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Book Best Works of Graf Leo Tolstoy   What Is Art  by Graf Leo Tolstoy  Anna Karenina by Graf Leo Tolstoy  War and Peace by Graf Leo Tolstoy

Download or read book Best Works of Graf Leo Tolstoy What Is Art by Graf Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina by Graf Leo Tolstoy War and Peace by Graf Leo Tolstoy written by Graf Leo Tolstoy and published by Prabhat Prakashan. This book was released on 2024-06-24 with total page 3051 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Book 1: Explore the nature of art and its significance with “What Is Art? by Graf Leo Tolstoy.” Tolstoy's treatise delves into the philosophical inquiry of the purpose and essence of art. Offering a critique of conventional aesthetics, Tolstoy argues for a more profound and morally grounded understanding of artistic expression, challenging readers to reconsider the true nature and impact of art on human life. Book 2: Immerse yourself in the tragic tale of love and morality with “Anna Karenina by Graf Leo Tolstoy.” Tolstoy's novel follows the complex lives of Anna Karenina and those around her, weaving a narrative that explores the consequences of passion, societal expectations, and the pursuit of personal happiness. Filled with rich characterizations and intricate storytelling, this classic work remains a pinnacle of Russian literature. Book 3: Experience the epic saga of Russian society with “War and Peace by Graf Leo Tolstoy.” Tolstoy's monumental novel traverses the lives of numerous characters against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. Through its panoramic scope and profound reflections on history and human nature, this masterpiece captures the essence of Tolstoy's literary genius, providing a sweeping exploration of love, war, and the search for meaning in life.

Book What is Art

    Book Details:
  • Author : graf Leo Tolstoy
  • Publisher : Hackett Publishing
  • Release : 1996-01-01
  • ISBN : 9780872202955
  • Pages : 248 pages

Download or read book What is Art written by graf Leo Tolstoy and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maude's excellent translation of Tolstoy's treatise on the emotionalist theory of art was the first unexpurgated version of the work to appear in any languages. More than ninety years later this work remains, as Vincent Tomas observed, one of the most rigorous attacks on formalism and on the doctrine of art for art's sake ever written. Tomas's Introduction makes this the edition of choice for students of aesthetics and anyone with philosophical interests.

Book Delphi Complete Works of Leo Tolstoy  Illustrated

Download or read book Delphi Complete Works of Leo Tolstoy Illustrated written by Leo Tolstoy and published by Delphi Classics. This book was released on 2013-11-17 with total page 8056 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A master of realistic fiction, Leo Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest novelists. He is best known for his two longest works, ‘War and Peace’ and ‘Anna Karenina’, commonly regarded as among the finest novels ever written. During his later years, Tolstoy also achieved world renown as a moral and religious teacher. His doctrine of non-resistance to evil had an important influence on Gandhi. Some viewed him as the embodiment of nature and pure vitality, others saw him as the incarnation of the world’s conscience, while all regarded him as a living symbol of the search for life’s meaning. This eBook presents Tolstoy’s complete fictional works, with numerous illustrations, rare texts, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 4) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Tolstoy’s life and works * Concise introductions to the major texts * All the novels and novellas, with individual contents tables * Features rare stories appearing for the first time in digital publishing * Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts * Excellent formatting of the texts * Easily locate the short stories you want to read * Includes rare plays * Large selection of non-fiction works — spend hours exploring the author’s diverse works * Special criticism section, with 11 essays evaluating Tolstoy’s contribution to world literature * Features three biographies – discover Tolstoy’s literary life, including Maude’s seminal study * Ordering of texts into chronological order and genres * UPDATED with new and revised texts, more rare short stories, novellas, non-fiction and biographies CONTENTS: The Novels War and Peace (1869) Anna Karenina (1877) Resurrection (1899) The Novellas Childhood (1852) Boyhood (1854) Youth (1856) Sevastopol Sketches (1856) A Russian Proprietor (1856) Two Hussars (1856) Family Happiness (1859) Polikushka (1862) The Cossacks (1863) The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) Katia (1888) The Kreutzer Sonata (1889) Walk in the Light While There is Light (1893) Master and Man (1895) The Devil (1911) The Forged Coupon (1911) Hadji Murat (1912) The Unfinished Novel The Decembrists (1884) The Short Stories The Short Stories of Leo Tolstoy The Plays The Power of Darkness (1886) The First Distiller (1886) The Light Shines in Darkness (1890) The Fruits of Culture (1891) Redemption (1891) The Live Corpse (1900) The Cause of It All (1910) The Non-Fiction A Confession (1880) Moscow Census (1882) My Religion (1884) What Shall We Do? (1886) On the Significance of Science and Art (1886) Church and State (1891) The Kingdom of God is within You (1893) Introductions to Books (1894) Christianity and Patriotism (1894) Reason and Religion (1895) Patriotism or Peace (1896) Letter to Ernest Howard Crosby (1896) Journal (1895-1899) The Slavery of Our Times (1900) Thou Shalt Not Kill (1900) What is Art? (1904) Bethink Yourselves! (1904) Tolstoy on Shakespeare (1906) A Letter to a Hindu (1908) The Criticism Leo Tolstoï (1887) by W. D. Howells Tolstoy the Artist (1889) by Ivan Panin Tolstoy the Preacher (1889) by Ivan Panin Extract from ‘My Literary Passions’ (1895) by W. D. Howells Extracts from ‘A Survey of Russian Literature’ (1902) by Isabel Florence Hapgood Tolstoy and the Cult of Simplicity (1902) by G. K. Chesterton Extract from ‘Essays on Russian Novelists’ (1911) by William Lyon Phelps The Russian Point of View (1912) by Virginia Woolf Russian Romance (1913) by Earl of Evelyn Baring Cromer Extract from ‘An Outline of Russian Literature’ (1914) by Maurice Baring Extract from ‘Prophets of Dissent’ (1918) by Otto Heller The Biographies The Life of Tolstoy: First Fifty Years (1908) by Aylmer Maude Tolstoy (1911) by Romain Rolland Reminiscences of Tolstoy (1914) by Count Ilya Tolstoy

Book War and Peace

    Book Details:
  • Author : graf Leo Tolstoy
  • Publisher : Arcturus Editions
  • Release : 2019-03-15
  • ISBN : 9781788886529
  • Pages : 0 pages

Download or read book War and Peace written by graf Leo Tolstoy and published by Arcturus Editions. This book was released on 2019-03-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set against the sweeping panoply of Napoleons invasion of Russia, "War and Peace" is often considered the greatest novel ever written.

Book War and Peace

    Book Details:
  • Author : Leo Tolstoy
  • Publisher : Open Road Media
  • Release : 2020-04-14
  • ISBN : 1504062329
  • Pages : 1793 pages

Download or read book War and Peace written by Leo Tolstoy and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 1793 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The grand epic set during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia: a vividly detailed view of nineteenth-century Russian life by the author of Anna Karenina. Widely regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written, War and Peace is Leo Tolstoy’s magnum opus, a groundbreaking work of literary realism, and a psychologically acute examination of Tsarist society in the Napoleonic Era. The narrative follows the fates, fortunes, loves, and betrayals of five aristocratic Russian families from an elegant soirée in 1805 Saint Petersburg to the abandoned and burning Moscow of 1812. With a panoramic cast of characters, including peasants, soldiers, nobles, and historical figures such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Mikhail Kutuzov, Tolstoy presents a hugely ambitious portrait of the human condition. First published in 1865, this edition of War and Peace was translated into English by Louise and Alymer Maude

Book War and Peace

    Book Details:
  • Author : Leo Tolstoi
  • Publisher : Collector's Library
  • Release : 2004
  • ISBN : 9781904633853
  • Pages : 1662 pages

Download or read book War and Peace written by Leo Tolstoi and published by Collector's Library. This book was released on 2004 with total page 1662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Widely regarded as the greatest novel in any language, War and Peace is primarily concerned with the histories of five aristocratic families--particularly the Bezukhovs, the Bolkonskys, and the Rostovs--the members of which are portrayed against a vivid background of Russian social life during the war against Napoleon (1805-14). The theme of war, however, is subordinate to the story of family existence, which involves Tolstoy's optimistic belief in the life-asserting pattern of human existence. The heroine, Natasha Rostova, for example, reaches her greatest fulfilment through her marriage to Pierre Bezukhov and her motherhood. The novel also sets forth a theory of history, concluding that there is a minimum of free choice; all is ruled by an inexorable historical determinism

Book Selected works of Leo Tolstoy

Download or read book Selected works of Leo Tolstoy written by Leo Tolstoy and published by Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing. This book was released on 2021-02-01 with total page 1881 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selected works of Leo Tolstoy from the series "Best of the Best" is the book that everyone should read to understand themselves and each other. The authors and works for this book series were selected, as a result of numerous studies, analysis of the texts over the past 100 years and the demand for readers. It must be read in order to understand the world around us, its history, to recognize the heroes, to understand the winged expressions and jokes that come from these literary works. Reading these books will mean the discovery of a world of self-development and self-expression for each person. These books have been around for decades, and sometimes centuries, for the time they recreate, the values they teach, the point of view, or simply the beauty of words. This volume of the Best of the Best series includes famous works WAR AND PEACE ANNA KARENINA RESURRECTION THE COSSACKS SEVASTOPOL THE KREUTZER SONATA IVAN THE FOOL FATHER SERGIUS A LOST OPPORTUNITY “POLIKUSHKA;” CHILDHOOD YOUTH THE INVADERS AND OTHER STORIES "THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU" WHAT MEN LIVE BY AND OTHER TALES THE POWER OF DARKNESS FABLES FOR CHILDREN

Book War and Peace by Graf Leo Tolstoy

Download or read book War and Peace by Graf Leo Tolstoy written by Leo Tolstoy and published by . This book was released on 2017-09-21 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From world-famous literary The masterpiece of the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, into a thrillingly romantic television movie. To make a lasting impression. In 1805 the war took place in Saint Petersburg, Pierre (starring Paul Dano), Natasha (starring Lily James) and Andre (starring James Norton). Part of the elite elite of St. Petersburg. But still have the vitality of youth enough to seek the meaning of life. Pierre, a young man with a clumsy personality. The illegitimate child of the richest richest man in Russia. He aims to change the world, and Andre, a handsome and courageous young man. He has a crush on life with the shell. Even marry people who they do not love to be the showpiece in the Maya society. Finally, I can not stand, so I struggled to find a goal in life. At the same time, the aim is to seek glory for their own lives as well. And Natasha, a beautiful and vibrant woman. The romance is always romantic. And always sweet dreams. She waits for real love, even though she sometimes finds disappointment. But it is never lacerated. While all life must go in a variety of forms. Both meet the requirements of society. And in the way he wishes At the same time, Napoleon's army was approaching the Russian border. While they were searching for answers to Pierre, Andre and Natasha found themselves. Fall in the age that Russian society is going to change forever.

Book War and Peace  Maude translation

Download or read book War and Peace Maude translation written by Leo Tolstoy and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2012-12-13 with total page 2281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: War and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in 1869. The work is epic in scale and is regarded as one of the most important works of world literature. It is considered Tolstoy's finest literary achievement, along with his other major prose work Anna Karenina. This complete english version translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude was originally published in 1922. It includes all 15 books + the first and second epilogue. The Maudes are classical translators of Leo Tolstoy who worked directly with the author and gained his personal endorsement. This e-book is carefully crafted and contains a detailed table of contents.

Book WAR AND PEACE by Leo Tolstoy  International Bestseller Book  From the Author books Like Anna Karenina War and Peace The Death of Ivan Ilych The Kreutzer Sonata Resurrection   nsan Ne   le Ya  ar  A Confession Hadji Mur  d

Download or read book WAR AND PEACE by Leo Tolstoy International Bestseller Book From the Author books Like Anna Karenina War and Peace The Death of Ivan Ilych The Kreutzer Sonata Resurrection nsan Ne le Ya ar A Confession Hadji Mur d written by LEO TOLSTOY and published by BEYOND BOOKS HUB. This book was released on 2021-01-01 with total page 1704 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Author books Like · Anna Karenina · War and Peace · The Death of Ivan Ilych · The Kreutzer Sonata · Resurrection · İnsan Ne İle Yaşar? · A Confession · Hadji Murád · How Much Land Does a Man Need? · Family Happiness · Childhood, Boyhood, Youth · The Cossacks · Master and Man · The Kingdom of God Is Within You · The Devil · Father Sergius · What Is Art? ABOUT THE BOOK: The greatest of all novelists...what else can we call the author of War and Peace?” asked Virginia Woolf rhetorically—and literary luminaries the world over have agreed with her. The saga stands alone in its vast scope and minute detail, its immense diversity and final unity. Set in the years leading up to and culminating in Napoleon’s disastrous Russian invasion, the novel focuses upon an entire society torn by conflict and change. Here is humanity in all its innocence and corruption, wisdom and folly, painful defeats and enduring triumphs. Here is the seemingly effortless artistry of a master capable of portraying with equal power the clash of armies and the solitary anguish of the heart. Here, finally, is a view of history and personal destiny that is perpetually modern. “Life did not stop and one had to live..” July 1805, St Petersburg, Russia: A country on the brink of attack. a city on the threshold of war and disruption. Five Russian families will find out just how their lives are going to entangle during the ensuing years of war and peace.. Opening at Anna Pavlovna’s soirée, Tolstoy’s War and Peace introduces you to characters­—such as the misfit, illegitimate son Pierre, the analytical and loner Prince Andrew, the sexually alluring Helene and the impulsive and lively Natasha, who plays the pivotal role—whose minds and actions prove to be the laboratory where Tolstoy, with a psychologist’s deftness and an artist’s vision, lays bare the frailties and manias that make up the human psyche. An explosive tale of epic proportions, War and Peace, one of the best known Russian historical novels, is as much a story of love and adultery as it is of war and death. with a deep insight into the war-stricken Russia, it underlines the irrational motives of human behavior in both war and peace. War and Peace is considered one of the world’s greatest works of fiction. It is regarded, along with Anna Karenina, as Tolstoy’s finest literary achievement. Epic in scale, War and Peace delineates in graphic detail events leading up to Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society, as seen through the eyes of five Russian aristocratic families. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой; most appropriately used Liev Tolstoy; commonly Leo Tolstoy in Anglophone countries) was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist fiction. Many consider Tolstoy to have been one of the world's greatest novelists. Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer. His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Book Anna Karenina

    Book Details:
  • Author : Leo Tolstoy
  • Publisher : 谷月社
  • Release : 2015-10-09
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : 1295 pages

Download or read book Anna Karenina written by Leo Tolstoy and published by 谷月社. This book was released on 2015-10-09 with total page 1295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger. Tolstoy clashed with editor Mikhail Katkov over political issues that arose in the final installment (Tolstoy's negative views of Russian volunteers going to fight in Serbia); therefore, the novel's first complete appearance was in book form in 1878. Widely regarded as a pinnacle in realist fiction, Tolstoy considered Anna Karenina his first true novel, after he came to consider War and Peace to be more than a novel. Fyodor Dostoyevsky declared it "flawless as a work of art." His opinion was shared by Vladimir Nabokov, who especially admired "the flawless magic of Tolstoy's style," and by William Faulkner, who described the novel as "the best ever written." The novel remains popular, as demonstrated by a 2007 poll of 125 contemporary authors in Time, which declared that Anna Karenina is the "greatest novel ever written."

Book War and Peace

    Book Details:
  • Author : Leo Leo Tolstoy
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2017-10-23
  • ISBN : 9781975652753
  • Pages : 718 pages

Download or read book War and Peace written by Leo Leo Tolstoy and published by . This book was released on 2017-10-23 with total page 718 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why buy our paperbacks? Expedited shipping High Quality Paper Made in USA Standard Font size of 10 for all books 30 Days Money Back Guarantee BEWARE of Low-quality sellers Don't buy cheap paperbacks just to save a few dollars. Most of them use low-quality papers & binding. Their pages fall off easily. Some of them even use very small font size of 6 or less to increase their profit margin. It makes their books completely unreadable. How is this book unique? Unabridged (100% Original content) Font adjustments & biography included Illustrated War And Peace by Leo Tolstoy War and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in its entirety in 1869. Epic in scale, it is regarded as one of the central works of world literature. It is considered Tolstoy's finest literary achievement, along with his other major prose work, Anna Karenina (1873-1877). War and Peace delineates in graphic detail events surrounding the French invasion of Russia, and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society, as seen through the eyes of five Russian aristocratic families. Portions of an earlier version of the novel, then known as The Year 1805, were serialized in the magazine The Russian Messenger between 1865 and 1867. The novel was first published in its entirety in 1869. Newsweek in 2009 ranked it first in its list of the Top 100 Books. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 20 on the BBC's survey The Big Read. Tolstoy himself, somewhat enigmatically, said of War and Peace that it is "not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less a historical chronicle". Large sections of the work, especially in the later chapters, are philosophical discussion rather than narrative. He went on to elaborate that the best Russian literature does not conform to standards and hence hesitated to call War and Peace a novel. (Instead, Tolstoy regarded Anna Karenina as his first true novel.

Book Anna Karenina

    Book Details:
  • Author : Leo Tolstoy
  • Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
  • Release : 2018-02-09
  • ISBN : 9781984922953
  • Pages : 770 pages

Download or read book Anna Karenina written by Leo Tolstoy and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-02-09 with total page 770 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," writes Tolstoy in his literary masterpiece Anna Karenina. Commonly regarded as one of the greatest realist novels ever written, Tolstoy himself saw it as his first true novel. The novel was not well received by critics when first published, but Tolstoy's fellow Russian greats all considered it a great work of art.

Book Anna Karenina  Translated 1901 by Constance Garnett

Download or read book Anna Karenina Translated 1901 by Constance Garnett written by Leo Tolstoy and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-06-12 with total page 1270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Widely considered a pinnacle in realist fiction, Tolstoy considered Anna Karenina his first real novel and Dostoevsky declared it to be "flawless as a work of art". His opinion was shared by Vladimir Nabokov, who especially admired "the flawless magic of Tolstoy's style", and by William Faulkner, who described the novel as "the best ever written". The novel is currently enjoying enormous popularity, as demonstrated by a recent poll of 125 contemporary authors by J. Peder Zane, published in 2007 in The Top Ten, which declared that Anna Karenina is the "greatest novel ever written". A bachelor, Vronsky is willing to marry her if she would agree to leave her husband Karenin, a government official, but she is vulnerable to the pressures of Russian social norms, her own insecurities and Karenin's indecision. Although Vronsky eventually takes Anna to Europe where they can be together, they have trouble making friends. Back in Russia, she is shunned, becoming further isolated and anxious, while Vronsky pursues his social life. Despite Vronsky's reassurances she grows increasingly possessive and paranoid about his imagined infidelity. About the Garnett translation: Constance Garnett's translation of Anna Karenina is still among the best. Some scholars feel that her language is closer to the 19th-century sense of the original. Garnett translated seventy volumes of Russian prose for publication, including all of Dostoyevsky's novels. A friend of Garnett's, D. H. Lawrence, was in awe of her matter-of-fact endurance, recalling her "sitting out in the garden turning out reams of her marvelous translations from the Russian. She would finish a page, and throw it off on a pile on the floor without looking up, and start a new page. That pile would be this high--really, almost up to her knees, and all magical."

Book Anna Karenina

    Book Details:
  • Author : graf Leo Tolstoy
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 1993
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : 1216 pages

Download or read book Anna Karenina written by graf Leo Tolstoy and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 1216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In nineteenth-century Russia, the wife of an important government official loses her family and social status when she chooses the love of Count Vronsky over a passionless marriage.

Book Anna Karenina

    Book Details:
  • Author : Leo Tolstoy
  • Publisher : Modern Library
  • Release : 2000
  • ISBN : 9780679783305
  • Pages : 980 pages

Download or read book Anna Karenina written by Leo Tolstoy and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2000 with total page 980 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Considered by some to be the greatest novel ever written, Anna Karenina is Tolstoy's classic tale of love and adultery set against the backdrop of high society in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. A rich and complex masterpiece, the novel charts the disastrous course of a love affair between Anna, a beautiful married woman, and Count Vronsky, a wealthy army officer. Tolstoy seamlessly weaves together the lives of dozens of characters, and in doing so captures a breathtaking tapestry of late-nineteenth-century Russian society. As Matthew Arnold wrote in his celebrated essay on Tolstoy, "We are not to take Anna Karenina as a work of art; we are to take it as a piece of life."

Book Anna Karenina

    Book Details:
  • Author : Leo Tolstoy
  • Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
  • Release : 2017-01-07
  • ISBN : 9781542390415
  • Pages : 650 pages

Download or read book Anna Karenina written by Leo Tolstoy and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-01-07 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edition contains detailed introduction to this novel- Anna Karenina, its author- Leo Tolstoy and its translator- Constance Garnett. This novel, "Anna Karenina", was written by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. It was first published in book form in 1878 after its publication in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical, "The Russian Messenger. The 1901 translation of Anna Karenina by Constance Garnett is still popular and widely reprinted. * Regarded as the best and incomparable in realist fiction, Tolstoy considered "Anna Karenina" his first true novel. * "War and Peace", published in 1869 and "Anna Karenina" published in 1878 are considered the finest literary achievements of Leo Tolstoy. * The novel "Anna Karenina" remains all time popular, as demonstrated by a 2007 poll of 125 contemporary authors in Time, which declared that Anna Karenina is the "greatest book ever written." * Time magazine ranked "Anna Karenina" First and "War and Peace" Third in its poll of the 10 greatest books of all time. * Newsweek in 2009 placed 'Anna Karenina' in its 'Top 100 Books'. * Fyodor Dostoyevsky declared 'Anna Karenina' "flawless as a work of art." * Vladimir Nabokov, especially admired Anna Karenina as "the flawless magic of Tolstoy's style"* William Faulkner, described the novel 'Anna Karenina' as "the best ever written."The novel is divided into eight parts and begins with one of its most quoted lines, "Happy Families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way". Its epigraph is, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay", from Romans 12:19, which in turn quotes from Deuteronomy 32:35. Leo Tolstoy was born at Yasnaya Polyana, 200 kilometers south of Moscow. The 'Tolstoy family' was as of old Russian nobility that traced its ancestry to a mythical Lithuanian noble Indris. He was the fourth of five children of Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, a veteran of the Patriotic War of 1812, and Countess Mariya Tolstaya. His parents died when he was young and he and his siblings were brought up by relatives. In 1844, he began studying at Kazan University where his teachers described him as unable and unwilling to learn. Tolstoy left the university in the middle of his studies, returned to Yasnaya Polyana and spent much of his time in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. In 1851, after running up heavy gambling debts, he joined the army where he started writing.During his 1857 visit, Tolstoy witnessed a public execution in Paris, a traumatic experience that would mark the rest of his life. He wrote in a letter to his friend Vasily Botkin: "The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens ... Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere." Tolstoy's concept of non-violence or Ahimsa was bolstered when he read a German version of the Tirukkural. He later instilled this concept in Mahatma Gandhi through his 'A Letter to a Hindu' when young Gandhi sought his advice.His European trip in 1860-61 shaped his political and literary development when he met Victor Hugo, who had finished his book Les Mis�rables. Tolstoy's political philosophy was also influenced by a March 1861 visit to French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, then living in exile under an assumed name in Brussels. Apart from reviewing Proudhon's forthcoming publication, La Guerre et la Paix ('The War and The Peace' in French), Tolstoy discussed education with him.On September 23, 1862, Tolstoy married Sophia Andreevna Behrs, the daughter of a court physician. Tolstoy had 13 children from Sofia, eight of whom survived their childhood.Tolstoy died of pneumonia at Astapovo train station in 1910 at the age of 82 after a day's rail journey in south. The police tried to limit access to his funeral procession, but thousands of peasants lined the streets.