Tolstoy, Count Lev Nikolaevich

Tolstoy, Count Lev Nikolaevich (1828–1910), Russian prose writer. His first published work was Childhood (1852), the first part of a remarkably perceptive trilogy on his early years completed by Boyhood (1854) and Youth (1857). His other works include Sevastopol Sketches (1855–6); Family Happiness (1859); The Cossacks (1863); War and Peace (1865–9), an epic novel of the Napoleonic invasion and the lives of three aristocratic families; and Anna Karenina (1875–8), the story of a married woman's passion for a young officer and her tragic fate. From about 1880 Tolstoy's constant concern with moral questions developed into a spiritual crisis which led to radical changes in his life. The major fictional works bearing the imprint of changes in his thinking are The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886), The Kreutzer Sonata (1891), Master and Man (1895), Resurrection (1899–1900), and Hadji Murad (1904, pub. 1912). His collected works were translated 1899–1902 and have been retranslated many times since. Among those who played a part in establishing his English reputation were M. Arnold, G. B. Shaw, Galsworthy, E. M. Forster, and D. H.Lawrence.