'An important and long-overdue contribution to our knowledge of Tolstoy.' D. M. Thomas, Sunday Times Volume 1 of Tolstoy's Diaries covers the years 1847-1894 and was meticulously edited by R.F. Christian so as to reflect Tolstoy's preoccupations as a writer (his views on his own work and that of others), his development as a person and as a thinker, and his attitudes to contemporary social problems, rural life, industrialisation, education, and later, to religious and spiritual questions. Christian introduces each period with a brief and informative summary of the main biographical details of Tolstoy's life. The result is a unique portrait of a great writer in the variegation of his everyday existence. 'As a picture of the turbulent Russian world which Tolstoy inhabited these diaries are incomparable - the raw stuff not yet processed into art.' Anthony Burgess 'A model of scholarship, one of the most important books to be published in recent years.' A. N. Wilson, Spectator

'An important and long-overdue contribution to our knowledge of Tolstoy.' D. M. Thomas, Sunday TimesVolume 1 of Tolstoy's Diaries covers the years 1847-1894 and was meticulously edited by R.F. Christian so as to reflect Tolstoy's preoccupations as a writer (his views on his own work and that of others), his development as a person and as a thinker, and his attitudes to contemporary social problems, rural life, industrialisation, education, and later, to religious and spiritual questions.Christian introduces each period with a brief and informative summary of the main biographical details of Tolstoy's life. The result is a unique portrait of a great writer in the variegation of his everyday existence.'As a picture of the turbulent Russian world which Tolstoy inhabited these diaries are incomparable - the raw stuff not yet processed into art.' Anthony Burgess'A model of scholarship, one of the most important books to be published in recent years.' A. N. Wilson, Spectator

The newest volume in the distinguished annual

Considered by many critics to be the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is also, at 1500 pages, one of the most feared. What it is not is outdated. A love story, a family saga, a war novel. Tolstoy's epic is, at its core, about human beings attempting to create a meaningful life for themselves in a country torn apart by social change, political divisiveness, and spiritual confusion. It is nothing less than a mirror of our times.

How do we know what we should teach? And how should we go about teaching it? These deceptively simple questions about education perplexed Tolstoy. Before writing his famous novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy opened an experimental school on his estate to try and answer them. His experiences there incited his life-long inquiry into the meaning and purpose of religion, literature, art and life itself. In this text, Daniel Moulin tells the story of the course of Tolstoy's educational thought, and how it relates to Tolstoy's fiction and other writings. It begins with his experience of being a child and adolescent, incorporates his travels in Europe, the experimental school, his literature, and his views on art, philosophy, and spirituality. Throughout, the relevance and impact of Tolstoy's thinking on education are translated into applicable theory for today's education students.