Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy is only one of several historical figures I would have liked to have known.  Like most, I have heard of War and Peace but never read it. I have avoided reading it because I find the “collateral damages” of war deeply disturbing and, for this reason alone, I do not know if I can stomach it for that long.  I also don’t want this to be the first novel that I start but don’t finish reading.  I’m sure it’s my loss. Perhaps someday I’m strong enough to appreciate it, but not now.

 

But then I read The Last Station, Jay Parini’s poignant account of Mr. Tolstoy’s final year of life. Apart from the fact that, generally, I like historical novels, this was also a book that struck a chord with me. It introduced me to Tolstoy the man, and made me even more interested in becoming acquainted with his literary work.  Based on the personal accounts of those in Mr. Tolstoy’s inner circle (through a kaleidoscope of voices and diverging viewpoints) Parini depicts the best and the worst present in each and all of us and, by default, in humanity in general. It eloquently deals with greed, conflict, intrigue, love, hate, loss, despair, failure, solitude, solace, distress, social injustice, guilt, torment, idealism, selfishness, abysmal misery and indescribable luxury. Everything that Mr. Tolstoy was exposed to, sometimes all simultaneously – which is precisely what lead him to seek refuge at the end.

 

I liked it so much that now I’ve been reading more about Tolstoy the human being. Of course, since I never had the privilege of knowing him personally, I have to rely on history and eyewitness accounts (both often clouded by biases of all sorts and kinds) but it’s all I have. Here’s a man whose sympathies laid more with the peasantry than with the aristocrats he belong to; a man who commanded great attention with his diction, who was very familiar with failure and duress but never stopped striving for meaning, simplicity and goodness in a chaotic world.  He was a very complex human being, far from perfect and frequently misunderstood, but with an underlying goodness and prone to profound thought - making him, at the same time, loved and despised.

For all these reasons, I now have the urge to read Anna Karenina hoping that, someday, I am finally strong enough to read War and Peace, among others.