Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

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Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) Genius of
Destruction
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Childhood, Boyhood, Youth

• Descendent of ancient Aristocratic Family
• Orphaned at Two, raised by Aunts
• Dissolute youth
• Fought in Crimean War, ambivalence about War
• Self- consciousness engine of his art, Self
  Scrutiny in diary and History of Yesterday

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Tolstoy Vs. Society

• War and Peace,1864-1869, Slavophile memorial to
  Victory of Russian People in Great Fatherland War
• Anna Karenina, 1877-1878
• Master Social Psychologist, unmasked social
  deception, hypocrisy and Immorality, Influence of
  Rousseau
• Spiritual crisis 1878 Attempted Suicide,
  renounced art, Religious conversion

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Tolstoy Vs. Tolstoy(a)

• Marriage to Sophia Bers 1862 (13 Children, 10
  Survived)
• Autobiographical Basis of writing
• Contemporaries needed moral/Spiritual instruction
  in taboos Sex and Death
• Works censored since 1880, KS 1889 circulated by
  hand, censored by Church

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Questions for Discussion

• What Are Pozdnischevs positions on love,
  marriage, and doctors?
• Who or what is to blame for the ills that
  pozdnischev decries?
• Is Pozdnischevs wife unfaithful to him, or does
  pozdnischev suffer from Jealous delusions? Or is
  there another possibility? As Pozdnischev denies
  he loves his wife, what is the cause of his
  tormenting Jealousy?
• Why would Tolstoy use the unsavory and apparently
  insane Pozdnischev to express his own views?