Routledge Library Editions: Tolstoy and Dostoevsky – serie

This varied set presents a rich selection of renowned and lesser-known treatments of the Russian masters – considered by some the greatest novelists of all time – from the 1920s through to the ‘90s. Routledge Library Editions: Tolstoy and Dostoevsky includes works of accessible biography, lucid literary criticism and insightful scholarship, investigating a wide range of themes: Tolstoy’s aesthetic philosophy, Dostoevsky’ curiously under-studied social and political views, Feminism, Nietzsche, and much else.

This study concentrates on The Devils, but also places this novel in the total context of Dostoevsky’s work. Also considered is the life and work of T.N. Granovsky, who is satirised along with Turgenev in the novel, and thus offers a useful basis on which to delineate the contours of Dostoevsky’s thought. First published in 1991, the book begins from the belief that his "genius embodies much of what is typical of Russian life: his boundless vitality, his extremism, his lack of empiricism and economy. To understand Dostoevsky is therefore somehow to understand Russia." The author concludes that Dostoevsky badly misunderstood Western liberalism, but grappled very well with the psychology of the radical terrorist. This is explained with reference to his intellectual revolution, which is seen as consisting of six stages from his early works of the 1840s.

With its demand that works of art be judged according to the their morally didactic content, Tolstoy’s reviled aesthetics has seemed to exclude from the canon far too many works widely accepted as masterpieces, including Shakespeare and Beethoven. This book, first published in 1985, argues that these are not mere oversights on the part of Tolstoy: he knew full well the consequences of his line of reasoning. The author contends that, even if we disagree with and eventually reject much of what Tolstoy concludes, his account of the nature and purpose of art is nevertheless worth consideration. Diffey’s argument by no means accepts all of ‘What is Art?’, but by suggesting that the work is best interpreted as a counterpoint to the amoral aestheticism prevalent in Russia at the time, he does much to restore it to a status deserving attention, particularly in today’s climate of extreme relativism.

Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is considered by many to be one of the greatest novels ever written. This study of its morally ambiguous protagonist, Anna, discusses Tolstoy’s troubled relation to the feminine in terms of the fantasies, hopes, and fears that she represents. In Reflecting on Anna Karenina, first published in 1989, Mary Evans presents an original, feminist reading of Anna’s life and times for both students and the general audience. She argues that Anna is the embodiment of all those female characteristics that so captivated Tolstoy, and which he felt so compelled to punish in his writing. Evans indicates how author and central character are locked in a contradiction which can only be resolved in the novel by Anna’s death, but which in real life must be overcome by women’s assertion of their moral and sexual autonomy.

This volume contains two concise works by the innovative twentieth-century literary critic Janko Lavrin, offering accessible and thoughtful introductions to the two greatest Russian novelists. It provides a perfect point of access into the often bewildering world of Russian literature, and the troubled geniuses which created it. Tolstoy: An Approach, first published in 1944, is an attempt to interpret Tolstoy as an artist and thinker in light of the twentieth-century experience: specifically, it seeks to discern the relationship between Tolstoy the novelist and Tolstoy the religious pseudo-prophet, thereby articulating the contours of his most essential ethical and psychological insights.In Dostoevsky: A Study, published first in 1943, Lavrin suggests a wide range of valuable observations and intriguing possibilities, exploring the enigmatic and perennially fascinating Dostoevsky in terms of the inter-connections between his life, his thought, his relationships, his writing, and the socio-cultural circumstances in which he found himself.

Tolstoy’s fame as one of the world’s greatest novelists has never been in doubt, but the importance of his views on the social, moral and religious issues of his time is not so widely recognised. This study, first published in 1973, presents an introduction to the historical and cultural background of Tolstoy’s lifetime, then going on to consider the major events of his developing personality as a writer and reformer. As well as considering the famous novels and literary criticism, Simmons treats his educational theories and practice, famine relief work, spiritual crises and religious, social and moral beliefs, as reflected in controversial writings such as What I Believe, What Then Must We Do? and The Kingdom of God Is Within You. He also investigates Tolstoy’s involvement in government, war and revolution, and the relevance of his reformist views in the contemporary world.

The two note-books of the diary of Mme. Dostoevsky, the rough notes of her lengthy Reminiscences, unfinished at the time of her death, all in her own hand-writing, and copies of her husband’s letters to her from 1866 to 1881, were found in August 1922. The Diary is a large volume of about 400 pages, published in the original Russian by the Central Archives in 1923. Both note-books relate to the time when the Dostoevskys were living abroad – in Berlin, Dresden and Baden – whilst the Reminiscences was intended as a complete character portrait.This volume, first published in 1923, presents such selections from the entries in the diary, the Reminiscences, and correspondence as is valuable for the better understanding of Dostoevsky. It offers remarkable insights into his often opaque personality, particularly in relation to his personal habits, his manner and character, and his relationship with his devoted wife, Anna Gregorevna.

The author states here that Tolstoy was a great educator and his views on education were ingenious and profound. Despite being a great artist, Tolstoy also had pedagogic method and drew abundantly on the stores of science. The book looks at articles which Tolstoy wrote on education and childhood, comparing him frequently to Rousseau, and also outlines the influences of his travels which informed his knowledge of contemporary schooling. The conclusion considers the development of Tolstoy’s thought on teaching alongside the state of education at the time the book was first published, in 1923. This will be of interest for the educational historian as well as those interested in Tolstoy himself.

The bare events of Dostoevsky’s life – his father murdered by peasants, his own ordeal before a firing squad, then exile in Siberia, his epilepsy, gambling, poverty and debts – go far to account for his strange intensity of vision. This biography, first published in 1931, traces his wayward development, from his strict and secluded childhood to his debut as ‘literary pimple’, through his years of anguish, to his maturity as artist and final apotheosis as Russian patriot. Written some fifty years after Dostoevsky’s death, when the material necessary for a full study first became available, Carr’s classic study reflects an approach to the life and genius of Dostoevsky dominated by the concerns of the mid-twentieth century. With its illuminating chapters on each of the great novels and its stylistic precision, this treatment of Dostoevsky remains a perfect introduction to the man, both as a novelist and as a human being.

Tolstoy was as much a philosopher as a novelist. From the entries in his early diaries through to the great novels he was constantly searching for a comprehensive vision, equal to ‘the confusion of life’. It was in his personal diaries that Tolstoy first attempted a ‘literary psychology’ to reveal those thoughts and feelings we conceal from ourselves, then inventing the interior monologue to expose the psychology of his characters. Emphasising the importance of these early characteristics for Tolstoy’s development as a writer, this volume, published first in 1975, assesses Tolstoy’s character-portraits in the light of his engagement with the question of the nature of happiness and the problem of historical truth in fiction. Greenwood also considers Tolstoy’s views on society and education, his understanding of the psychology of war, and in the later chapters critically examines his answers to the religious questions that increasingly preoccupied him as he matured.

The author states here that Tolstoy was a great educator and his views on education were ingenious and profound. Despite being a great artist, Tolstoy also had pedagogic method and drew abundantly on the stores of science. The book looks at articles which Tolstoy wrote on education and childhood, comparing him frequently to Rousseau, and also outlines the influences of his travels which informed his knowledge of contemporary schooling. The conclusion considers the development of Tolstoy’s thought on teaching alongside the state of education at the time the book was first published, in 1923. This will be of interest for the educational historian as well as those interested in Tolstoy himself.

The bare events of Dostoevsky’s life – his father murdered by peasants, his own ordeal before a firing squad, then exile in Siberia, his epilepsy, gambling, poverty and debts – go far to account for his strange intensity of vision. This biography, first published in 1931, traces his wayward development, from his strict and secluded childhood to his debut as ‘literary pimple’, through his years of anguish, to his maturity as artist and final apotheosis as Russian patriot. Written some fifty years after Dostoevsky’s death, when the material necessary for a full study first became available, Carr’s classic study reflects an approach to the life and genius of Dostoevsky dominated by the concerns of the mid-twentieth century. With its illuminating chapters on each of the great novels and its stylistic precision, this treatment of Dostoevsky remains a perfect introduction to the man, both as a novelist and as a human being.

This study concentrates on The Devils, but also places this novel in the total context of Dostoevsky’s work. Also considered is the life and work of T.N. Granovsky, who is satirised along with Turgenev in the novel, and thus offers a useful basis on which to delineate the contours of Dostoevsky’s thought. First published in 1991, the book begins from the belief that his "genius embodies much of what is typical of Russian life: his boundless vitality, his extremism, his lack of empiricism and economy. To understand Dostoevsky is therefore somehow to understand Russia." The author concludes that Dostoevsky badly misunderstood Western liberalism, but grappled very well with the psychology of the radical terrorist. This is explained with reference to his intellectual revolution, which is seen as consisting of six stages from his early works of the 1840s.

The two note-books of the diary of Mme. Dostoevsky, the rough notes of her lengthy Reminiscences, unfinished at the time of her death, all in her own hand-writing, and copies of her husband’s letters to her from 1866 to 1881, were found in August 1922. The Diary is a large volume of about 400 pages, published in the original Russian by the Central Archives in 1923. Both note-books relate to the time when the Dostoevskys were living abroad – in Berlin, Dresden and Baden – whilst the Reminiscences was intended as a complete character portrait.This volume, first published in 1923, presents such selections from the entries in the diary, the Reminiscences, and correspondence as is valuable for the better understanding of Dostoevsky. It offers remarkable insights into his often opaque personality, particularly in relation to his personal habits, his manner and character, and his relationship with his devoted wife, Anna Gregorevna.

Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is considered by many to be one of the greatest novels ever written. This study of its morally ambiguous protagonist, Anna, discusses Tolstoy’s troubled relation to the feminine in terms of the fantasies, hopes, and fears that she represents. In Reflecting on Anna Karenina, first published in 1989, Mary Evans presents an original, feminist reading of Anna’s life and times for both students and the general audience. She argues that Anna is the embodiment of all those female characteristics that so captivated Tolstoy, and which he felt so compelled to punish in his writing. Evans indicates how author and central character are locked in a contradiction which can only be resolved in the novel by Anna’s death, but which in real life must be overcome by women’s assertion of their moral and sexual autonomy.

With its demand that works of art be judged according to the their morally didactic content, Tolstoy’s reviled aesthetics has seemed to exclude from the canon far too many works widely accepted as masterpieces, including Shakespeare and Beethoven. This book, first published in 1985, argues that these are not mere oversights on the part of Tolstoy: he knew full well the consequences of his line of reasoning. The author contends that, even if we disagree with and eventually reject much of what Tolstoy concludes, his account of the nature and purpose of art is nevertheless worth consideration. Diffey’s argument by no means accepts all of ‘What is Art?’, but by suggesting that the work is best interpreted as a counterpoint to the amoral aestheticism prevalent in Russia at the time, he does much to restore it to a status deserving attention, particularly in today’s climate of extreme relativism.

This volume contains two concise works by the innovative twentieth-century literary critic Janko Lavrin, offering accessible and thoughtful introductions to the two greatest Russian novelists. It provides a perfect point of access into the often bewildering world of Russian literature, and the troubled geniuses which created it. Tolstoy: An Approach, first published in 1944, is an attempt to interpret Tolstoy as an artist and thinker in light of the twentieth-century experience: specifically, it seeks to discern the relationship between Tolstoy the novelist and Tolstoy the religious pseudo-prophet, thereby articulating the contours of his most essential ethical and psychological insights.In Dostoevsky: A Study, published first in 1943, Lavrin suggests a wide range of valuable observations and intriguing possibilities, exploring the enigmatic and perennially fascinating Dostoevsky in terms of the inter-connections between his life, his thought, his relationships, his writing, and the socio-cultural circumstances in which he found himself.

Tolstoy’s fame as one of the world’s greatest novelists has never been in doubt, but the importance of his views on the social, moral and religious issues of his time is not so widely recognised. This study, first published in 1973, presents an introduction to the historical and cultural background of Tolstoy’s lifetime, then going on to consider the major events of his developing personality as a writer and reformer. As well as considering the famous novels and literary criticism, Simmons treats his educational theories and practice, famine relief work, spiritual crises and religious, social and moral beliefs, as reflected in controversial writings such as What I Believe, What Then Must We Do? and The Kingdom of God Is Within You. He also investigates Tolstoy’s involvement in government, war and revolution, and the relevance of his reformist views in the contemporary world.