First published 2020
In the final decades of his life, Leo Tolstoy turns his penetrating gaze toward the nature of art itself. The celebrated author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina embarks on a radical mission to strip away centuries of artistic assumptions. Tolstoy rejects the notion that art exists to reveal beauty or provide aesthetic pleasure. Instead, he argues that true art must serve a moral purpose, functioning as a vehicle for human improvement and spiritual elevation. His revolutionary framework leads him to condemn works by Shakespeare, Beethoven, Michelangelo, and Dante as failures of genuine artistic expression. Even his own masterful novels fall under his harsh judgment. Through passionate reasoning and unwavering conviction, Tolstoy constructs an entirely new definition of what art should be. He envisions art as a force that unites humanity through shared moral feeling rather than divides it through elitist beauty. This iconoclastic treatise challenges readers to reconsider everything they believe about artistic value and cultural worth.
Genres: art, 20th-century, criticism, 19th-century, art-history, academic
Vibes: intellectual, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: iconoclastic, philosophical
Period: Late 19th Century
614 pages · Paperback · Independently published