Leo Tolstoy's Remarkable Writings and Profound Philosophy

[Music] Leo tolsto is perhaps the greatest Russian writer of all time if not the greatest writer ever he's a towering figure in Russian literature his masterpieces such as War and Peace and Anna Karenina always make the list of the best novels of all time in this very long video I'll look into tolstoy's life his major novels his philosophy and much more in the first section all compare Tolstoy to the giant of English literature Charles Dickens they lived around the same time more or less so this comparison can give those in the English-speaking world the window

through which they can understand tolstoy's life and writing style and the second part I'll discuss whole story's two masterpieces Anna Karenina and War and Peace in great detail so you get to understand all stories Mastery of storytelling and his unique insights Into the Russian Society of the time but more importantly his insights about the human condition and the third part I'll discuss some life lessons we can learn from Tolstoy as well as a few storytelling techniques in the final section I'll compare Tolstoy with another giant of Russian literature Theodore Dostoevsky to give you even more

depth about the man through their similarities and differences by the end of this video you will know Tolstoy as If he was your wise old grandpa who had amazing stories to tell and a lot of wisdom to share you will also learn a lot about Russia and its literature through the lens of a giant who dominates Russian literature Charles Dickens was a poor city boy while Leo Tolstoy was a Country Gentleman deacons rode weekly in monthly soap operas of his day that entertained thousands of people while Tolstoy Road epic long movies that questioned history And

social institutions like family Dickens believed in opportunities in life therefore was optimistic while Tolstoy believed in mystical forces within the soil in history therefore was fatalistic and pessimistic Dickens characters are mainly boys looking up to the Future and dreaming of Fortune while tolstoy's characters are main looking inside for meaning and purpose in life dickens's Tales are overly sentimental while Tolstoy Tales are overly Moralistic okay let's compare the two giants egalitarianism became a dominant philosophical Enterprise in the 19th century especially after 1840s the most famous example is of course Karl Marx who argued for total equality

in the 18th century the enlightenment philosophers like Russo Voltaire and others believed that humans were equal at least on paper but then the industrial revolution in Europe showed The Stark inequality among people to compound that Warfare showed the sacrifice of ordinary soldiers was not recognized yet the glory went to the leaders generals and Kings there was outrage and anger among the 19th century thinkers but novelists captured this inequality and their writing too two of the most famous writers who lived in this period are Charles Dickens and Leo Tolstoy Charles Dickens is perhaps the greatest English

novelist of all time no English writer has captured the imagination of English readers as much as Dickens his novels such as good expectations A Tale of Two Cities A Christmas Carol all or read by nearly every English man or woman if Shakespeare pioneered English literature Dickens perfected The Art of Storytelling through dramatization similarly Leo Tolstoy and Theodore dostovsky are two towering figures of Russian literature while dostoevsky's Style is more psychological Tolstoy is more sociological as a result more comparable to Dickens of course Tolstoy came a few years later so he had the advantage of reading

Dickens in fact Ulster used Dickens as an inspiration to write he had a photo of Dickens in his study as a guide a guru who motivated him to keep writing tolstoy's first three novels childhood Boyhood and youth are modeled on dickens's David Copperfield but then Tolstoy traveled to France and got to know Victor Hugo and perhaps Gustav Fuller the father of realism so he adapted realism as his style dickens's style combines fairy tale of Fortune with a harsh reality of concrete collide with steel during the Industrial Revolution in England there's been a lot of comparison

in recent years for example Intelligence Squared had a big discussion with some famous actors comparing the two giants I think the main reason they are compared is their Focus on social justice Dickens wrote about the English poor of the Industrial Revolution while Tulsa wrote about the underprivileged soldiers and peasants in Russia Dickens wrote about economic inequality while Tulsa wrote about the historical Injustice of only a few people getting recognition while the sacrifice of others are forgotten Dickens wrote about the ugly side of the Industrial Revolution while tolsto wrote about the ugly side of history and

Warfare at the heart of their riding is an egalitarian philosophy of a more just Society for all so in this video I'll compare the two by looking at their lives novels writing styles themes and characters Etc at the end I'll try to answer whether today we are more dickensian characters or tolstoyan characters the point of this comparison not prove who is better but to shed light on both Fighters I think we humans are hardwired To compare things for the sake of knowledge so my attempt is for you to learn something about both authors but first

let me tell you about their lives life English peasant versus Russian count Dickens was born in 1812 and Portsmouth some 120 kilometers south of London due to his father's job he lived in various places in and around London in 1824 when Dickens was 12 his father was sent to prison for unpaid debt this must have been a huge setback for the Family as he was the breadwinner this mirror servant his life as his father was also imprisoned when he was a child for the same crime unpaid debt this problem with the legal system in poverty

would dominate dickens's novels Tulsa was born in 1828 some 16 years after Dickens and yasnaya poliana some 200 kilometers south of Moscow unlike dickens's modest background tolstoy's born account whose aristocratic family owned a huge State and many serves while Dickens struggled with poverty Tolstoy struggled with life when he was two years old he lost his mother and when he was was nine he lost his father as a result Tolstoy grappled throughout his life with this existentialist question what is the purpose of life which dominated most of his novels Dickens a young boy was forced to

work 10 hours a day to earn a living age 15 he started to work at a law office so he could continue his studies Dickens was very Bright and a very quick learner he also learned how to write shorthand which helped him become a reporter he quickly rose up the ranks in the media World alongside being a journalist for various newspapers in magazines he also started writing short stories his intelligence and hard work allowed him to move up the socio-economic ladder quite rapidly this is the Industrial Revolution in England and the British Empire at its

height of power in the world so anything is Possible if you put your mind to it unlike Dickens Tolstoy was a sloppy student he quit his University's Oriental languages degree when life is hard it toughens you up when life is easy you create your own dramas in your life Tolstoy was a wealthy young man did what most of his station would he pursued women alcohol and gambling but after a while he realized he needed a bigger purpose in life he joined the Russian army in the Crimean War of 1850s To toughen up this experience was

huge for him as he later used it in his Masterpiece War and Peace but experiencing the horrors of War also shifted his perspective towards pacifism now an established journalist and writer in 1836 Dickens aged 24 married Catherine and together they had 10 children so he wasn't just a perfect writer he was also busy in the bedroom things were looking out for him so in 1842 he traveled to the U.S and Canada Where he was like a rock star like the Beatles so people attended his lectures in talks after his return to England he decided to

travel to Europe for some quiet and peace this reflection allowed him to ride more serious novels in 1846 he also met a few french writers like Alexander Dumas and Victor Hugo I think Balzac was too busy writing because he was a machine flabberg was too young or too busy making endless drafts of his novels Dickens loved the French language Culture but mainly wine and cheese in 1862 Tolstoy aged 34 married Sofia who was 18 at the time if Dickens had 10 kids Tolstoy did a few better as he had 13 children if Dickens traveled to

America Tolstoy made many trips to Europe mainly France where he met the same Victor Hugo in 1861 some 15 years after Dickens Mr Hugo must have been very busy with all these English Russian Young Writers visiting him tulso is meeting with Hugo made a massive Impression on him when he read Les Miserables now tulso had a purpose tried a novel nobody else had written he returned to Russia and started writing War and Peace in 1857 when he was 45 Dickens hit a midlife crisis well not exactly but he fell in love with an 18 year

old woman he divorced the mother of his 10 kids and went with a younger woman they remained together until his death in 1870. Dickens had a stroke and died age 58. unlike Dickens seeking a Younger woman tolsto's crisis was mainly for life's purpose in 1880 when he was in his 50s he disowned his novels and confessed his religious belief throughout his life his struggle for meaning constantly moving between schopenhauer's negation of the self and the Christian belief in 1910 Tulsa ran away from his house and died at a train station he was 82 years old

Deacon supported many charities for the disadvantaged people and advocated Against slavery terrible labor conditions and poverty among the working class Tolstoy valued education so he founded many schools for the Russian peasants and advocated for pacifism universalism and most importantly an agrarian way of life in the country because for Tolstoy true happiness was when you produce your own food Dickens was 5 8 or 173 centimeters tall and preferred a more comfortable City Life while Tolstoy was 5 11 or 181 centimeter And enjoy the country Dickens was an industrial revolution success story of a poor boy becoming

one of the greatest novelists while Tolstoy was a Russian success story of a rich man becoming one of the greatest writers novels TV show versus movie Dickens in Tulsa had a somewhat similar output Dickens wrote more novels with shorter length while Tulsa wrote fewer but longer novels Dickens Was a Serial writer like a daytime TV soap opera Tulsa however rode more like a long project or an Epic movie of course Dickens wrote for money so he had to ride regularly tolsto however was wealthy enough to ride whenever he felt like dickens's first novel was Pickwick

papers published between 1836 and 37. it's about Mr Pickwick a kind gentleman who travels through England to learn about the country but a misunderstanding with a woman sends him to prison for an unpaid debt just like dickens's Father Deacon's second novel Oliver Twist published between 1837 and 39 is about an orphan boy Oliver who is sold into apprenticeship but he escapes the harsh working condition to join the London's underground criminals Dickens Drew on his own experience as a working boy to expose the plight of poor children in Victorian London and as a result it's considered

a social protest novel dickens's third novel Nicholas Nickleby published in 1838 and 39 is also about a Poor boy who has to work to support his mother which resembles because his own life as a working boy Tulsa's first novel childhood published in 1852 which he followed with his second novel Boyhood two years later in 1854 and the third one called youth in 1857 as part of a Trilogy telling his own life growing up an aristocrat while the peasants lived in poverty it's also about his own life growing up losing his parents and living a privileged

life While the peasant had very little which made him guilty for the rest of his life so Tulsa and Dickens came from two ends of the socio-economic Spectrum in 1841 Dickens published two novels the old curiosity shop which is about an unfortunate teenage girl trying to help her grandfather avoid poverty and Barnaby Raj a historical novel about a Forbidden Love between a Catholic and a protester in 1840s Dickens published five novellas and most famous being Christmas Carol about a miserly old man who is haunted by three ghosts past present and future which is very clever

about time being the biggest Terror in one's life it's also dickens's most popular work around the world in a Christmas phenomena which According to some cemented the myth and legends of Christmas Dickens obsessed over money saw it as a blessing but also a curse I don't blame him he had 10 children to feed after his return from France in 1860s tolsto locked himself and his country house to ride the Beast of a novel to show the French that Russians were as good as the rest of Europe published in 1869 War and Peace tells the story

of the Napoleonic Wars of 1805 and 1812 but it's more than a novel in it told story challenges historians but he also tells the story of hundreds of characters from top to the bottom from Napoleon to some ordinary soldiers I have a very detailed summary of the Novel if you like to watch in 1850 Dickens published his most autobiographical novel David Copperfield it is about a boy growing up in Victorian England in the age of Industrial Revolution and the social abort mobility in 1852 Dickens wrote Bleak House if War and Peace is also his greatest

novel Bleak houses Dickinson's greatest novel tulso wrote about the heroic battles in the nightmares of War dickens's novel is about the legal Battle and the nightmare of the legal system like in all dickens's novels money is at the heart of the novel in a long legal battle over inheritance money John Dies versus John die is a legendary legal battle that lasted decades in 1877 Tolstoy published his second most famous novel Anna Karenina which is also told also his own favorite it's about a married woman Anna who falls in love with an army officer and leaves

her husband With Disaster consequences for Everyone in 1850s Dickens wrote hard time little dorit and his best known historical novel A Tale of Two Cities which is about Paris and London during the French Revolution of 1789. in 1860 he wrote Great Expectations about a young boy whose life takes a dramatic turn when he meets a convict the story is somewhat similar to osovska's novels in a sense that even the most flawed human beings have some redeeming qualities I included this in my top 10 English novels of all time dickens's last complete novel is our mutual

friend about social mobility in England just like all dickens's novel it's of course about money in 1886 Tulsa wrote the death of Evan Ellis and meditation on meaning of life and death in 1899 Tolstoy published his other big novel Resurrection about past guilt and the Injustice of social class and the corruption of the legal system in Russia but also his last novel [ __ ] Murad Published two years after his death is about a Muslim warrior in the Caucasus Dickens wrote 15 novels and five novellas a career that lasted 33 years between 1837 and 1870.

tolsto on the other hand wrote three enormous novels in 11 novellas a career that lasted 42 years style industrial fairy tale versus Russian realism the style of Storytelling is perhaps best described as a fairy tale of the Industrial Age in Which young people mainly boys try to seek their fortune in the city mainly London and also abroad in the colonies he lived during a time when upward Mobility was changing the face of the highly class-based English society people with good education and intelligence were able to work their way up the socio-economic hierarchy Dickens himself is

a perfect example a man of modest background became one of the best-selling authors of his day Dickens Entertain thousands of people on a weekly and monthly basis as I said earlier Tolstoy has an advantage over Dickens because he came a few years later by then realism was becoming the dominant literary form but to compound that Russia has a harsh climate so people are slightly tougher than the English while Dickens wrote Amazing Stories with a fairy tale tinge Tolstoy went to the heart of the matter to tell harsh realities of life that cut really Deep if

Dickens is a Storyteller Tolstoy is a philosopher and sociologist who instead of challenging the class system in England challenged history and historians Dickens is part of a very rich literary tradition going all the way back to Shakespeare one of the greatest dramatists in human history that's why Dickens dramatic storytelling comes quite naturally Tulsa however operates in a country that has no such an accomplished literary history back Then so he takes up the challenge of putting Russia on the map of European literature he looked up to the French spoke the same language so he combined French

literary realism with his Russian or Eastern mysticism to create something unique while Europe is scientific-minded Russia has its Mystical Force which he talks about in War and Peace as a catalyst for the Russians to defeat Napoleon's Army the most sophisticated fighting machine back then so Tolstoy Took up the job of becoming the Shakespeare of Russia or some close to that Dickens was an amazing comic Genius of his day his novels are Litter with hilarious scenes comedy of manners misunderstanding ironic twists and absurdish situations and Pickwick papers the ending is incredibly ironic the man pays the

legal cost which frees him and his rival and Bleak House the long-running legal cases absurd like a Kafkaesque nightmare incidentally Kafka Was immensely influenced by Dickens especially in his novel America Tolstoy like all Russians doesn't laugh or smile his style is for the most part direct gloomy and dark as his characters crumble for a place in society but most importantly seeking for some meaning in life told story stories or sweeping Tales of countries cities generations of people tolstoy's Tales are more philosophical and seek virtue of meaning and purpose Deacon style is more Optimistic about the

future as his character's goals are to better their lives while Tolstoy saw is realistic which means more pessimistic as a result because let's face it real life sucks for the most part especially if you lived in 19th century Russia Dickens is looking at a castle from his modest Shack and dreaming while Tolstoy is in his castle looking down at the shack and feeling guilty Dickens wrote entertaining Tales while Tolstoy wrote Philosophical epics dickens's most famous line comes from A Tale of Two Cities could it was the best of times it was the worst of times

it was the age of wisdom it was the age of foolishness it was the epoch of belief it was the epoch of and cruciality it was a season of light it was a season of Darkness it was a spring of hope it was a winter of Despair we had everything before us we had nothing before us we were all going direct to heaven we were all going to Wreck the other way in short the period was so far like the present day tolstoy's most famous quote comes from Anna Karenina all happy families are alike each

and happy families and happy in its own way here's a quote from War and Peace if everyone fought for their own convictions there will be no war simply looking at these quotes we can see that Dickens is more concerned with the Poetics lyrical and stylistic side of writing and storytelling even this Passage from A Tale of Two Cities is a story in itself while Tolstoy is more concerned with wisdom profundity and depth Deacon's line if you look closely does doesn't make sense how can two opposites be true at the same time well in storytelling you

can compress two different locations and times into one you can shrink time that's the magic of Storytelling here's an example of tolstoy's language from Anna Karenina when Levin is so much in love with Kitty He's so well knew that feeling of leavens that for him all the girls in the world were divided in two classes one class all the girls in the world except her and those girls with all sorts of human weaknesses and very ordinary girls the other class she alone having no weaknesses of any sort and higher than all Humanity he is Dickens

in great expectation about Pips La for Stella the unqualified truth is that when I loved Stella with the Love of a man I loved her simply because I found her irresistible I loved her against reason against promise against peace against hope against happiness against all discouragement that could be once for all I loved her nonetheless because I knew it and it had no more influence in restraining me than if I had devoutedly believed her to be human perfection as we can see both tolsto and Dicken describe lava's Perfection when you love Someone you are blind

to their flaws you only see the good side but what's interesting is that Toy Story separates her from the rest of humanity almost Godlike while Dickens is more focused on the irrational side of Love of a man who would do anything to achieve his goal tolstoy's 11 is a bit passive while dickens's pip is poised to lose anything to get her but as things transpire Levin gets his woman while pip fails so to sum up Dickens is more concerned To tell you an entertaining story because in Industrial Age the customers got Tolstoy style is to

write a novel make it as long as possible pick a fight with historians and blame everything on some mystical forces of History readers told so I didn't think the customers were always right he was a Russian man so he didn't care what others thought about him Dickens was an Englishman he was very worried about what others I mean his readers thought about him and His stories Dickens cater for his readers while Tolstoy catered for himself characters Dickens and tulsar's characters differ in their socio-economic class Dickens Tales are somewhat Cinderella type poor people looking up while

Tolstoy Tales are about wealthy people with one eye looking down at the peasants with the other eye looking at themselves in search of purpose as a result Dickens stores are More sentimental and makes you pity them and even feel guilty as to how they are victimized by society and Circumstance quote in the little world in which children have their existence whoever brings them up there's nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt as Injustice while in tolstoys Tales his characters sort of accept their fate and are less likely to complain about their lives here's a

quote from Anna Karenina when a man cheats on his wife and the Guilt that follows step on alcotte Village could be calm when they thought of his wife he could hope that she would come around as matvey expressed it and could quietly go on reading his paper and drinking his coffee but when he saw her tortured suffering face heard the tone of her voice submissive to fate and full of Despair there was a catch in his breath and a lump in his throat and his eyes began to shine with tears my god what have I

done dolly for God's sake You know he could not go on there was a sob in his throat she shut the bureau with a slam and glanced at him Dolly what can I say one thing forgive remember can't nine years of my life atone for an instant at the end she just forgive him and the couple stay married together because Russians are realistic of course most of his characters are well off but they still suffer greatly due to historical events or family expectations or even Poverty Deacon's characters have a purpose to better their lives economically

even the term dickensian today means a kind of social climbing he's a quote from David Copperfield annual income 20 pounds annual expenditure 1919 and 6. result happiness annual income 20 pounds annual expenditure 20 pounds or 10 6 result misery tolstoy's character however not all but mostly have no financial goals so they look for something grander than Money happiness beyond the material Comfort they seek spiritual comfort age also plays an important role in their characters dickens's most enduring characters or children from disadvantaged families mostly orphan who chase their dream in the big city David Copperfield Oliver

Twist pip and the great expectations are just a few examples tolsto's characters are for the most part adults who are caught up in Social and historical events Pierre and Natasha and War and Peace Anna 11 and Anna Karenina all look for happiness and meaning but have to struggle with the tide of history or family expectation torso famously said that all great literatures of one of two kinds either a hero takes a journey or a Stranger Comes To Town so to understand Dickens in Tolstoy I would change the quote and say all great literature is a

child growing up or an adult looking back to his or her own childhood a good example is more So proof's novel In Search of last time Dostoevsky is the bronze chromosov in fact the act of novel writing or fiction writing is a grown-up trying to do child play in fact both Dickens and Tolstoy were obsessed with children as the most beautiful period in one's life dickens's novels are all about children growing up while tolstoy's novels are about adults lost or seeking a path Deacon's characters are Shackled by poverty so he wants the rich to share

their wealth With the poor wild toaster's characters are Shackled by history and social conventions the poor have no financial means while the wealthy are stuck by Norms dickens's character's wild hampered economically or psychologically Freer tolsto's characters are the opposite why they don't lack in wealth but mentally they feel stifled by the social norms and family expectation so they seek meaning from The Peasant here's a quote from Anna Karenina when The couple finally have everything they expected Bronski meanwhile in spite of complete realization of what he had so long desired was not perfectly happy he soon

felt that the realization of his desires gave him no more than a grain of sand out of the Mountain of Happiness he had expected it showed him the mistake men make in picturing themselves happiness as the realization of their desires for the most part Dickinson's characters Are slightly more Square meaning they have little room to grow and change in other words Deacon's characters are either heroes or villains while tolstoy's characters are more fluid and able to grow on the page and they have many contradictions in other words his characters are neither complete villains nor complete

Heroes but a mix of both which is closer to reality in real life we are all full of contradictions in half the dark and light within us I Think it has to do with their Styles dickens's style is a bit older archaic while Tolstoy style is realistic one could say that Dickens wrote many types of characters meaning they differ from one another Tolstoy however has more characters that are similar in their Outlook and life I think Dickens wrote about the other people while Tolstoy mostly wrote about himself in other words he put himself in his

character's shoes to animate them with the reality Of the world as we know Tolstoy struggled with his own happy happiness and meaning in life so naturally his characters had the same struggle could everyone thinks of changing the world but no one thinks of changing himself Tolstoy was acutely aware of the internal struggle of his generation because of tolstoy's realism George Orwell made a distinction between the two characterizing Dickinson's characters as static while tolstoy's Characters keep growing and changing Dickens Tales make you feel good about people while Tolstoy tell you about the uncomfortable truths of life

so to sum up Dickens tells his characters smile boy while toast all his characters why smile these are still the stereotypes about the English and Russian people English people smile to cover awkwardness while Russians don't smiling don't care about awkwardness themes dickens's canvas was the English Industrial Revolution where factories smoke like cigarette addict and more specifically the financial capital of the Empire London while the northern Mill of England had all the factories where thousands of people moved in and out with their faces blackened by the smoke London however was covered in fog of a different

sort here people store their many in Banks and stocks tall soy's canvas's 19th century Russia Awards rapid modernization of big cities Like Saint Petersburg and Moscow but most importantly his canvas is the debate between East and West Russia versus Europe while it also is for the most part ignore the debate he was not immune from it unlike Dostoevsky it also is more welcoming of the West however his heart was always with the Russian peasants and the and the agricultural class in fact in his novel the deepest wisdom about the meaning of life mostly comes from

the poor peasants or servants In Warren is Pierre in his Darkest Hour captured by the French army meets a common man who rejuvenates his Spirit by giving him a bigger perspective on life another example is in The Death of Ivan Ilitch Ivan is not afraid of death after speaking to his servant deacons wrote about the fog of the Industrial Revolution and the legal system for example in Bleak House he writes fog everywhere fog up the river where it flows among green airs and Meadows Fogged down the river where it rolls defiled among the tears of

shipping and the Waterside pollution of a great and dirty city trans people on the bridges peeping over the parapets into the into The Nether Sky of fog with fog all around them as if they were up in a balloon and hanging in the misty clouds Tulsa on the other hand wrote about the fog of War gunpowder and War and Peace quote the night was foggy and through the fog Moonlight gleamed mysteriously Yes tomorrow tomorrow he thought tomorrow everything may be over for me all these memories will be no more none of them will have any

meaning for me tomorrow perhaps even certainly I have a presentment that for the first time I shall have to show all I can do and his imagination picture the battle its laws the concentration of fighting at one point and the hesitation of all the commanders here to also his character contemplates that his life might be over Very soon but in this passage the fog provides a kind of security blanket in which soldiers feel safe could the fog had grown so dense that though it was growing light they could not see 10 Paces ahead bushes look

like gigantic trees and level ground like Cliffs and sloops anywhere on any side one might encounter an enemy invisible 10 Paces off but the columns Advanced for a long time always in the same fog descending and ascending Hills avoiding Gardens and Enclosures going over over new and unknown grounds and nowhere encountering the enemy on the contrary the soldiers became aware that in front behind in all sides other Russian columns were moving in the same direction every Soldier felt glad to know that to the unknown place where he was going many more of our men were

going too this is incredibly powerful as you can see things through the perspective of a soldier feeling comfort that he's surrounded by his Fellow soldiers just as a baby feels safe surrounded by his parents and family Tolstoy was no nationalist but he saw the power of group over an individual Tulsa also talks about the trains smoking dashing between Moscow and Saint Petersburg and Anna Karenina deacons wrote about how to move out of poverty and gain Financial Freedom while Tulsa wrote about surviving Wars and existential meaning and happiness Dickens wrote social protest novels While Tulsa protested

against historians and societal expectations in fact the main theme of War and Peace is his this question of Great Men historians believe that men like Napoleon Alexander the Great Genghis Khan are the protagonists of history but Tolstoy disagrees that they are great because the action of all those people around them the soldiers The Peasants the women and children but most crucially those who came before them and the historical events prior What's ironic is that whole story didn't believe in Great Men He himself became one today is one of the greatest Russian writers of all time

or even world's greatest writer statistics when it comes to Stats on Goodreads deacons wins and the number of ratings and reviews but also wins in enjoyment Dickens has 3.5 million ratings while torsos has 1.4 million Dickens has 115 000 reviews while Tulsa has 70 000 views It's no surprise given the fact that the English language gives Dickens a huge Advantage first there are far more English speakers in the world than Russian second almost 30 percent of the world speaks English either as first language or second language I say India reads Dickens but people enjoy tolstoy's

work more than dickens's work as tolstor gets an average of 4.07 stars while Dickens get 3.9 Stars teakin's most popular book on goodread Is A Tale of Two Cities with 870 000 ratings followed by Great Expectations with 720 000 ratings in A Christmas Carol by 710 000. it's also is the most popular novel is Anna Karenina with 7 50 000 ratings and followed by War and Peace with 300 000 reading and The Death of Ivan Ilitch with 120 000 ratings now which you should read I usually say read both but here I'll say read both

but at different times when you read whole story can get A bit heavy so to lighten up your mood read some Dickens previously I've said that I love Russian literature because it tells you the ugly truth but to counter balance that I often read one of Haruki murakami's books to escape reality for a bit of course reading Dickens is not an escape altogether but he does make you feel good about the world also I should point out that tolso is not all Bleak but it doesn't Shield you either in my video comparing to all Story

to dostovsky I said tolsto was a great mother compassionate generous and someone who loves kids while dostrovsky was the brooding father seeking Solutions and some underground or Siberia now comparing degrees to tall so it's obvious that Dickens is a more motherly as he believes in the magic of Stories the elements of fantasy and surprises in life like a father tells you about the harsh realities of life but I should make it Clear that Dickens wrote about children but he did not write four children purpose for me tolstoy's novels have incredible philosophical and psychological depth but

tekken's novels are greatly entertaining and funny if you're a serious and seasoned reader and you will enjoy Tolstoy more for me Russian literature in general is like a punch in the face I love it for its brutal honesty about the ugliness of the world and reality Tolstoy confronts you To seek a deeper purpose in life of course I don't enjoy his moralistic stunts sometimes but his novels open his characters flush them out and you can see through them while in Dickens novel The Struggle is more material legal external and told stories however the struggle is

more internal existential and spiritual as a result Dickens novels are hopeful and optimistic while tolstoy's novels are often hopeless and pessimistic deacons primarily wrote for Money and Tolstoy mainly wrote for artistic expression and Legacy as a result Dickens cares about the reader more tries to entertain you and puts in a lot of effort to tell you a cracking story while tolsto mostly has his own agenda maybe agenda is not the right word he is seeking a purpose for himself through his writing but also he's a philosopher and a Visionary who wants to change the world

through his words when you read a dickens's novel you don't Know where the story is going as they twist and turn Dickens was a genius Storyteller well he had to because his career depended on it every week and month thousands of people were waiting for him when ships docked in New York people queued up or even scrambled to get their copy of the newspaper or magazine like it was Black Friday It Was a Serial Mania Tolstoy on the other hand is less concerned with this story but more focus on understanding reality in Other words Dickens

was like a factory producing highly entertaining novels as a result his characters more archetypal and fixed he relied on his readers enjoying his books so the newspaper could get their subscribers growing it's like a YouTuber you always want to produce content people want to watch so Dickens knew his readers Tolstoy would be a terrible YouTuber imagine War and Peace type of content on YouTube Dickens rode the wave of new educated people Being able to read for pleasure thanks to the education system producing more readers like a factory would he wrote about the Industrial Revolution people

seeking their Fortune but he also benefited from the education system as a result Dickens himself a poor boy was an industrial age success story thanks to mass education not only he received an education but also Mass education increased his readership it was a win-win all around Tolstoy published his Books mostly in Long format why money was in his concern but of course he did get rich he earned a lot from his writing which became a huge problem for him tolsto wanted to donate his money for some charitable causes but his wife was fiercely opposed hence

a very unhappy family today now the question I posted earlier are we becoming more dickensian or tolstoin as characters in our own lives in today's world we expect people to be More rounder people meaning with more flexibility to grow and change or the ability to have widely contradicting opinions and behaviors because we live in a more openly accepting World which is more in the mold of Tolstoy but since we live in a very political and culturally polarized Society the characters visible or more dickensian meaning people are more stuck in their views and less flexible to

change people are either just good or just bad at Least that's how we see people in the media politics is characterized by dickensian personalities heroes and villains but I could be wrong in real life we are more tolstoyan we have all the contradictions of tolstoy's characters we have the good the bad the ugly the sublime all inside us but when it comes to displaying those we only show all the good side on social media which excuse our perception of others so in private we are told story and round Contradictory happy miserable but in public we

are dickensian fixed square and always heroically happy and others are labeled as this or that when young we have a more rigid way of seeing the world but as we grow old we become to accept people's contradictions life's nuances and seek greater meaning so in our early years we see the world through a dickensian lens and later in life through a tolstoin lens another important distinction is the right thing Unlike dickens's character most people in the west or rich countries suffer not from poverty or lack of food but quite the opposite people suffer from overeating

30 percent of English people or obese according to a health survey England in 2019 has food become too cheap no I think it's something else we are missing something else so overeating is not because we are hungry degree it's because we are hungry for some purpose in life which is more in line with Tolstoy's writing and lethargic but we are also hooked to shopping and social media and our search for some recognition and meaning in life so overeating alcohol and social media instruction or coping mechanism for lack of Greater meaning or purpose I could be

wrong another big trend is urbanization dickens's characters went to the cities to seek their financial Fortune globally more people are moving to the city but among the rich however the trend is in The opposite direction rich British people move to the countryside tolstoy's characters saw their future in the soil and the country Among The Peasants and close to Nature in fact also lived most of his life in his country State yes Naya polyana in the city we see all kinds of people therefore we are meant to show compassion deacons Pro seek our sympathy and compassion

for the disadvantage in the city where the poor and Rich Live side by side and the Countryside life is a lot tougher so Tolstoy talks about some Mystical Force of nature that gives you life meaning so you don't despair over poverty here's a quote from tolstoy's family happiness a quiet secluded life in the country with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good and who are not accustomed to have it done to them then work which one hopes may be of some use then rest nature books music love

for one's neighbor such as my idea Of happiness foreign published in 1878 as his most popular novel tolsto himself called anakarinina his first true novel though published eight years after his Masterpiece War and Peace first what is the novel about who are its major characters why was told so obsessed with the theme of family what is tolstoy's view on happiness and fulfillment in life and finally what is the role of Railway in This novel summary part 1. the first thing you should know is that Anna Karenina is about romance and family life the novel begins

with one of the most famous first lines in literature facetious [Music] happy families are all alike every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way a novel centers on three important married couples Anna and Alexei karenin in Saint Petersburg Dolly and Steve Oblonsky in Moscow and kitty in kosch 11 in the countryside but the craft it also also throws a wild card into the mix in the shape of a Charming Bachelor officer Alexei vronsky who steer things and stabilize the lives of these couples and even questions the institution of marriage all these people are Aristocrats

so there's no Cinderella fairy tale of poor man Enrique it's all rich people having real troubles with their marriages let's start with the Least important couple it's Dolly and Steve oblonsky who have a rocky marriage due to Steve's Affairs but Dolly eventually forgives him and they remain married they live in Moscow the city that is still has that old Russian charm a bit warmer and friendlier than Saint Petersburg Tolstoy used doll and steva to teach the other two couples a lesson by virtue of their mistakes but also through mediation and go between the second couple

is Kitty and koshy 11 who When we meet or not married who starred in a very Rocky grounds but despite their difficulties they are perhaps the most content couple in Anna Karenina also 11 of this novel is Leo or Lev Tolstoy himself bookish philosophical awkward not so handsome but who works really hard to be a better person a better husband and better citizen even his name Constantine means constant a man who constantly tries to strengthen his foundation they live in a country Like tolsto himself with life being slightly simpler now the most important married couple

in the novel is Anna and Alexei karenin Anna is incredibly beautiful and karenine her husband is a career driven man with an important government job who takes his duties extremely seriously to the point that Anna is bored of him as though she is married to an investment banker today or some computer nerd not romantic not passionate and not adventurous they live In Saint Petersburg the most westernized Russian city is so climatically and culturally cold and bureaucratic but they have an eight-year-old son Sergey then comes the Bachelor of ronsky on a white horse like some medieval

Knight and a shiny armor who snatches Anna away from karenine fronsky is a horse racing army officer whom Dostoevsky describes as a man who cannot stop talking about horses in today's world he is like a man who drives a Ferrari or Lamborghini Before expensive cars Main Road horses to attract women so the arrival of bronsky steers two major characters in the novel first it's Kitty who Levin wants to get married to but Bronski like the bad boy of his day doesn't want to deal with a single woman he is after a bigger prize he wants

Anna a married woman now we have drama heart breaks and even tragedies so we have our fourth couple Anna and Bronski and married and shunned by Society who become the most Adventurous of all couples in the novel as they escape Russia to Italy and back to Saint Petersburg then to Countryside into Moscow but they find no place of Peace the old saying the Rolling Stone gathers no Moss vonski being a soldier is like a nomadic person while very attractive also destroys Anna's psyche Anna Karenina has several parallel Stories the main plot centers on Anna who

leaves her husband cutting in for another man from skis so we have a love Triangle the second story is Levin's marriage to kitty but it's the story Anna and her lover Bronski that will be the focus of this summary we meet Anna at the train station where she Witnesses a man falling to his death in front of a moving train this is like chekhov's gun that if you show a gun in the first scene it must go off by the end of the story also important to note that trains were very new in Russia at

the time here anna also meets a handsome officer of Ronsky who when noticing the beautiful Anna decides to generously donate money to the family of the unfortunate train victim who got killed to show off that he is a good man of good heart men become generous when they meet beautiful ladies so Anna is very impressed by fronsky also women tend to like soldiers Tulsa also tells us that Anna's brother steva is unfaithful to his 5 dollies so their marriage is on the verge of a breakdown this is the second chikofian Gun first a man is

killed by the train the second Anna's brother is cheating on his wife so if the brother is capable of cheating it's possible his sister Anna is also capable of cheating but first Anna is a peacemaker between her brother and his wife Dolly she tells dolly that it's no big deal men cheat all the time but he still loves you Dolly is convinced well that was easy then comes Dolly's younger sister Kitty who is just 18 and ready to get married she has an Eye on the same man and I saw at the train station the

generous army officer Mr bronsky but wait a minute there is this guy called Levin who sounds like Leo torso himself a rich landowner a large man and not best looking but you know reliable Levin gets to one knee and proposes to kitty but Kitty rejects him and sends him back to his village because she thinks she can do better meow she wants franci Levin is a country leopard and bronsky is a real tiger Siberian tiger just kidding but here's the tragedy Tigers don't settle for Kitty because it's too easy France could rejects Kitty and pursues

an unmarried woman instead Anna says I'm married but at the same time seeing how bronsky ruthlessly rejected Kitty she really wants him now the old saying where men want a man who is capable of rejecting other women but Anna remains strong and says no to bronsky so we have three rejections already 11 is rejected by Kitty kitty is rejected by vonsky vonsky is rejected by Anna everyone is heartbroken miserable and sick this is only the first round seven more rounds to go 11 returns to the countryside Anna returns home in Saint Petersburg but now everything

looks different for her seeing her husband Mr karenin a boring but reliable government official there is a hurricane inside Anna she is unsettled to make matters worse bronsky follows her to St Petersburg the man Does not take no for an answer summary part two okay things move a lot faster from now on and I gives into bronsky's Pursuit and they have an affair Anna's husband a trusting naive man is oblivious maybe a little too soft compared to vonsky who's so strong that he actually breaks a grown-up horse during a horse race he falls and the

animal's back is broken so must be killed with one life gone another is on the horizon Anna is pregnant with Bronsky's love child Anna breaks the news to her husband I'm sorry but I had sex with this man on the horse karenine is shocked but he kind of knew here is something interesting in Russian literature perhaps for the first time we have a new breed of Russian characters modernized and sensible enough not to challenge his rival to a duel karenine thinks to himself quote a tool is quite irrational and no one expected of me my

aim is simply to Safeguard my reputation which is essential for the uninterrupted pursuit of my public duties karenin is a nice man so he tells Anna that he will forgive her if she stops the affair unfortunately nice men finish last at least in this case Anna continues her Affair carrying him begs her but Anna has made up her mind she wants a divorce damn it Karen has no power so he uses their son Sergey as a bargaining chip to get at her but Anna is not coming back While giving back to bronski's daughter Anna almost

dies seeing her like that cutting him feel sorry and decides to forgive both Anna and her lover of bronsky seeing such a massive gesture voronsky is so embarrassed for stealing such a good man's wife that he wants to commit suicide Russians are men of their words but bronsky is not a good shot so he misses the target I mean himself and he survives his suicide attempt Anna also recovers from childbirth she and Bronsky are happy together finally but vonsky being an officer is told by the Army to move to Central Asia he doesn't want to

go to Central Asia to skip it all here the lovers decide to leave the motherland for some freedom and Pizza in Italy seeing them gone karenin tells his young son that her mother is dead Okay meanwhile what happened to our second Tale the romance of Levin and kitty after rejection 11 takes up gardening to distract himself I'm only kidding he has A large country state to manage he goes deep into the philosophy of farming and how land shapes your views how Russians are deeply attached to their lands and how the motherland shapes the Russian identity

and how Russia is so different from Europe you get the point Kitty however says forget Russia forget motherland she travels to Germany for some beer and sausage no she's actually quite sick after being rejected by vonsky while in Germany forbid she soon Gets sick of Germany so she returns to the motherland around this time 11 almost marries a village Babushka I mean a peasant woman but then he meets Kitty again and with the help of others they reconcile get engaged and soon married they move to the country where they have plenty fights they make a

lot of love they make some babies well just like any other couples out there meanwhile Anna and Bronski find themselves very isolated in Italy and they are fed up With pizza and amaretto no friends to socialize with and they start to get tired of each other their love or lust alone doesn't make them happy human huh nothing makes humans happy quote Vaughn scheme meanwhile in spite of the complete realization of what he had so long desired was not perfectly happy he soon felt that the realization of his desires gave him no more than a grain

of sand out of the Mountain of Happiness he had expected it showed him the mistake Men make picturing to themselves happiness as the realization of their desires ciao Italia and their return to Russia Saint Petersburg here we come but back on the Russian soil things are very different Anna is totally ostracized by everyone she knew so she remains indoor alone and disgraced fronsky however is free to go around meet and mingle with everyone damn double standard I guess Bronski was a single man so nobody blames him but Anna was a mother and a Wife so

everyone blames her and then starts analyzing overthinking then gets paranoid with bronsky's activities outside every time bronsky comes home she smells his clothes for any scent of some other woman kidding but you get the point she is going mad she decides to visit her son Sergey on his ninth birthday in the middle of the night this is one of the most moving scene in the novel as the boy is half asleep karenin wakes up and sees Anna with the boy and She leaves it's heartbreaking still the man doesn't want to divorce her in the hope

she might return to him but Anna continues to fight tooth and nail to be with ronsky despite all the hostilities and has had enough of sitting alone at home so she decides not to give a [ __ ] about what people think so she goes to theater but she is so insulted by her own friends that she and Bronski decide to leave Saint Petersburg for a second time this time they head to the Countryside for some peace here Tolstoy compares the two couples side by side Levin and Kitty have a more modest and simple life

they still have their issues like jealousy and other things Anna and bronsky however have a more lavish lifestyle despite the flashing glitzy facade and is deeply and happy and jealous when bronsky is not around Countryside gets boring too they decide to move to Moscow things get from bad to worse for Anna now she has discovered Trucks morphing to ease her pain of jealousy and paranoia love is the definition of irrationality and Madness she thinks fronski is having sex with multiple women Moscow is no different from Saint Petersburg people judge you just the same the Scandal

follows them wherever they go like some dark shadow Anna and Bronski have a big fight because voronski wants to go to his mother for a few days Anna thinks it's all over for her she decides to follow Him at the train station just like the beginning of the novel Tolstoy fires chekhov's gun Anna throws herself in front of a moving train to complete our Russian tragedy that started at train station continued into the bedroom and ended in the train station here's a quote and the light by which she had read books filled with troubles falsehood

sorrow and evil flared up more brightly than ever before lighted up for her all that had been in darkness Flickered began to grow dim and was quenched forever with Anna's death the novel doesn't stop she wasn't the only protagonist in the novel Tolstoy didn't Center his novels on an individual protagonist or hero but several of them because he believed in the power of society in groups not individuals just in War and Peace when a man's not happy he goes to war fronsky joins the Army to defend fellow Slavs in Bulgaria against the Turks hoping to

die in the war and His husband karenin takes the custody of both kids our other couple Levin and kitty continued to have their struggles have babies fight and make love Levin becomes religious in an attempt to discover himself and be better person only to realize that nothing can make him a perfect person he accepts lives in perfection quote when Levin thought what he was and what he was living for he could find no answer to the question is what you choose to despair so he decides To just live without really analyzing it too much that

is it life is meant to be lived not analyzed to Life Goes On family after reading War and Peace you notice Anna Karenina is a much simpler novel in its language plot and ambition Tolstoy is more relaxed as he has no ambition to challenge history or Napoleon instead he tackles marriage the oldest institution in human history from Millennia family has stood the test of time but with the arrival of modernity We have individual freedom and now we find couples initially in love but find each other and bearable as time goes on Tolstoy highlights in Petersburg

as the most modern city of bureaucrats where Anna and karenin the coldest Couple live doll and Steve are a bit warm in Moscow where Aristocrats live and live in Kitty in the country are the warmest couple in a novel where landed gentry live so the more modern you are the less warmth there is between couples caringine Represents the new bureaucratic Clause maintaining the Machinery of the state they are efficient boring and reliable others to crotch on the other hand are old-fashioned judgmental and deeply ingrained in their own ways karenin is deeply open-minded and is willing

to accept Anna despite her Affairs this is totally unacceptable among the aristocrats also Saint Petersburg being farther north is literally cold and metaphorically cold while Moscow still Has that Russian warmth for Tolstoy family is the best way to live have kids and be productive in society it gives men their role to provide for their family and give women their role to nurture the kids but with modern individualism people don't know how to reconcile individual Freedom with familial and social duties Anna fails in her Duty as a mother and wife but fulfills her individual goal of

pursuing happiness but ends tragically she is Goal-oriented and driven currently in 11 on the other hand sticks to their Duty husband father and good citizen Levin is more likable because he struggles to be good and ultimately sticks to his gender role tall Story shows that women's transgressions are less tolerated in society especially in high society who are supposed to keep traditions and norms and is severely punished while vronsky is not you might say because she was a woman but you could also say Anna Was a wife and a mother voronsky was a single man voronsky's

transgression didn't hurt anyone but anas did it hurt her husband and their child Society controls our carnal desires like parents put rules on their kids I guess Tolstoy tells us that you should drive your happiness from your duty as a good partner parent or citizen happiness told so it says happiness is nothing but illusion and Mirage the gross wasn't green on the other side we Think freedom from family and society makes us happy but Society tries to tame us told us die by not telling us about Anna's unhappiness before she meets bronsky tries to show

that it's not a good choice to abandon your partner and child for your own hedonistic Pleasures tolstar uses bronsky to test Anna when she meets him she realizes her dissatisfaction with her husband her unhappiness and how bored she is you could say bad influence like bad friends Make you do bad things but you could also see her encounter with a Charming officer opens her eyes to another lifestyle in fact this makes us dislike Anna as a selfish impulsive person who risks her marriage for some passion her husband takes his duties as a husband and father

extremely seriously but not Anna she escapes her duties as a mother and wife I guess tall story tell us that Mary is not about happiness it's about Duty tolsto warns Anna about destroying Her family at the beginning of the novel Tolstoy sends Anna to make peace between Steve and Dolly in their marriage because of the same issue and Affair Anna ignores this Rosemary Edmonds the English translator sums up the theme of the novel quote no one may build their happiness on another's pain it's not your duty to make others happy but it's certainly your duty

not to make others unhappy 11 the other main character is self-deprecating humble always assessing His life comparing Western ideas with Russian values and finally realizing that there's no perfection in this world not in marriage happiness or life could if you look for profession you will never be satisfied if you seek profession anything you're bound to fail trains are new in Russia from Saint Petersburg to Moscow would have taken days now takes hours this messes up your psyche you desire things faster and is the victim of Railway technology that Speeded up time literally as she died

in front of the train but also metaphorically as she becomes less and less patient with her unhappiness so you could say that the third most important character in Anna Karenina is the railway in Russia Anna's marriage is like a boring station vonski station however is full of Adventures happier Greener and more Lush we all switch jobs Partners even jump over borders to other countries in pursuit of something better So tall story like many people at the time saw trains the enemy of simple happiness today we might say the internet has done the same thing we

want instant gratification the parallel is here today's social media has speeded up things even more as soon as Anna started comparing Bronski to her husband she she lost the battle after other people you are your worst enemy your worst enemy of good result is your conscious pursuit to also believed in human intuition a kind Of mystical power that is better than your rational mind we saw in War and Peace General katusov believed in spirit of the army like a mystical power the new battle tactic or modern thinking could replace in anakarinina with 11 applies the

same thing in farming here's a quote another row and yet another row followed long rows and short rows with good cross with poor cross Levin lost all sense of time and could not have told whether it was late or early now a Change began to come over his work which gave him immense satisfaction in the midst of his toil there were moments during which he forgot what he was doing and it came all easy to him but as soon as he recollected what he was doing and began trying to do better he was at once

conscious of all the difficulty of his task and the role was badly known when you're observed Europe time flies when you consciously see happiness it moves further away from you modernity gives us The false premise of putting our happiness and fulfillment as our conscious goal instead we should derive our fulfillment from what we do in other words from our duties towards others be it your partner customer viewer child friends or family so Anna one man's wife another man's lover yet another man's sister and one's mother wanted to be free Tolstoy tells us we're never free

from society Society is our doom and salvation our source of misery and Intense happiness it all depends how you navigate the spider web of social Fabrics history books are like works of fiction great men of history like Napoleon are more like fictional Heroes created shaped and glorified by historian what is the main premise of tolstoy's Masterpiece War and Peace what is it about what is a plot why is it important and why is it considered the greatest novel of all time in this video I'll Tell you everything about this masterpiece published in 1869 is often

called the greatest novel of all time everyone has heard of it but few have read it and even fewer have finished it Tulsa himself however didn't consider it a novel why because it's three books in one by combining history philosophy and fiction so in this video I'll discuss all three topics first I'll give you a brief historical context and tolstoy's Motivation in writing such a massive novel second I'll summarize the main plot in two parts third I'll discuss tolstoy's philosophical approach to history and finally I'll leave you with a few points of analysis and interesting

quote at the end so get your coffee and sit back and let me take you back to Russia in 1812 as Napoleon's French army of 400 000 strong were marching towards Moscow a after watching this video you will know pretty much everything you Need to know about tolstoy's Masterpiece a beast of a novel of 1200 pages long with almost 600 characters full of philosophical digressions and war strategies okay before I summarize the novel let me give you a little historical context Catherine the Great who ruled Russia from 1762 to 1796 made french her official court

language so most of the Russian nobility spoke French here is the irony though Napoleon didn't have to Invade Russia because those who ruled Russia were all french-speaking people the Russian Aristocrats left French culture and they even read French literature in fact you could say Napoleon's invasion of Russia hindered French culture from flourishing in Russia instead it cemented Russian culture and nationalism even more tolstoy's main character in War and Peace is a Francophile with a French name Pierre a Russian educated in France So Tolstoy was making a point here in the 1860s when Tolstoy was in

his mid-30s while visiting Paris he made Victor Hugo who had just published his Masterpiece Les Miserables often called the greatest French novel of all time so Upon returning to Russia Tolstoy a newlywed and aching tried something big and spec tackler he settled himself behind a desk at his large country state of yesnaya poliana to write a huge novel as ambitious as Victor Hugo's lemons Rob Or balzok's human comedies or standals crystallization or how things happen tolsto I wanted to understand Russia especially what led to the emancipation of serfs in 1861 when 31 million Russians were

suddenly free Tolstoy knew this event had its root in 1820s especially The Decemberists Revolt of 1825 when the Russian Aristocrats revolted against the Tsar but failed Tolstoy then thought to understand 1820s he had to look what had happened before The 1812 Russian Victory over Napoleon and to understand that he had to go back again to 1805 when Napoleon decisively defeated the Russians and austrians at the Battle of Australis in 1805. so War and Peace begins in 1805 and ends in 1820s so tolsto was inspired by French literature set himself the task of writing about the

French Russian Wars went also I started to write about the Napoleonic Wars he quickly realized there were plenty of Records about the Military and political leadership or people of power but not much about the peasants or soldiers who actually fought in the wars here came tolstoy's realization that historians tend to fictionalize history by focusing on few major characters while forgetting the people who do the fighting why for the same reason novelists tend to create as few characters as possible for the sake of simplicity so Tolstoy formed his own theory of History the official history Books

or fictionalized version of History so they solely focus on the Kings and Generals in other words fictional Heroes it also believed this so-called historical heroes such as Napoleon couldn't have changed the course of history by themselves but it was the entire Society from those fighting in the trenches to the Past producing the food to the farmers feeding the horses and to the women who looked after the children they all Contributed to historical events but historians hardly ever mentioned the millions of soldiers or ordinary men and women here's a quote the movement of nation is caused

not by power nor by intellectual activity nor even by combination of the two as historians have supposed but by the activity of all the people who participate in the events and who always combine in such a way that those taking The largest direct share in the event take on themselves the least responsibility and vice versa to illustrate this let me give you an example the reason most politicians break their promises is very simple they are unable to implement change so it's ridiculous to see history happen because of these men at the top Tolstoy says when

looking at a steam locomotive historians tend to focus on the smoke and ignore the rest for example Willtron's history books are titled after an individual for the sake of Simplicity and Clarity by focusing on these leaders historians give them a kind of superhero power history for toaster is about the entire people not just individual Heroes who are pedestalized by historians here's a quote there are two signs to the life of every man his individual life which is the more free the more abstract its interests and his Elemental Hive life in Which he inevitably obeys laws

laid down for him man lives consciously for himself but is an unconscious instrument in the attainment of the historic Universal aims of humanity adidan is irrevocable in its result coinciding in time with the actions of millions of other men assumes a historic significance the higher man stands on the social ladder the more people he is connected with and the more power he has over others the more evident is the Predestination and inevitability of faith-free action was a huge admirer of jean-ja Cruz so the French philosopher who believed that humans on the innate level are good

but Society corrupts them and he famously said that humans are born free but everywhere in Chains but he also used the hegelian notion that we are the product of our time a queen bee is not determining the course of a hive but slave to its rules just as soldier bees Are could history that is the unconscious General Hive life of mankind uses every moment of the life of Kings as a tool for its own purposes so tall stories that himself to write a fictionalized history that focused on those people who are mostly ignored by historians

this is told story's copernican Revolution he uses fiction to tell the true history of the Napoleonic Wars which is ironic he combines the Military social emotional existential history of that period so tolstoy's War and Peace is a novel a history book and also a meditation on life there's a saying that history is written by The Victors but literature is written about The Outsiders those who are ignored by history books to make his point Crystal Clear Tolstoy treats all his characters as real people with flaws in redeeming qualities who make mistakes forget things often Contradict themselves

so you really see them as genuinely real people but the one character the guy historians spend most time talking about is depicted by Tolstoy as almost cartoonishly square is Mr Napoleon just to prove fun and history books or perhaps also I looked down on Napoleon for invading his country or because he was a short man Tulsa himself was a tall and huge man even his name Tulsa in Russian means thick or fat But I have to be fair total Story shows no Prejudice towards the French so in that sense he's a truly Universalist so Napoleon

the superhero of history books is caricatured and War and Peace while other characters who don't make it into history books or depicted as real humans by Tolstoy okay now I'll summarize tall stories War and Peace this summary is delivered in two parts each Barn covers about half of the novel summary part 1. The historical background of War and Peace is the Napoleonic Wars of 1805 and 1812. but the main story is about five Russian noble families in the span of some 15 years before and after a Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812. the families are

the bezokovs the balkanskis the rostovs the kurogens and their drubitsukois okay who is the protagonist of War and Peace tolstoy's entire philosophy was built on the importance of groups not Individual Heroes but I will go against tall story here due to time constraint and tell you that out of 600 characters three are pretty important characters in the novel Napoleon is not one of them the first main character is Count Pierre beserkov a france-educated Russian hence an Empire but he's slightly awkward Russian who mostly resembles and represents Tolstoy himself and his way of thinking so if

you have to pick a protagonist in one piece it's Pierre the Second character that is pretty important in the novel is Natasha rastova who we meet in 1805 when she's 13 years old and later on as a grown woman she represents the passionate and spontaneous Russian woman full of life and energy the third important character is Prince Andre balconski who is perhaps the most Russian of all male characters he is a somewhat nihilistic intellectual who represents Russian pessimism as well as The courage of not being afraid of death he's perhaps a character Tolstoy wanted to

be himself despite being a very rational person he possesses that Russian value of Bravery Prince Andre represents the Russian side of Tolstoy while Pierre represents the irrational often indecisive and impressionable side who lacks Clarity of thought and floats about until he finds an anchor among the Freemasons and also Natasha so Prince Andre is the Apollo The man of reason and Pierre is the dionysian man of impulsive emotion Pierre is a character is Outsider because he is an illegitimate son and also awkward so it's up to say that while history books are about Victors fiction however

is about Outsiders Pierre doesn't feel at home in Russia because he's educated in France and loves Napoleon like a hero of course later on he is transformed by Tolstoy okay we are in 1805 in Saint Petersburg At a soiree a social Gathering of the Russian high society including princes and princesses counts and all sorts where we meet two of the main characters Pierre whose wealthy father count basic office on the verge of death is about to inherit a good chunk of money so he finds himself quite popular among everyone he's in Saint Petersburg to find

a job at his foreign education and awkward personality make it difficult to find a job he listens to other people Talk all kinds of [ __ ] but he just listens his best friend Prince Andre belkonski who is recently married complains about his wife and his feta with life in Saint Petersburg here Tolstoy draws on his own life being married but not satisfied with life incidentally despite loving his wife Tolstoy had a very unhappy marriage back then marriage was seen as an eternal road to happiness but of course we know that idealized expectation leaves you

Disappointed and sometimes an existential crisis so Prince Andre not happy at home decided to join the Army alongside Prince Michael katusov the main Russian general who defeated Napoleon 1912. so far we talked about people from two families the bezokovs represented by Pierre and the balcon's case by Andre now the action moves to Moscow the former capital of Russia Saint Petersburg represents the new European Russia a bit colder being further north and also being a bit more westernized and formal therefore slightly fake and full of hypocrisy Moscow however still has a charm of the old Russia

full of warmth and friendliness in Moscow we meet our third family in War and Peace the rostovs mainly count Ilya and his wife Natalia and their four kids one of which is our main female protagonist their 13 year old daughter Natasha a very spontaneous and vivacious girl who Is in love with Boris a boy from another family called the drubetskois our fourth family in the novel Boris is about to join the Russian army to fight Napoleon the teenage Natasha remains one of the most important characters in the novel she represents a kind of Russian woman

who is full of energy and passion who dances like crazy but she doesn't care in fact she falls in love with several men throughout the novel namely the two main male characters Pierre and Prince Andre later on she becomes a very caring wife and mother some criticize Tolstoy for taming her wild character but life and aging team you no matter how Wild you are tolsto writing always remains true to life while we are in Moscow the war is happening somewhere in the distance you can't hear the gunshots yet but it's happening in the Western Front

it's important to note that all these families know one another and have some Sort of connections the aristocrats in every country would stick with their own kind so it's a small world so to speak Prince Andre the most pessimistic and most Russian character tired of his marriage leaves his pregnant wife alone to join the war against the French little did he know that his wife would die at childbirth and he himself would get wounded in the war the action moves to the Battleground the 1905 Battle of Australis in which Napoleon inflicted a heavy defeat on

the Russians and austrians here we see Napoleon for the first time through Prince Andre when he is wounded and captured by the French army Andre like all young men of that period was fascinated by the character of Napoleon just like superhero of today here Tolstoy makes it clear how fictionalized Napoleon had become while lying down on the ground Napoleon happens to pass by here's a quote so Insignificant at that moment seemed to me all the interested in Gross Napoleon so mean did his hero himself with his paltry vanity and joy and victory appear compared to

the lofty Equitable and kindly Sky which he had seen and understood this is a reminder of Marcel pru's novel in such plus time when Marcel goes to Venice the build up and expectation are crashed when he sees Venice itself here told story tells us the historical Figures are not as big or heroic as our imaginations make them so in essence history is a work of fiction because Napoleon is made bigger because we are led to believe he was greater than he was Tolstoy says looking into Napoleon's eyes Prince Andre thought this insignificance of greatness the

unimportance of Life which no one could understand and still greater and importance of death the meaning of which No One Alive could understand or explain Summary part two okay our first main historical battle is over with the French having a decisive Victory against Russians and austrians now the second and most important battle is coming up but right now in f4s we moved to Moscow again with Nikolai rostov Natasha's father here Tolstoy tells us about some romances blossoming among the Youth of Russian Aristocrats men proposed in women reject parents want to marry their Kids to richer

kids for practical reasons but you know kids they are stupid to fall in love with their hearts not head so the topic of Love marriage money fly around a lot speaking of many our awkward main character count Pierre has finally won the lottery he has received a huge amount of money in The Inheritance now everyone wants to be friends with him and all the ladies want to marry him he is the biggest prize in Moscow but for Napoleon of course and the French army however Moscow itself has the real prize but more on that later

with lots of many Pierre has gained self-confidence in charm he finally marries Elaine or Elena Grogan who comes from our fifth family in War and Peace the krogans she's very beautiful but a bit sexually liberated and often promiscuous it's clear that she's off to appear as many and doesn't love him there's also a rumor that she may have Had incestuous relationship with her own brother anatol Krogan a drunkard womanizer also possibly had an affair with another man called fyodor Ivanovic dolokov Psychopathic Gambler we are in Russia so you know what happens there is a duel

of course Pierre against dollarhoff Pierre injures dollarhoff in the jewel this experience transforms Pierre into a philosopher in all Russian novels duels are the most transformative event in the Character's life you either die get injured or your whole outlook on life changes peer is no longer interested in his wife Elaine but instead he's seeking to find the meaning of life and how to be a good man so what does he do he joins the Freemasons and become a pacifist tolsto himself was a pacifist and even said to have influenced Mahatma Gandhi the biggest pacifist in

the 20th century around the same time his friend Prince Andre returns from the war Physically wounded but now also psychologically wounded because his abandoned wife died a childbirth for which he blames himself and as a result has become even more nihilistic and pessimistic about life also important to note that his superhero Mr Napoleon was nothing but a disappointing character now the two troubled men Andre and Pierre need some comfort I mean womanly Comfort Elaine finally persuades Pierre to take her Back Prince Andre now a widower falls in love with a lively Natasha rostov When Love

arrives nihilism goes out of the window this same thing happened in trogena's Father and Sons but Andre's father tells him that the rostovs are not nice people also important to note that the rostovs despite their pomp are a bit penniless Andre's father tells him if he wants to marry her he should wait for a year to see if he still loves her Andre being a Sensible man thinks this is a good advice so he tells Natasha that he needs time but he also tells Natasha that she's free to not wait for him and that's what

she does while Andre is waiting the energetic young Natasha has a few romantic Adventures here and there and even considers an elopement with anatol Krogan a hedonistic man who loves women and wine who is supposedly have had sex with her sister Elaine Pierre's wife There are more rejections and skimming going on among the Russian nobility even Pierre our philosopher falls in love with Natasha her energy is infectious when Andre finds out about Natasha's transgressions he's deeply hurt but being a rationally mature man he nurses his wounds quietly like an injured animal so he doesn't make

a scene about it he hits to the Battlefront men fight Wars for two reasons in the hope of getting a woman when Victorious or Escape a heartbreak Andre's heartbreak makes him even more determined to go to war I talked about this in my video on George Orwell that conflicts gave us profound purpose in life when you feel empty inside you immediately look for some conflicts on the outside Andre is heartbroken by Natasha's youthful mistakes so he hits to the battle Pierre however leaves a peaceful life thus feels very empty we humans need a battle and

struggle or conflict to keep us Going or give us a purpose even join joining the Freemasons didn't help Pierre match so what does he do he falls in love with Natasha a woman who broke his best friend's heart ah we humans always need some drama and Chaos in our lives don't we and telstra's novel falling in love is like going to war even marriage supposed to be peaceful Blissful smooth sailing is in fact conflict contradictions and often chaos while the Russian high society is Absorbed and their own romantic battles Napoleon wants a whole Moscow the

whole Russia the war is nearing Pierre our philosopher connects a few dots about Napoleon being the Antichrist so he decides it's time he helped his country Mother Russia we entered the battle of boradino the most decisive battle in War and Peace as well as history books the violence is terrible dead bodies everywhere Tolstoy in fact used his own personal experience of fighting in the Caribbean war of 1850s as an artillery man Frontline Soldier so the scenes are extremely Vivid and real even Pierre's best friend in ilistic Prince Andre is also among the casualties his sacrifice

symbolized the courage and braver of the Russian soldiers in defending their country but also on a personal level he manages to forgive Anna told Kragen for going behind his back and trying to elope with Natasha This is a very moving scene as Andre again shows he is the bigger man in War and Peace even bigger than Napoleon because he forgives his enemy it's important to note that Andre is wounded but he dies later in the care of his lover Natasha whose betrayal he forgives but then just like his early nihilistic Tendencies he loses his will

to live quote but at that instant he died Prince Andre remember that he was asleep at that very instant he died having made an Effort he awoke yes it was dead I died I woke up yes death is Awakening here Tolstoy says that life is a dream and death is like waking up from that dream which is really beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time the Russian army finally has halted the French advance but decides on a tactical Retreat to allow the French march on Moscow Napoleon's French army with their allies mainly the polls was

the most sophisticated Army at the time the Russian army however was a kind of ramshackle group of peasants the difference was one was fighting for a genuine cause defending their country in fact General katusov often relied on Instinct and intuition at one point when getting ready for the battle his men asked him how to prepare he tells them to have a good night's sleep katusov's approach is to go with the flow-like wind so almost mystical Napoleon represents modernity acting Like a machine while katusuf represents the flow of nature here's a quote by long years of

military experience he knew and with the wisdom of age understood that it's impossible for one man to direct hundreds of thousands of others struggling with death and he knew that the result of a battle is decided not by the orders of the commander-in-chief nor the place where the troops are stationed nor by the number of Cannon or of slaughtered men But by that intangible Force called the spirit of the army and he watched this force and guided it in as far as that was in his power before abandoning the city the Russians decided to burn

Moscow if we can't have it we don't want the French to have it either Napoleon finally enters Moscow as City turned to ashes most people have left but Pierre has remained behind he has a slightly crazy plan his plan is to stop evil in the eye I mean he wants to Assassinate Napoleon himself but he gets distracted from his big mission and trying to be a hero to save an Armenian girl from robbers he is captured by the French in his assassination plot is foiled the French almost execute him but he spared at the last

minute while in captivity he makes friends with the Russian peasant platon karatev who symbolizes the Russian honesty integrity and simplicity for Tolstoy innocence is better than intelligence peasants are Connected with land so close to Nature therefore they have that raw honesty and integrity which the Russian ability had lost this remain transformation while in prison in Siberia when he came in contact with the olden Russians whom he almost falls in love with and spends the rest of his life defending them here Tolstoy unites the Russian peasants with the aristocrats Tolstoy paints an ironic picture here Pierre

in prison finds a Kind of spiritual Freedom that he lacked on the outside the burning of Moscow was perhaps a tactical genius because the French couldn't survive the harsh winter in the City of Ash so they had no choice but to retreat when your back is against your enemy you're most vulnerable the Russians found the opportunity to attack them depleting their army Napoleon returns to France with still between his legs humiliated but most importantly lost 400 000 men for what nothing while In the hands of the French army as they Retreat from Moscow Pierre Witnesses

the terrible tragedies of war and even his best friend platoon is shot dead by the French p himself however is Lackey and rescued by Russian soldiers he returns home to find that his wife has died of drug overdose his best friend Prince Andre is also dead now a widower and friendless what does he do he finds love he rekindles his romantic feelings with Natasha and they get married there are Two epilogues in War and Peace one talking about the characters and the other explaining tool stories philosophy behind the novel most readers find the second epilogue

very annoying anticlimactic I think Tolstoy wanted to preemptively respond to his critics by giving a detailed response to how he interpreted history philosophical context okay now it's a good time to talk about tolstoy's philosophical expression for War and Peace in other words how he understood the world and how we can understand history in the first place tolsto was influenced by Arthur schopenhauer's will in representation to understand this let's briefly look at the two major secular philosophical schools in Europe the russianists and the empiricists the russianists believe that we understand the world through reason the best

example is Rene Descartes who sat in his armchair and rationalized I think Therefore I am so rationalists rely on ideas and thoughts to know what's going on the impresses however rely Less on rational ideas but more in empirical data I.E our experience in the real world to understand the world Impressions were mostly English and Scottish philosophers like Thomas Hobson David Hume so the rationalists say reason alone is enough to know the world but the impurities think experience let us know the world So and how knowledge travels rationalist is an inside-out approach while in criticism is

an outside in approach then the German philosopher Emmanuel Khan tried to bring these two schools to rationalists and empiricists together by arguing that we humans by rationally categorizing the world we impose our own structure on the world so we are not passive observers of reality but actively making reality conform to our categorizations so according to Kant the Human mind actively uses experience as a kind of tool to probe categorize and understand the world Kant also made a distinction between two Realms phenomena reality as they appear to us and numina or reality as it is Arthur

schopenhauer adopted content philosophy in his book will in representation which is relevant to us here as this book influenced Tolstoy and its own philosophy developed in War and Peace Schopenhauer argued that the world that appeared to us are a reality or history is not the world that actually exists independent of us according to schopenhauer human will is like a lens through which we see and interpret and even study the world which is a mere representation of the actual World schopenhauer also said that human will is the source of human misery which is similar to the

Buddhist philosophy that desire makes us suffer more So to bring a full circle tolsto argues that historical events are not the result of individual leaders will or whim but rather bigger social forces or the will of the entire society that take a country to war not its leaders Hitler couldn't have mobilized Germany if the socio-economic conditions weren't right Napoleon according to tolu story was somewhat like a puppet an accidental leader pushed forward to lead the French if he were to come at a different period In history he would not have been able to mobilize a

small village let alone the entire French Nation Tolstoy subscribe to hegel's idea that we are a product of our own period for Tolstoy leaders or like great men pushed to the front historical events happen because of thousands of smaller events that lead up to that big event I.E great Wars this same rule applies to the decision of an individual for example who to marry what career to pick even what to eat there Are thousands of conscious and subconscious triggers that lead up to making a decision necessity I.E survival forces us to act but sometimes we

also act because we want to thrive and dominate Wars are often like wildfire sometimes spontaneous and sometimes caused by arson history the same Society is made up of millions of individuals each individual is made up of millions of cells the unconscious Universal swarm of Life of humanity is often the blind Force behind historical events Tolstoy finally settles that Free Will does not exist we all have to obey the strict rules of the hive we live in here's a quote speaking of the interaction of heat and electricity and of atoms we cannot say why this occurs

and we say that it is because it's inconceivable otherwise because it must be sore and that is a law the same applies to historical events why war and revolution occur we do not know we only Know that to produce the one or the other action people combine in certain formation in which they all take part and we say that this is because it is Unthinkable otherwise or in other words that is a law so for Tolstoy Freewheel is more like an illusion he says the great Natural Forces lie outside us and we are not conscious

of them we call those forces gravitation inertia electricity animal force and so on but we are conscious of The force of life in man we call that freedom now I'll discuss a few interesting points in War and Peace Tolstoy paints his characters as real people with genuine emotions flaws inconsistencies and should be copied by all novelists every human being has flaws and good qualities Simon Sharma the British historian sums up very well Tolstoy didn't write characters he wrote people that is so true you get to know his Character so well history is a lot more

random than historians tend to make historians tend to explain history in a way that things happen for a reason or a rational explanation but tolosoi thinks history is packed with emotional outbursts spontaneous events just like real person lives their life full of spontaneous action history is a lot more random than historians tend to make life is a struggle War and Peace cannot exist without the other in every aspect of Life there is a battle going on even falling in love and getting married is like going to war family life is full of battles so Tolstoy

juxtaposes war with Family Life family loyalty is like nationalism being loyal to a country in society Society nourishes us but also corrupts us humans are the same in every country you just need to peel a layer to recognize that we're all the same Telstra contrasts social warmth friendship family and camaraderie among Soldiers with a cold of unhappy family enemies and violence so Society is the cause of our happiest experience in life and also unhappiest experiences it also points out that those are the top Aristocrats have a fake kind of honor and courage while the common

soldiers and peasants have real courage and make real sacrifices War and Peace is a great mirror of society how people decide their priorities and cope with Their mistakes and how they amend those mistakes the Russian title of War and Peace could also mean war in the world vaina Means War mere and Russian means both peace and the world so the name Vladimir literally means a boy who rules the world so tolstoy's novel is really about how Society functions of course today War and Peace is used to torture Russian kids in schools as it is a

compulsory read as far as I know be happy that you don't live in Russia Tulso was interested in Europe and he characterized each Nation thus which is pretty funny I thought here we go only Germans are self-confident on the basis of an abstract notion science that is the supposed knowledge of absolute truth a Frenchman itself assured because he regards himself personally both in mind and body as irresistibly attractive to men and women an Englishman itself assured as being a citizen of the best organized state in the world and Therefore as an Englishman always knows what

he should do and knows that all he does as an Englishman is undoubtedly correct an Italian is self-assured because he is excitable and easily forgets himself and other people a Russian is so for sure just because he knows nothing and does not want to know anything since he does not believe that anything can be known the German self-assurance is worst of all stronger and more repulsive than any other Because he imagines that he knows the truth science which he himself has invented but which is for him the absolute truth [Music] when you read Tolstoy the

first thing you notice is that you believe he's telling the truth his characters are real people that dialogue sounds convincing something else too Tolstoy didn't write for money he was well off and he didn't have to write to make ends Meet he wrote because he couldn't do otherwise in other words he was a genuine artist who was open-minded enough to observe understand and write about his time not only that he knew how literature worked quote all great literature is one of two stories a man goes on a journey or a Stranger Comes To Town in

other words literature tells the stories of disruption to the state at school all told story's novels are about disruption Wars Affairs illnesses Revelations and death tip number one honesty everyone can write but few novelists can be as brutally honest as Tolstoy Dostoevsky was another one in fact what makes Russian literature so popular around the world is that brutal Russian honesty no sugar coating or averting your gaze from the ugly we all take different personas in our lives to the point of self-deception Tolstoy peeled many layers tried what really saw and felt Could to tell the

truth is a very difficult thing and young people are really capable of it honesty gives you writing more depth and makes it live much longer because the deeper you dig into your soul the more you get to the truth about Human Condition therefore anyone can relate to you quote one ought only to write when one leaves a piece of one's own flesh in the ink pot each time one dips once pen in other words Tulsa characters are all slice of his own self Tip number two body language we all lie and so do tolstoy's characters

but our body language speaks more honestly than words I don't know who but someone described also as a poet of human body and Dostoevsky a poet of the human soul tolsto is precise description of his characters plants the reader right in front of them you hear their words then watch their body language thus you see through them as if they are real people when Tulsa writes dialogue he does Something else too he shows us their body language gestures and facial expressions now you have a full view to observe them now you know them so Tolstoy

pairs every dialogue with some action what characters do like smoke drink gesture and as reader You observe them while listening to their words that is tolstoy's gift could live the lives of the people described describing images their inner feelings and the characters themselves will do what they Must do according to their Natures there's also something else Tolstoy was also a poet of Silence silence can be louder than words once you master the gap between words body language and silence your characters come to life according to Simon Sharma the British historian Tolstoy didn't write characters he

wrote to people tip number three people would consider Tolstoy a novelist of human drama it is true he wrote about human relationships The reason for that is that we are social creatures even novels of loneliness are about relationships or lack of it our deepest happiness and sadness are often experienced in the presence of others human relationships are an endless source of beauty comfort and sadness and ugliness I think the most successful novelists are those who can write Human Relationships well and tolsto is one of them we individuals are entangled in groups or family Society Country

and the world and how we navigate our relationship with our family friends and colleagues compatriots has puzzled humans from the beginning of time and will likely continue in the future so read total story and write about human relationships tip number four get inspired went also met Victor Hugo in Paris in 1860s who had published his Masterpiece Les Miserables he was so inspired to do the Same thing he returned to Russia and sat down tried a really massive novel the result is War and Peace ten years later he wrote Anna Karina again perhaps in response to

Gustav Flores Madame Bovary of course it would be naive to suggest that tolsto only wrote his novels to prove a point Be Inspired right but not for the wrong reason quote the main thing is not to be in a hurry to write not to Grudge correcting and revising the same thing 10 or 20 times not to write a lot and not For Heaven's Sake to make of writing a means of livelihood or of winning importance in people's eyes use other authors to motivate yourself or add to the fuel that is already in your tank Tulsa

also warns you could you should only write when you feel within you some completely new and important content clear to you but unintelligible to others and when they need to express this content gives you no peace Tip number five write more think lesson while cutting the grass is so absorbed in the action that he loses the sense of time but there's a crucial Point while not aware of his action he is doing a better job as soon as he starts thinking how to do a better job he loses in other words being aware is the

enemy of artistic ability when writers lose the sense of time and place they enter a new realm where their characters are real people and that's When you achieve that artistic flow of course this comes with practice the more you write the easier it is to be in the flow Tulsa was famous for writing endless pages in his first draft quote don't spare your labor right as it comes at length and then revise it and above all shortening in the business of writing gold is only obtained in my experience by sifting to achieve your righteous flow

enter the subconscious by writing more and Thinking less so these are the writing tips from Leo Tolstoy let me know what you think I'll leave you with this quote the Epitaph that I would write for history would say I conceal nothing it's not enough not to lie one should strive not to lie in the negative sense by remaining silent Tolstoy blood because he couldn't remain silent foreign Lived around same time often in the same City Saint Petersburg but they never met Dostoevsky was eager to meet but Tulsa apparently showed no interest it's pure speculation but

I think Tolstoy being account saw Dostoevsky just as a regular dude both authors however were friends with turginiff also another reason is that Tolstoy disliked dostoevsky's most famous novel Crime and Punishment because he wasn't convinced that a poor young man would be willing to murder People to get rich or change the world Dostoevsky however was full of admiration for tolstoy's great novel Anna Karenina here is Dostoevsky Anna karunina is sheer perfection as work of art new European work of fiction of our present day comes anywhere near it furthermore the idea underlying it shows that it

is ours hours something that belongs to us alone and that's our property our own National new word or at any rate the beginning of it After Don Swift's death in 1881 Tolstoy lamented I have never seen this man and never had any relations with him and all of a sudden when he died I understood that this was the closest the dearest man for me the man whose presence I needed the most I considered him a friend and had no doubt that we will see each other someday but unfortunately they never did in this video I'll

compare the two giants of Russian literature Leo Tolstoy And fyodorosovsky I'll tell you about their lives novels styles of writing themes characters belief and much more at the end I'll tell you which author is more popular today I'll show you some stats as well and tell you which author I prefer and why I have summarized and reviewed three of dostoevsky's novels Crime and Punishment the brothers chromosov and Notes from Underground and two of tolstoy's Novel War and Peace and Anna Karenina also in separate videos I Have talked about eight lessons from Tolstoy and eight lessons

from Dostoevsky mainly about their life philosophies I'll put a link in the description in case you want to watch them later Russian context in the 18th century under Catherine the Great Russia expanded East Siberia and South Central Asia adopted French language and culture then Napoleon got excited thinking Russians would welcome him but he got Humiliated in 1812. both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy grew up reading the two great Russian Romantic Poets Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail lermontov but also the satirical pros of Nikolai Google they both witnessed one of the most important events in Russian history taking place

in 1861 when 31 million Russian serfs were emancipated at the same time there was a huge influx of Western influence like French art and literature German and English capitalism as well as Philosophies of utilitarianism racialism in atheism Russian intellectuals were divided between the slavophiles who wanted to keep Russian values and traditions on the one hand and westernized radicals who wanted to destroy the Russian way of life in order to build a modern racial Society on the other these struggle culminated in 1917 Communist Revolution led by Vladimir Lenin life and career Dostoevsky was born in 1821

in Moscow unlike other writers of his period he was a city boy not a Country Gentleman his father was a low-level doctor Tolstoy was born seven years later in 1828 in their family country State yasnaya polyana and grew up in an astrocratic family so they are wildly different socio-economic situation influenced their world view and writings dostovsky's first novel poor folk about the plight of the Russian poor published In 1845 when he was 24 years old dostovsky's entire body of work focuses on those at the bottom of the Russian Society tolstoy's first novel childhood published six

years later in 1852 when he was 23 years old focused on his own life growing up in which he wrote about losing both parents at a very young age Tulsa's mother died when he was two and his father died when he was nine as a result of growing up without parents Told story's entire body of work focuses on family Tolstoy published two more novels in the series titled Boyhood and youth all autobiographical however had a very different fate after his first novel in 1849 he was arrested almost executed because of his radical activities and sent

to Siberia where he spent almost 10 years in the harshest conditions the result was a massive change in his views about Russia and the West he depicted that experience in Siberia in his novel The House of the Dead in 1861. Tolstoy however had an easier time of it he spent his time weaponizing drinking wine and gambling like Prince Harry he was expelled from Carson University in tataristan where he was supposed to study Oriental languages to experience a harsh reality of Life Tolstoy joined the army in the Battle of Crimea in 1854 and 55. this experience

helped him to grow up a bit but also helped give his writing depth especially Later on in War and Peace after returning from Exile dostrovsky wrote like crazy first she published Notes from Underground in 1864 considered the first existentialist novel that same year he lost both his wife and brother two years later in 1866 he published his most famous novel Crime and Punishment around the same time Tolstoy got married to a very young woman traveled to Europe and wrote three novels family happiness in 1859 the Cossacks in 1863 and his Most famous novel War and

Peace in 1869. is lost in longest novel The Brothers chromosovo of which most people believe to be his greatest novel was published in 1879 two years before his death in 1881. tolstoy's own favorite novel Anna Karenina was published two years before the brothers chromosov in 1877. it's also his last novel [ __ ] Murat was published in 1912 two years after his own death in 1910. wrote 16 novels and novellas a career That lost it 36 years with brother chromosov being the longest with 350 000 words or about 1 000 pages in English translation crime

punishment is about 210 000 words or 700 pages Tolstoy wrote 14 novels and novellas a career that lasted 42 years tulsar's longest novel war in peace is 587 000 words or two thousand Pages his second longest novel is Anna Karenina with 350 000 words or a thousand pages both were in Russian army for a period Of time both traveled to Europe extensively Dostoevsky was 59 when he died while Tolstoy lived to be 82. it shows how tough life Dostoevsky endured mostly in City while Tolstoy lived in somewhat comfortable life in their Countryside this shows in

their fiction too dostoevsky's novels are mostly about those at the bottom of the society from his first novel poor fall to his last novel The Brothers commercial his characters grapple with poverty and Money Walt alsoi mostly wrote about those at the top the nobility and The Aristocrats of course there are some exceptions dostovsky's novel the area is about an aristocrat be it not a very rich man whom everyone calls an idiot while Tulsa wrote novels about the poor as well Foster was a tall man at 5 11 or 181 centimeters while doshovsky was 5'6 or

169 centimeter even the name Tulsa in Russia means thick or fat and his first Name Leo or Lev means lion not sure if his name gave him much confidence or not Theodore means a man of God and dostrovsky comes from a place named in the village of dostriyeth in modern day Belarus arm of the same height as Dostoevsky so I can feel his pain as a short man speaking of pain Dostoevsky also suffered from ill health especially epilepsy something he shares with so many famous novelists like flauber Dickens Poe and Dante Tolstoy however Had no

real health issues he was a fitness fanatic and that's why he lived to be 82 years old human suffering both authors wrote about suffering dostrovsky suffering is partly economic and partly existential his characters are mostly poor people who are desperate for a place in the world seeking meaning and purpose in other words poverty on the outside and suffering on the inside and crime and punishment raskolnikov is A poor student who commits crime that torments him on the inside a note from underground the narrator hides from society where he was humiliated and brothers karmaza of all

the brothers suffer because they feel lost between atheism Hedonism and religion the cause of suffering is the breakdown of social Fabrics religious faith and the arrival of Western individualism as a result Russians seeking a quick fix they adopted Western ideas like atheism Rationalism and utilitarianism Dostoevsky acknowledges rationality being helpful in alleviating illnesses and helping the economy but not only it was an inadequate solution to your existential crisis it was also dangerous as it broke the old social Fabrics to let individuals lose to commit terrible crimes as in crime and punishment and the brothers karamazov without

the fear of God anything was permissible so for the most part dostrevsky blame modernity For the moral and existential crisis of his fellow Russians which resulted in their suffering total storage suffering is usually because of one's failure to fulfill their duty to their family or Society in other words tolstoy's suffering is caused by social institutions like nation and family War and Peace centers on warfare among nations that caused immense suffering among both the French and the Russians Anna Karenina is about the institution Of family and social norms that cause suffering the death of Evan ellitch

is about how selfishness can harm those around you so Tolstoy suffering is more about the failure of fulfilling your duties to your family and Society so for dostovsky it was the individual in crisis thus he is called a psychologist while for Tolstoy it was Society in crisis that's considered a sociologist their solution to suffering also differs Dostoevsky wanted to insulate Russia From the bad ideas coming while Tolstoy looked to the whole Humanity for an answer Dostoevsky answered suffering as a kind of blind naive love which can be equated to religious Faith the value of Simplicity

and naivety they existed among the Russian peasants this resonates with ostroska's own life his criminal conviction meant that he spent 10 years among the Russian peasants but also affected his life and career so he was seeking forgiveness and love no Matter what mistakes you made in the past Dostoevsky wanted to insulate Russia from the dangers of bad ideas coming into the country his own criminal conviction was due to Western influence a good example is in Notes from Underground a man goes into himself while hiding underground even in crime and punishment Siberia is a kind of

isolated place where raskolnikov's Soul can be saved was a slavophile passionately supported The Russian peasants to the point that Sam criticized him for being anti-semitic Dostoevsky was anti-capitalist so as it happened a lot of the bankers and catalysts offering loans at the time were Jewish people and most people in debt were the Russian peasants so Dostoevsky conflated Jewish people with capitalism or westernization Tolstoy however criticized the old institutions like family and church as being outdated in need of modernization He was excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church for criticizing it Tolstoy believed in the ideals of

European Enlightenment and Universalist humanism he even corresponded with people all around the world Tolstoy had a more optimistic view of humans that through education people can be molded and shaped into good beings and good citizens so he founded several schools for the peasants and promoted pacifism around the world dostrevsky on the other Hand was pessimistic about humans for being too irrational and flawed therefore cannot be trusted if left to their own devices in the presence of bad ideas the company of bad friends dostrovsky believed there is a kind of Darkness inside of us a demon

a destructive force that leads you to do Terrible Things due to Greed and selfishness even damage your own lives through addiction to sex gambling shopping food alcohol or drugs Tolstoy However like Russo believed humans were in essence good but it's the society that corrupts them writing style dosto of his Crime and Punishment and the broad scar module for murder mysteries Tolstoy root family drama tulso is a master of juxtaposing the warmth and the cold Dynamics among people in families among soldiers friends and even strangers in one moment there is a genuine feeling of comfort being

with others then there are moments You can't stand others don't strength is a dramatic storytelling while tolstoy's strength is vivid and poetic writing dostoevsky's writing is quite messy dark spontaneous and improvised almost explosive tolsto's writing appears a little bit more methodical calm and measured characters act on their own free will so they make terrible mistakes irrational decisions and often self-destruct but they are proactive and make things Happen tulsaurus characters however are more Bound by social norms family and Society things happen to them tulsory believes social changes or historical events were not the Deeds of individuals

but the whole societies so someone like Napoleon didn't steer his tree but he himself was bound by history and societal forces tolstoy's novel have no single but many protagonists dostoevsky's characters were mentally Shackled and tormented while Tolstoy Characters are socially stifled through marriage or social class dostoevsky's characters victims of their own choices while tolstoy's characters or victims of social change and conventions Dimitri mirajovsky Russian novelist said that Tolstoy wrote about external or Earthly truths I.E societal truths while dostrevsky wrote about internal or Divine truth in other words psychological truths all of dostoevsky's protagonists are men

female characters Tend to come to save the troubled men and restore their souls and crime and punishment Sonia The Prostitute comes to rescue raskolnikov in nudes From The Underground Lisa almost saves the underground man and brothers karamazo female characters with strong men told story on the other hand gave female characters more Central roles in his novels Anna and Anna Karenina Natasha rastuva and War and Peace are the protagonists Tolstoy was sympathetic Towards women's Freedom High Society told story's main setting limited individual freedom to guard societal norms and traditions especially women Dostoevsky however was more concerned

with the Russian peasants where there were no many educated women seeking Freedom among the Russian peasants women worked and suffered alongside men so there was a kind of equality there and tolstoy's novels human cruelty or perhaps the ability to be cruel is often Hidden from view so one has to peel back a layer to find it while endorsevsky's novels human cruelties in the open tolstoy's upper class characters are very good at hiding their true selves as they are bound by many social conventions while dostoevsky's lower class characters are more like open books even in crime

and punishment raskolnikov didn't have to confess but he did why again that Russian honesty event also agreed that the Russian Peasants lived a more authentic and genuine life in War and Peace Pierre meets a peasant in his spiritually liberated and The Death of Ivan Ilitch Yvonne learns wisdom from his servant urasim another interesting thing you notice in dostoevsky's novel is how lonely his protagonists are none of his male characters are close to their families and and some even hate their families as they tend to be dysfunctional and Notes From Underground the narrators alone inside an

underground basement and mentions new family and his friends abandon him and crime and punishment raskolnikov is very irritated when his mother and sister show up and it brought karamazov all brothers are on each other's throat or their father's throat except the youngest so you could say dostovsky was the writer of male loneliness today most people find themselves extremely isolated in the Majority of men are out of sexual Marketplace that suicide is very high among men today Haruki murakami is a writer of male loneliness and Tulsa's work family bonds are strong therefore his characters try to

be free and often unable to free themselves from their families and duties and Anna Karenina Anna desperately tries to divorce her husband but fails dostoevsky's characters are detached from their families while tolsto's characters are Attached also this is because of their social class dostoevsky's characters are predominantly people of lower socioeconomic status while tolstoy's characters are mostly well off so the family bond is tied to money Heritage and inheritance While most of those characters have none of that as a result of this Freedom dostoevsky's characters have psychological issues while tulso his character is have social or

familial issues of course there are exceptions USSR when the Communists took over in Russia in 1917 they regarded the two writers somewhat differently Tolstoy was closer to their way of looking at the world through groups class and communities War and Peace was given to Soviet soldiers to improve their morale and promote nationalism because it was about how the Russian Spirit had overcome Napoleon a century before prokofiev wrote an opera on War and Peace in 1946 at the height of Soviet Power after defeating Hitler and consolidating Eastern Europe dostoevsk is individualist approach didn't fit well with

the Socialist way of seeing the world but also dostoevsky's insular views didn't fit in with the spirit of international socialism Lenin loved Tolstoy and Stalin celebrated him however after installing the Soviet leader slowly returned to their Russian Roots so they celebrated our stefk especially in the 1970s and Onward today Putin in find himself closer to rostrovsky than Tolstoy especially on individual Freedom that individuals cannot be trusted if left to their own devices having said that both authors were read in schools and Russians loved them both now who is a better writer this is a very

difficult question and the answer is highly subjective I love dostoevska's dark edges psychological novels with more drama with his characters mostly Volatile crazy irrationally unpredictable that Madness resonates with me on a deeper psychological level because I think we're all a bit volatile and irrational on the inside by reading dostoevsky's novel you find a kind of release I think if you are a happy person you might enjoy Tolstoy but dostovski was a better writer of human suffering in my view of course also is an overall full of Dramas in Madness of its own kind but for

the most part also Himself was a common measured man and his novels reflect that he could even say that Dostoevsky was slightly a better Storyteller given his chaotic characters and his focus on crime was also crucial crime fiction simply sells more than family drama to find out who's more popular today I looked at the reviews and ratings on Goodreads which is owned by Amazon the largest Bookseller in the world so it is perhaps an accurate picture of what People read today if you look at them side by side Dostoevsky age's Toy Story on all three

metrics he has more ratings 1.7 million compared to 1.4 million for Tolstoy so Tolstoy has almost 400 000 fewer readers than dostrevsky on Goodreads it is possible that tolstoy's readers are older people therefore less likely to be online the second metric is reviews dostovsky with 84 000 reviews and Tolstoy with 67 000 reviews so Dostoevsky has 17 000 more reviews People have voted with their keyboard now in terms of enjoyment or getting something out of their novels again Tolstoy with an average of 4.07 while dostovsk is a clear winner by 0.11 points with an average

of four point 0.18 I don't normally read Match Into ratings on Goodreads but these are important stats Dostoevsky resonates with people more today because of his crime genre also perhaps his religious beliefs I think today millions of people Feel a bit lost so his writing is deeply psychological and somewhat religious which resonates with a lot of people seeking meaning for their lives but perhaps the biggest thing is his dim view of humanity as Petty self-interested and self-destructive today we can see the most visibly an online hatred the fruitless side of capitalism that has benefited a

small minority of elite in society and the impulsive shopping drug addiction and Obesity seen throughout the developed world we aren't as rational as we are meant to be so dashevski got to write that rationality alone cannot solve all human problems Tolstoy despite his happy marriage social guilt of being born in a rich family lived a comfortable life Dostoevsky however experienced poverty spent years in jail in the cold harsh Siberia he was a convicted criminal a lonely man badly treated and suffered from epilepsy so in all his writing he Is seeking a kind of warmth a

sense of belonging acceptance by others to fill a void to not be alone Dostoevsky was like Harry Potter orphaned without a family spent the rest of his life seeking the warmth of a family acceptance full story on the other hand was like Prince Harry or Lord Byron who couldn't wait to leave his family for some freedom in fact also spent years womanizing drinking gambling just like Prince Harry also at the end Of his life he did what he always wanted he ran away from his wife which resulted in Catching pneumonia and his subsequent death at

the train station which is depicted in a 2009 movie The Last Station tolstoy's Fascination will train was because of a promise of Escape is a good example Who falls in love with a man at the train station witnessed a man dying and then ends her own life in front of a train now if you have never read any of these Authors let me a comment where you should start for Dostoevsky my favorite knowledge crime punishment and my favorite Toy Story's novel is Anna Karenina but they are pretty long novels if you like short stories then

those kids white Knights and also is how much land does a man need or perfect places to start both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky remain Timeless because of one thing both told the truth honesty is perhaps The best policy if you want to be a novelist who stands the test of time they were lucky because honesty is one of the most important characteristics of Russian people to the point that people find Russians a bit rude I say they are honest so both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky told the raw truth no matter how ugly and that's why we still

read them War and Peace considered the greatest novel of all time was followed by his other Masterpiece Anna Karenina now he Was the greatest Russian novelist but in 1880s tolstoyed renounced his novels for spreading immorality called for a ban on sex confessed his religious belief and gave away his wealth he founded schools for the peasants and story wearing peasant clothes he even became a Shoemaker later he criticized organized religion by advocating a type of Christian Anarchy and was swiftly expelled from the Russian Orthodox Church Tolstoy became a pacifist which Influenced Mahatma Gandhi in 1910 he

escaped his wife while on the Run he caught cold and died at the train station he had 13 children and 14 novels and many short stories today Tolstoy stands alongside Shakespeare Dante Dickens and Dostoevsky so what can we learn from him let's begin lesson one heaven and hell are other people for Tolstoy Society is the source of our miseries but also our profoundest happiness In all his novels Tolstoy try to understand an individual's Place among groups I.E family Society or Nation whether you're poor or Rich we all struggle with our family church Society or country

in War and Peace tall story Chronicles the lives of five families before during and after Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 and how social and historical events sweep individuals and change their lives forever for Tolstoy Napoleon despite his Power was at the mercy of social events Beyond his control as we are at the immersive groups or family neighborhood City and Country and today the whole world tolstoy's characters in War and Peace find their families a source of their misery as well as Joy the novel is full of scenes of incredible Joy be it in camaraderie

among soldiers friendship among people and relationships among partners Society causes us immense pain but also Provide us with pleasure by comforting nourishing and supporting us but Tolstoy says Society is made up of individuals just as human bodies made up of cells in other words each individual contributes to the Social and historical events just as a drop of water adds to the ocean in other words each individual Soldier makes a difference in major Wars Society in groups despite causing many ills are also the source of immense joy in our lives and each individual is responsible For

such misery and joy lesson 2 Embrace imperfection after Society our own beliefs are our worst enemy quote it was evident that he had long been convinced that it was impossible for him to make a mistake that in his perception whatever he did was right not because it harmonized with any idea of right or wrong because he did it tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina is about a married woman who abandons her husband And child for a handsome officer initially its Society her circle of friends and family that punishes her transgression but she can fight them off then

once she attains her goal of having the officer to herself she starts worrying about losing him which leads her to extreme jealousy and paranoia that lead her to suicide and I believe in perfect happiness and perfect partner in a perfect world that believe led her to obsess and self-destruct our mind Wanders in search of ideals and Perfection but it is stuck in an imperfect physical body Tolstoy says instead of pursuing our own hedonistic Pleasures or seeking perfection in life we should seek fulfillment in our duties towards others our family partner customer friends and so forth

could if you look for Perfection you will never be content lesson 3 the greatest joy is when you make others happy not yourself Tolstoy believes one's life purpose should be to serve others family plays an important role in all toll stories writing one could say his entire body of work is about family War and Peace despite its title is a family Saga Anna Karenina too is about family The Death of Ivan Ilitch is about family in all these novels individual characters in pursuit of their happiness abandon and destroy their family but only to realize that

cross is never Greener on the other side it also believes we are happiest when we make others happy modern Neuroscience studies tend to agree with Tolstoy that while giving our brain releases happy chemicals throughout our lives we receive from others from our parents teachers friends and strangers in terms of knowledge skills financial and emotional support So shifting our mind from Gaining things to giving things can give your life a deeper meaning when Tolstoy is 50 he gave away his wealth and founded schools for the peasants so he believed in education as the best gift to

any human being could love is the only way to rescue Humanity from all ills [Music] lesson 4 art is therapeutic Tolstoy dedicated his life to writing and storytelling in an essay what is art Tolstoy says that art can make us Kinder and can bring people together could Universal art by uniting the most different people in one common Feeling by destroying Separation Will educate people to Union will show them not by reason but by life itself the joy of universal Union reaching beyond the bounds set by life his novels have been the source of immense pleasure

for millions of people over the decades and centuries for tolstoys science cannot replace art because they offer different things Science brings physical comfort for us through medicine and Technology but art gives us emotional and psychological nourishment through stories we need both just like children need both parents to grow up in a healthy environment science is a product of reason that provide us with security and provisioning and art is a product of emotions and passion that offers us meaning and purpose it is through stories that we learn our deepest values in life so art penetrates Where

science cannot reach to steer our feelings to inspire us to be greater than our own selves lesson 5 death gives life a meaning and The Death of Ivan Ilitch Tolstoy tells a story of a successful man of high society who suddenly Falls ill and faces an imminent death he is terrified and asks why a good man like him should suffer such terrible pain the fear of death is like of terrifying shadow in the family but his servant kurasim is The only one who is not afraid of death with the help of grassum Yvonne realizes that

his life's goal has always been run by selfish Pursuit grossim however lives an authentic life characterized by compassion at the end Yvonne wishes to die soon to release his family of the burden of putting up with him Yvonne is no longer afraid of death and that's when death itself disappears because death is nothing but fear the novel is partly Epicurean who said that since we Don't know death we have nothing to fear and partly Buddhist that the more we achieve in life the harder it is to part with our worldly positions tall stories the purpose

of death is to make us bigger than our selfish Pursuits death is there to teach us compassion lesson 6 we all have our contradictions total sources it's a mistake to equate every individual that's right or wrong good or evil because we all have our flaws and strengths could one of the Most widespread Superstition is that every man has his own special definite qualities that a man is kind cruel wise stupid energetic apathetic Etc men are not like that men are like rivers that water is the same in each and alike and all but every river

is narrow here is more rapid there here slower they are broader now clear now cold now dull now warm it is the same with men every man carries in himself the germs of every human quality and sometimes one Manifests itself sometimes another and the man often becomes unlike himself while still remaining the same man tolstoy's characters are not villains or Heroes but Audrey humans who struggle to find their paths in life and in the process make mistakes amend those mistakes contradict themselves and face the consequences often tragic everyone wants to be loved happy and appreciated

sometimes we do dumb things in the process the ability to be good is often A privilege in terms of means and application we have at our disposal Tulsa was young when his mother died and he tells us that he tormented himself for thinking he was a bad person because he couldn't cry at his mother's funeral [Music] lesson 7 it's better to be good than great Tolstoy believed great men of history are more like fictional characters made into great Heroes by historians reading about them creates a Feeling of Envy so we try to emulate them in

other words we contribute to their Greatness by accepting at a face value not only that we often ignore their misbehaviors or transgression by participating in this narrative we perpetuate it to illustrate these Tolstoy tell us how a single company the British East India Company could rule a vast country like India could a commercial company with 30 000 men not athletes but rather weak and ordinary People have subdued 200 million vigorous clever capable and freedom-loving people it's not the English who have Enslaved the Indians but the Indians who have enslaved themselves how they have done so

by participating in enslavement of their own people just as we participate in the narrative around the myth of Great Men poster says that these so-called great men are often Petty and small in their everyday lives like everyone else and Often very unhappy because so many things are out of their control good in historic events this so-called Great Men or labels giving names to events and like labels they have but the smallest connection with the events itself in other words no matter how great you are not above Human Condition You Suffer the same for Tolstoy great

or not great depends on how you treat others could there is no greatness where Simplicity goodness and Truth are absent Lesson 8 life is a dream and tolstoy's short story how much land does a man need a landowner wants to sell land the condition is for a fixed amount of money anyone can claim as large as an area they won't but they must stake the land in one single day packom the protagonist gets greedy and attempt to stick an enormous area of land and by Sunset he manages to Circle his way back but he has

exhausted himself he collapses and dies so the Answer to how much land does a man need Tolstoy says six feet of land was all that he needed program is buried there it is shorty that complicates life for us by promoting greed so it is our own job to simplify Our Lives tulsory struggled in his own life especially with sex in his novel The Devil a man can meet suicide after falling in love with a second woman which leads to his dilemma leave his wife kill his wife or kill himself he decides to kill himself In

kreutzer Sonata sex leads to a murder for most men sex is their biggest demon told a story at one point advocated sex should be banned and even Humanity should be eradicated but also was also influenced by Arthur schopenhauer the German philosopher who under the influence of Buddhism argued that life is nothing but suffering this inspired Tolstoy to simplify his life he gave away his wealth to the poor wore simple clothes and started making his Own shoes could if you want to be happy B Tolstoy says as long as we live we have the chance to

be happy for Tolstoy life is a dream so leave it to the fullest before waking up thank you when you think of Russian literature and tolstoy's name is the most natural that comes to mind despite his upper class upbringing he was a humanist through and through you can see a deep connection between his world view and the Egalitarian social system that took over Russia a few centuries later but obviously it also has far more idealistic in his philosophy he wanted a society where people tended to their lands and some kind of bygone Utopia where people

had a deep connection with the soil as a result is often considered a sociologist who wanted to understand how we function as a society as we saw tolstoy's writing was incredibly realistic compared to dickens's somewhat Fairy tale of modern England but also also had that Russian pessimist that permeates even today we saw how fatalistic he was in his novel War and Peace for example when faced with history individuals are powerless a shows that society's source of our happiness but also our miseries one of the biggest challenges we all face is how to balance between our

own individual happiness and our duties towards our family and Community Tolstoy Struggled with life's meaning but that struggle captures the true meaning of life it's a struggle there's no one recipe for everyone so some of the life lessons we'll learn can give us a new perspective on life finally we understood how Tolstoy and the other joint of Russian literature Dostoevsky were so similar yet so different Dostoevsky wrote about the individual from an individual point of view while Tolstoy leaned more towards the Collective dostrevsky wrote about The Outsiders in society while Tulsa wrote about the ruling

Elite at the end of the day Russian literature is not complete without understanding and reading Tolstoy I hope this video helped to understand the man and his writings what do you think have you read any of his books what is your favorite Tolstoy novel please leave a comment down below as always thank you for accompanying me on this very long journey it's possible [Music]