William Nickell

I bought this book as a recommendation from LibraryThing. I haven't studied much about Tolstoy and this slim volume was interesting reading.

One dark night in November 1910, Lev Tolstoy left his home in Yasnaya Polyana and never returned. The Russian people followed the story with great interest as it unfolded and after its fatal conclusion. Author William Nickell has composed five essays about this final journey and the Russian response to it.

Surprisingly, much of the event seems very modern as Nickell explains how the Russians tried to decide if this was a public event of a celebrity worthy of great media coverage or the private event of a family. When are reporters reporting the story and when do they become part of the story? Russians also struggled with "the meaning" of the act. Was Tolstoy trying to make some dramatic last gesture in his life? And how should the church and state react when Tolstoy, whom they viewed as undermining some of their most basic tenets while at the same time being much beloved by the people, dies?

As the book progresses it moves away from the story of the journey and how it unfolded to more philosophical realms. I enjoyed the first part of the book better and wished I had a deeper background in the philosophy that Nickell writes of so that I could have enjoyed the last essay as much as the others.

Overall, a good book. Recommended!… (meer)