Tolstoy: A Russian Life | 
pickI decided to make this a pick because of the sheer volume of research Bartlett put into this book. It‘s kind of mind blowing and super impressive. I recently bought a gorgeous edition of War and Peace, but I thought I should learn about Tolstoy‘s life before I dived in. That was a mistake…the more I read about him, the more I found myself disliking him. While I understand the profound impact he had on Russian culture and language ⬇️
RosePressedPages He was such an awful, narcissistic, selfish, and egotistical person. His treatment of his family and wife made my blood boil. He seemed to think whatever ideas or phases he was pursuing trumped his family in every way. I couldn‘t find a single review on Goodreads where anyone felt the same way. Everyone seemed to find his genius writing skills as an excuse for his poor character. While his eventual philosophies with serfdom, christianity ⬇️ (edited) 13mo
RosePressedPages and private property were admirable, he was firmly a misogynist. I just can‘t overlook his flaws and I think it might take me a while to decide to pick up War and Peace now. 13mo
Deblovestoread War and Peace is one of my all time favorite books but I wonder if I would feel the same if I had known more about the author. He sounds like a complete Ass. 13mo
RosePressedPages @Deblovestoread I should‘ve just read the book and remained completely oblivious…he makes me so angry but it sucks cause he‘s so important to Russian history at the same time 13mo