About the Author

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was born in central Russia. After serving in the Crimean War, he retired to his estate and devoted himself to writing, farming, and raising his large family. His novels and outspoken social polemics brought him world fame.

Ann Pasternak Slater is a literary scholar and translator who was formerly a fellow and tutor at St Anne's College, Oxford. She's written and lectured on her uncle Boris Pasternak's translations of Shakespeare playsinto Russian.

Reviews

“No one has ever excelled Tolstoy in expressing that specific flavor, the exact quality of a feeling.” —Isaiah Berlin