Synopses
Adolescence • more»
Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born August 28,1828 (old style) at his family’s estate at Yasnaya Polyana. His mother shortly passed away and having no surviving photographs Tolstoy had no recollection of what his mother looked liked. While still a young boy Tolstoy’s older brother, Nikolai, told him he had written the secret how to make all men happy on a green stick and hid it by a road in the Zakaz forest. Tolstoy later asked to be buried where the mystical green stick was thought to have been hidden.
At age nine the family rented a house and moved to Moscow. Soon after his father “turned up dead” while en route to visit a friend. Shortly afterwards his grandmother passed away. Losing two close family member in such a short period of time Tolstoy began formulating serious ideas about death and happiness.
College • more»
Tolstoy’s years at the University were difficult. It took months for his aunt to convince him to take the entrance exam only to fail the first time. Having passed the test the second go around and with time Tolstoy became more interested in the University for its social aspects, not academia. Yet his social life turned out to be just as bad as his grades.
His large nose, bushy eyebrows, and big lips made an already quite Tolstoy self conscious about his looks. Other than his brothers he had few close friends and most of the girls found him boring. It was however, at this time that Tolstoy lost his innocence of women. He tells the story of being taken to a brothel by his brothers only to weep at the side of her bed “after the act.”
Discouraged socially and academically Tolstoy returned home and spent the next four years doing very little.