Books by Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy, the 19th century Russian novelist who wrote—among others—the books War and Peace and Anna Karenina, is generally considered one of the greatest novelists of all time.
Born Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy in Tula, Russia, Leo Tolstoy first came to literary attention with the publication of a trilogy of autobiographical books (Childhood, Boyhood and Youth) while he was still in his twenties. The young Tolstoy served as an officer in the Crimean War, an experience that greatly disturbed him and profoundly changed his emotional and political outlook; his later works are notable for the realistic portrayals of Russian daily life and the horrors of war.
English speakers hoping to read Tolstoy’s masterpiece War and Peace for the first time are recommended to consult our brief interview with Rosamund Bartlett, where she talks us through the various translations of War and Peace, and what their strengths and weaknesses are considered to be. Bartlett herself translated the Oxford World Classics edition of Anna Karenina.
“Tolstoy was taken up by anarchists globally. He’s the most translated anarchist in China and Japan, and had a big influence on Mahatma Gandhi in India.” Read more...
Ruth Kinna, Philosopher
War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy
🏆 War and Peace is one of our most recommended novels on Five Books
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy is regarded by many as one of the greatest novels ever written. In our interviews, philosophers, historians and novelists have recommended it as critical reading for understanding a variety of subjects. Like many great books, it was greeted with some scepticism on publication.
“Tolstoy famously said of War and Peace that it wasn’t even a novel. In a sense, it’s a total history of that epoch in Russia in a fictional form…It’s very interesting what happens with the novel linguistically. There’s been a study of the French words in the novel, because there are a large number, and they feature particularly in the early phases of the novel. Towards the end, the novel becomes more Russian in its literary and vernacular style, in its lexicon and syntax. In a sense, the Russian language is the true character of the novel. The growing Russianness of the language is the epiphany, that moment of self-discovery, that the Russian aristocracy goes through at that time.” Read more...
Orlando Figes, Historian
“I chose this because most of us have read War and Peace, but many of us are less familiar with Tolstoy’s later life when he stressed his pacifist convictions in the most absolute of terms. There is a tendency to regard this as a personal development of Tolstoy’s which was almost out of keeping with what came before. But if you go back to his early experiences in the Caucasus and the Crimea as a young man in the 1840s, when he began to write about war – he reported from Sevastopol during the Crimean war – you already find in him a spirit of questioning the meaning of war, and why people are prepared to kill each other, which he continues to explore in War and Peace and which leads him eventually to his pacifist position.” Read more...
John Gittings, Journalist
“The main character in What Men Live By is an angel punished by God for refusing to take a woman’s life. The story is charming, the moral worn lightly.” Read more...
The Best Russian Short Stories
Rosamund Bartlett, Translator
“It’s possibly the best short story ever written, depending on whether or not you consider The Leopard (Giuseppe di Lampedusa) to be a short story, but it is only about 50 pages or so. It describes how easy it is to go through life, in the same way as Eliot describes in ‘Prufrock’, trying to please everyone and to be a good person, to conform, without really having any authentic intimacy with anyone. And the great importance really of waking up and smelling the coffee and seeing that the superficial things in life really are superficial and that what actually matters is how you conduct yourself in your relationships with your intimates.” Read more...
The best books on Why We Live in a Mad World
Oliver James, Psychologist
“Although he set out to write a moralising novel showing the evils of Anna’s adultery, his human empathy pushed him in a very different direction, and the reader sees every step towards the final tragedy from Anna’s point of view and sees how difficult—perhaps impossible—any of the alternatives would have been.” Read more...
The best books on Moral Philosophy
Jonathan Glover, Philosopher
“Tolstoy’s book is about a Shamil lieutenant, Hadji Murad, who goes over to the Russians, then tries to go back. What I like about it is that it shows war as profoundly ignoble – as an awful combination of personal circumstances that end in disaster for everyone. Hadji Murad, it turns out, was forced by tribal politics to join Shamil and become his star fighter; he turns to the Russians because he’s forced by more murderous tribal politics. He fears for his family and he tries to go back, with disastrous consequences, because rivalries among the Russian generals mean he doesn’t get the honourable deal from them that he’s been promised. Tolstoy is fearless in showing everyone in the theatre of war trapped between two tyrannies, the Russian tyranny a terrifying imposition, but the demands of the mountain armies no less tyrannical. The book also has a powerful and much-quoted description of how Chechen villagers feel when their homes are burned to the ground by Russian troops. “No one spoke of hatred of the Russians. The feeling experienced by all the Chechens, from the youngest to the oldest, was stronger than hate. It was not hatred, for they did not regard those Russian dogs as human beings … the desire to exterminate them – like the desire to exterminate rats, poisonous spiders, or wolves – was as natural an instinct as that of self-preservation.”” Read more...
Vanora Bennett, Historical Novelist
Interviews where books by Leo Tolstoy were recommended
The best books on Chechnya, recommended by Vanora Bennett
Award winning reporter and novelist says there are no superlatives too superlative for Anna Politkovskaya, who, after three books and innumerable investigative reporting trips to Chechnya, was murdered in Moscow
Five Beautiful Editions of Classic Novels
Some of the best novels ever written are also available in beautiful editions. Here we’ve selected five of our favourites, from the Jane Austen novel that many critics consider her best work to the novel of small-town provincial life that is highly rated by many philosophers.
The best books on Moral Philosophy, recommended by Jonathan Glover
The questions of moral philosophy are not always best answered by philosophy books, says leading moral philosopher, Jonathan Glover. He explores questions of how we should live and by what values in books spanning across multiple genres.
The best books on The Miracle of Autism, recommended by Rupert Isaacson
The respected author in an intimate discussion about his personal views on autism, prompted by his relationship with his own autistic son. Discusses books that reflect the values of empathy and authenticity
The best books on Sex and Marriage, recommended by Kate Figes
Research shows that middle-aged sex is the best of people’s lives, says journalist and author Kate Figes. She picks the best books on sex and marriage.
The best books on Why We Live in a Mad World, recommended by Oliver James
The psychologist and trustee of Alzheimer’s charity SPECAL says British and American women today are 5 times more likely to suffer a mental illness than in the 1950s
The Best Russian Short Stories, recommended by Rosamund Bartlett
In Russia, it’s often fallen to writers to challenge conventions and speak the truth, says the translator and biographer Rosamund Bartlett. She makes a personal selection of some of the most exhilarating Russian short fiction.
The best books on Peace, recommended by John Gittings
History is usually studied and written from the perspective of war, says veteran journalist John Gittings. It can look very different when viewed from the perspective of peace.
The Best Russian Novels, recommended by Orlando Figes
They’re among the finest novels ever written, often vast in their scope and ambitious in their subject matter. Some are long, others can be read in an afternoon. They’re also one of the best ways of understanding Russian history. Historian Orlando Figes, author of The Story of Russia and Natasha’s Dance, recommends his favourite Russian novels, from the 19th century to today.
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1
The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality
by His Holiness the Dalai Lama -
2
War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy -
3
Exhaust the Limits: The Life and Times of a Global Peacebuilder
by Charles F Dambach -
4
Connexity: How to Live in a Connected World
by Geoff Mulgan -
5
Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Fundamentalism, Radicalisation and Terrorism
by Jessica Yakeley and Paul Cundy (eds.)
The best books on Peace, recommended by Steve Killelea
The best books on Peace, recommended by Steve Killelea
Efforts to bring about peace have often focused on eliminating the conditions of war, violence and terrorism. But as Steve Killelea—founder of the Institute for Economics and Peace and the annual Global Peace Index—explains, the foundations of sustainable peace are radically different from the absence of war and violence. Here, he recommends five books that shed light on the building blocks of peace and explains why ‘positive peace’ is so important.
Five of the Best European Classics, recommended by David Campbell
Europe may be made up of many cultures but its component parts share an artistic and literary sensibility, says Everyman’s Library publisher David Campbell. Here, he recommends five European classics that everyone should read at least once in their life, including “the greatest novel ever written” and some lesser-known masterpieces.
The Best Long Novels, recommended by Five Books
If you’re stuck in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, it might be time to finally crack open that one long read you always meant to get around to, but slid down your list of books for whatever reason—not enough time, too many pages. Problem is, there are so many monster doorstoppers, and it can be hard to tell which are worth your time. The Five Books editors weigh in:
The best books on War, recommended by Cécile Fabre
If killing is wrong, how can going to war be justified? Is it always wrong to kill civilians? If a Nazi soldier were billeted in your home, should you respond when he greets you? Philosopher Cécile Fabre chooses Five Books that help explore the profound ethical dilemmas of war.
The Best Historical Fiction, recommended by Tendai Huchu
What is historical fiction? Does it have to be historically accurate? Zimbabwean novelist Tendai Huchu talks us through five important examples of historical novels, including three set in Africa.
The Best War Writing, recommended by Kate McLoughlin
War writing extends to all sorts of genres, including blogs and Twitter. Oxford University’s Professor Kate McLoughlin, author of Authoring War: The Literary Representation of War from the Iliad to Iraq recommends some of her favourite books of war writing.
Niall Ferguson on His Intellectual Influences
Harvard historian Niall Ferguson tells us about the diverse influences on his work, from Keynes and Tolstoy to an Austrian satirist. He explains how he prefers a philosophy of history that emphasises the contingent and the chaotic, rather than the neatly predictable.
The best books on The Regency Period, recommended by Stella Tillyard
Bestselling novelist and historian Stella Tillyard says the 19th century Regency era was, apart from the duels and empire-line dresses, much like our own – a time of war and economic uncertainty.
The best books on Why Russia isn’t a Democracy, recommended by Martin Sixsmith
The former BBC Moscow correspondent and author Martin Sixsmith chooses five great works on Russia’s doomed democracies.
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1
'Anarchism', in the Encyclopaedia Britannica
by Peter Kropotkin -
2
Gates of Freedom: Voltairine de Cleyre and the Revolution of the Mind
by Eugenia C. DeLamotte -
3
The Slavery of Our Times
by Leo Tolstoy -
4
Autonomy, Solidarity, Possibility: The Colin Ward Reader
by Chris Wilbert, Colin Ward & Damian F. White -
5
Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1870-1940
by Lucien van der Walt & Steven Hirsch
The best books on Anarchism, recommended by Ruth Kinna
The best books on Anarchism, recommended by Ruth Kinna
Sometimes vilified, often misunderstood, rarely taught in universities, anarchism is a political philosophy and social movement that’s far removed from today’s mainstream politics. But it was and remains a powerful motivator. Political theorist Ruth Kinna talks us through the best books to read to get a better understanding of anarchism.