Leo Tolstoy

The new series of writers and their work continues a tradition of innovative critical studies introducing writers and their contexts to a wide range of readers. Drawing upon the most recent thinking in literature studies, each book considers biographical material, examines modern criticism, includes a detailed bibliography, and offers a concise and original reappraisal of a writer's major work. Tolstoy’s art, as represented in his greatest novels: war and peace and Anna Karenina, remains as lively, as fascinating, and as absorbing as ever and continues to exercise a profound influence on the best imaginative writing of today as of the past. In this lucid introductory study John bayley concentrates on Tolstoy’s two great works and the ancillary texts and tales that relate to them. In elucidating the power and originality alive in those masterpieces Professor bayley makes a compelling case for a return to these classic novels with their ability to captivate readers and draw them irresistibly into their uniquely spacious and complex world.
;About the Author

John Bayley is Warton Professor of English Emeritus at St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford. He is a distinguished scholar and critic who has published many works of literary criticism including studies of Hardy, Pushkin, Shakespeare, and Tolstoy as well as two volumes of essays and two novels.