought, and how it relates to Tolstoy's fiction and other writings. It begins with his experience of being a child and adolescent, incorporates his travels in Europe, the experimental school, his literature, and his views on art, philosophy, and spirituality. Throughout, the relevance and impact of Tolstoy's thinking on education are translated into applicable theory for today's education students.