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Tolstoy on Shakespeare: A Critical Essay on Shakespeare

Leo Tolstoy

The essay presents Tolstoy's personal reflections and critiques of Shakespeare's works, particularly focusing on the tragedy "King Lear.

"Tolstoy on Shakespeare: A Critical Essay on Shakespeare" by Leo Tolstoy is a critical essay. The essay presents Tolstoy's personal reflections and critiques of Shakespeare's works, particularly focusing on the tragedy "King Lear.

This edition's title page does not name its translator.

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Mr. Crosby's article[1] on Shakespeare's attitude toward the working classes suggested to me the idea of also expressing my own long-established opinion about the works of Shakespeare, in direct opposition, as it is, to that established in all the whole European world. Calling to mind all the struggle of doubt and self-deceit,—efforts to attune myself to Shakespeare—which I went through owing to my complete disagreement with this universal adulation, and, presuming that many have experienced and are experiencing the same, I think that it may not be unprofitable to express definitely and frankly this view of mine, opposed to that of the majority, and the more so as the conclusions to which I came, when examining the causes of my disagreement[4] with the universally established opinion, are, it seems to me, not without interest and significance.

My disagreement with the established opinion about Shakespeare is not the result of an accidental frame of mind, nor of a light-minded attitude toward the matter, but is the outcome of many years' repeated and insistent endeavors to harmonize my own views of Shakespeare with those established amongst all civilized men of the Christian world.

Contents

  1. 01G. Bernard Shaw
  2. 02Contents
  3. 03Part I
  4. 04Tolstoy on Shakespeare
  5. 05I
  6. 06II
  7. 07III
  8. 08IV
  9. 09V
  10. 10VI
  11. 11VII
  12. 12VIII
  13. 13Part II
  14. 14Appendix
  15. 15Appendix Contents
  16. 16Shakespeare's Attitude Toward the Working Classes
  17. 17By Ernest Crosby
  18. 18Letter from Mr. G. Bernard Shaw
  19. 19(Extracts)
  20. 20By Leo Tolstoy
  21. 21Translated by Aylmer Maude
  22. 22Highly Commended
  23. 2312mo, Cloth, 372 pp. Price, $1.00, post-paid
  24. 24Funk & Wagnalls Company, Publishers New York and London
  25. 25Also Annotated List of Works
  26. 26List of the Plays
  27. 27Including Also
  28. 28Their High Literary and Dramatic Value
  29. 29Their Wide Range of Sentiment
  30. 30Funk & Wagnalls Company New York Publishers London
  31. 31A Clear and Hopeful Exposition of Tolstoy's Teachings
  32. 32Essays by Aylmer Maude
  33. 33Contents
  34. 34Funk & Wagnalls Company, Publishers New York and London
  35. 35And Other Military Tales
  36. 36By Leo Tolstoy
  37. 37What Count Tolstoy Says of the Translators and Translation
  38. 38Funk & Wagnalls Company, Publishers New York and London
  39. 39King of Assyria, and Other Stories
  40. 40By Count Leo Tolstoy
  41. 41Opinion of the Press
  42. 42"Hour-Glass Stories." Dainty 12mo, Cloth, Frontispiece, Ornamental Cover, 40 cents, Postpaid
  43. 43Funk & Wagnalls Company, Publishers New York and London
  44. 44Translated from the Original Manuscript, with an Introduction by Aylmer Maude
  45. 45A Powerful Work Full of Genius and Originality
  46. 46Small 12mo, Cloth, 268 pp. 80 cts., post-paid
  47. 47Funk & Wagnalls Company, Publishers New York and London
  48. 48Transcriber's Notes

About this edition

Author
Leo Tolstoy
Era
Modern (c. 1800–1945)
Reading level
Advanced: for close, demanding reading
Formats
EPUB, PDF
Length
121 pages
This edition
Modern Philosophers