Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) wrote two of the longest and most read novels ever published, then spent his last decades trying to disown the life that produced them, giving up property and copyright in favour of a radical Christian pacifism that influenced Gandhi directly — the two men corresponded. War and Peace and Anna Karenina are quoted constantly, and often loosely: several of the most circulated “Tolstoy” lines are paraphrases that no standard translation matches. The versions on this page are taken verbatim from public-domain English translations, with the part, book and chapter given so you can check them yourself.