This course is for those who love to read ! Beginning with his memoir Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth and then moving into War and Peace, we will discuss the world that the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy created in his fictions against the backdrop of the social and political ferment that would ultimately lead to the 1917 revolution. Tolstoy attempted to find the family happiness in his novels that eluded him in his own life. Reading him is to gain insight into the unique role that literature played in political and philosophical thought in nineteenth century Russia.
