Tolstoy

Or Tol·stoi

[tohl-stoi, tol-, tuhl-stoi]

noun

1. Leo or Lev Nikolaevich Count, 1828–1910, Russian novelist and social critic.

Tolstoy

/ ˈtɒlstɔɪ, talˈstɔj /

noun

1. Leo , Russian name Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy. 1828–1910, Russian novelist, short-story writer, and philosopher; author of the two monumental novels War and Peace (1865–69) and Anna Karenina (1875–77). Following a spiritual crisis in 1879, he adopted a form of Christianity based on a doctrine of nonresistance to evil

Other Word Forms

• Tolstoyan adjective
• Tolstoian adjective
• Tolstoyism noun
• Tolstoyist noun

Example Sentences

In an aphorism sometimes attributed to Leo Tolstoy, sometimes to John Gardner, all literature relies on one of two plots: A person goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.

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An impossible composer to pin down, Machover has written a traditional grand opera such as “Resurrection,” based on Tolstoy’s novel, and “Brain Opera,” which is just that, using electrodes on your noggin.

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Wally Lamb has been likened to Joyce and Tolstoy.

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The world of “Pachinko” is as complex as a Tolstoy novel, in which the fortunes of a family and the country where they struggle for love and money are tied in exhilarating ways.

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The series begins with Isla offering a more profane version of the oft-quoted Tolstoy observation that all happy families are alike, but each unhappy one is unhappy in its own way.

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