The Cathedral of the Nativity in Suzdal, Russia.
Hello! It's Thursday! I hope everyone's week is progressing in an orderly manner!
I've been perusing my mountain of National Geographics again and I came across this rather wonderful photo essay on Tolstoy (1828 - 1910) and the particular corner of Russia that he inhabited.
According to the article, Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy (yes, he was an aristocrat) is among the most widely translated authors. His two most well known books are of course War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Reading this article makes me want to drop everything and immerse myself in them!
Here he is at 20 and at 82, two years before his death.
Apparently he was a pretty wild young lad. "I am living like a beast", he wrote in his diary which he started at school and kept until the end of his life. He failed to complete a law degree and spent his time partying with the Gypsies that still ran a theatre in Moscow at that time.
Tolstoy had a wild and adventurous life. He joined the army after dropping out of university, had his first story "Childhood" accepted for publication at the age of 24 and then went off to fight in the Crimean War. He lost his 32 room family mansion in a game of cards whilst in the army and so, when he married at 34, he brought his bride home to a separate two-story wing of the former mansion. He then started a school for the illiterate children of peasants. Meanwhile, his short stories were a hit in St Petersburg but he turned his back on that fame and set about writing War and Peace. Seven years later, the great masterpiece was completed in 1869.
Aside from his writing, he is influential in his religious beliefs and is said to have been an inspiration to men such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi. He was also passionate about nature. The article says that the outdoors were a church to Tolstoy.
Immediately below is a path lined with linden trees that he used to walk along ever day and below that is an avenue of birch trees at his ancestral estate. "I noticed this beauty..and fell in love with it," he wrote of this beloved avenue.
If you would like to read more about Tolstoy and his works click here. All images are from the June 1986 edition of National Geographic.
Great post! My favourite is seeing him in his twenties then later on in his eighties. He looks like he is seated in the linden tree path you posted a photo of later? Is that right? Russia would be a great destination. My friend has just been and she said the metro escalators are so long, people will sit down and make cups of tea from their thermoses and have two cigarettes!
Posted by: ana b | June 17, 2011 at 03:51 AM
Oh how interesting. I love seeing photos like these, and finding out a bit more about such fascinating individuals like Tolstoy.
I've read 'War and Peace', but I'm yet to open up 'Anna Karenina' ... his works are so rich and expansive.
Posted by: Tracey | June 19, 2011 at 03:16 PM