“In Praise of Tolstoy”
“What an exquisite artist Tolstoy could be if he set himself to write a purely artistic work in which his obsessive ideas of the betterment of mankind took second place.”
– David Magarshack
Misguided man! Read Samuel Johnson: “It is always a writer’s duty to make the world better.”
This truth Tolstoy knew and attempted to practice as fervently as any writer ever.
