'This country's leading Tolstoy scholar has selected, edited and translated a two-volume set of Tolstoy's Letters, which represents academic publishing of the highest kind.' Yorkshire Post

Leo Tolstoy was unquestionably the most prolific letter-writer of all the great Russian novelists of the nineteenth century. In this selection of his correspondence, meticulously edited by R. F. Christian, readers can discover Tolstoy's views about his own work and that of other writers, his evolving attitudes towards the times through which he lived, and his deep meditations on family, friends, and himself.

This first of two volumes of the Letters is divided into five sections and spans the years from 1828 to 1879.

'Professor Christian's selection is a major act of scholarship and publication.' George Steiner, Sunday Times

'Both scholarly and easy to read . . . exceptionally rewarding.' Raymond Williams, Guardian

'Enthralling and deeply moving . . . English Tolstoyans will not be extravagant if they attach to this work Thucydides' epigraph "A possession for ever."' Sir William Hayley, Times

Introduction by: Rosamund Bartlett