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

Tolstoy took it a step further: You can infer from his work that he thought the moments in which we feel the greatest thankfulness are those in which we are most noble.

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Isaiah Berlin, drawing on an ancient Greek proverb, famously observed that Leo Tolstoy was a foxlike writer who knew many things but longed to be someone who, like the hedgehog, knew one big thing.

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“These children are horrible,” Tolstoy shortly observed, thus displaying the deep insight into human nature that would characterize his later work.

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Those lines are straight from a new translation of Leo Tolstoy's epic novel War & Peace, set in the world of Russian high society in the early 19th century.

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With apologies to Leo Tolstoy, fanatics are all alike, while each moderate is moderate in their own way.

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