Leo Tolstoy is one of the greatest writers of the last two hundred years. His novels tend to convey an insight on life; whether it be about suffering, death, religion, art, or education. Tolstoy was a man with many strong beliefs, and one must understand these beliefs to fully understand the meaning...

"The Death of Ivan Illyich" is a book about a man's struggle with the idea that men are not as invincible as they seem and that we all must come to terms with the one very thing that none of us can escape from, and that is death. We may think about death in secondary terms, or we ...

In Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy examines the psychological makeup of Konstantin Levin. On one hand, he is a symbol for the educated landowners and aristocracy that is prevalent in Russia. Conversely, he represents the struggle in searching for the meaning of life. Although part of the Russian Aristocr...

"The Death of Ivan Ilych" is Leo Tolstoy's assertion of man's attitude and position in life. In an attempt to teach society the fallacy of propriety (conforming to society), he created this melancholy tale of the life and death of Ivan Ilych. A man whose main goal in life is to attain ...

Anna Karenina-Leo Tolstoy It had grown quite dark and to the south, where he was looking, there were no longer any clouds. The clouds had passed over in the opposite direction. From there came flashes of lightning and the sound of distant thunder. Levin listened to the regular dripping of th...

Throughout the novel, there a many different themes. The book starts with "all happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way"(part 1 ch.1), which introduces the themes of marriage, love, and family life. Moral, religious, class and society themes are also so...