Book contents
- Tolstoy in Context
- Tolstoy in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Citations, Translations, and Transliterations
- Chronology
- Part I The Man
- Chapter 1 The Life
- Chapter 2 The Death
- Chapter 3 Tolstoy’s Family
- Chapter 4 Estate Culture and Yasnaya Polyana
- Part II Russian Social and Political Contexts
- Part III Literature, the Arts, and Intellectual Life
- Part IV Science and Technology
- Part V Beyond Russia
- Part VI Tolstoy’s Afterlife
- Suggested Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 2 - The Death
from Part I - The Man
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2023
- Tolstoy in Context
- Tolstoy in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Citations, Translations, and Transliterations
- Chronology
- Part I The Man
- Chapter 1 The Life
- Chapter 2 The Death
- Chapter 3 Tolstoy’s Family
- Chapter 4 Estate Culture and Yasnaya Polyana
- Part II Russian Social and Political Contexts
- Part III Literature, the Arts, and Intellectual Life
- Part IV Science and Technology
- Part V Beyond Russia
- Part VI Tolstoy’s Afterlife
- Suggested Further Reading
- Index
Summary
This chapter examines Tolstoy’s treatment of mortality – from his earliest published works to his last, and in letters, diaries, and conversations – as a long preparation for his own death. It draws especially from his later period, when he drew nearer to death and became increasingly focused on it, often reminding those around him, and his reading public, of their need to do the same. Thus, while Tolstoy anticipated death as a personal sacrament, he also created a context for the public to consider his passing as a collective examination of his values. The chapter concludes with Tolstoy’s death at Astapovo railway station in 1910, where he attempted to meet his own expectations for this moment within the spectacle created by a public bent on treating it as its own rite of passage.
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- Tolstoy in Context , pp. 13 - 19Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022