Life with a Genius. The Wife and Daughters of Leo Tolstoy

The figure of Leo Tolstoy—writer, philosopher, and public figure—continues to draw attention. What was he like in everyday life? How did his relationships with his closest people develop? How did his family circle perceive and experience his spiritual quest?

«Life with a Genius: Tolstoy’s Wife and Daughters» is a special edition that brings together under one cover two books previously published by «Azbuka» and now become a bibliographic rarity. The author is Nadezhda Gennadyevna Mikhnoverts, a well-known literary scholar, Doctor of Philology, and a researcher of 19th-century Russian literature.

The first part, «Love and Rebellion,» is based on Sofia Andreyevna’s diaries for 1910 and is supplemented with testimonies from family members and people close to the writer. Taken together, these materials make it possible to see, in all their contradictions and dramatic intensity, Tolstoy’s final months of life and the events that led to his departure from Yasnaya Polyana. The second part, «The Three Daughters of Leo Tolstoy,» tells the stories of Tatyana, Maria, and Alexandra, revealing little-known episodes from their biographies—not only from the time they lived in their father’s home, but also from the period of rapid changes that began shortly after the death of Leo Tolstoy.

The wealth of facts, a wide range of sources, including archival materials, an engaging style of scholarly narration, and photographic materials help readers feel the atmosphere of the Yasnaya Polyana world, centered on Tolstoy, and make the book a valuable acquisition for connoisseurs and for everyone who loves Russian literature.