Abstract

While Tolstoy is regarded as the greatest writer of global literature and his work being translated into all major languages of the world, his literary relationship with the literature in the English language is largely ignored. The paper explores the influence of the Anglophone scholars and literary figures on the formation of Tolstoy as a great pillar of literature. The paper explores the influence of English and American writers by detailing the contents of his personal library, publications and diary entries. H.D. Thoreau, R.W. Emerson, Longfellow, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Laurence Stern, Ernest Miller Hemingway, William Shakespeare, and George Bernard Shaw. His moral rectitude, his love for realism and his humanism find a close connection with the mentioned writers, and the paper details this connection. The paper establishes the position that Tolstoy was a person with the greatest creativity and imagination, he was open to the formative influence and in the process forged his original form of the influence he imbibed in his realistic writings.

Key Words

Leo Tolstoy, American Literature, British Literature, Realism, Fiction, Russian Literature

Introduction

Intellectual and Literary influence in the formation of the literary genius of Leo Tolstoy Tolstoy achieved the height of intellectual prowess that inspired not only his contemporaries but also those who followed him. His dwelling, Yasnaya Polyana became the hub for humanist and progressive literary figures of all times. He was the epitome of the stoic Russian life where realism blended with the spring of creativity in the process of yielding a vivid, dramatic and glorious imaginary world where humanism reigned and basked in the glory of the unforgettable drama of endurance, sacrifice, idealism, mortality, nostalgia and heroism. His Russian blood was truly noble and evoked the aftertaste of the true spirit of Eastern life. However, during his formative years he did not remain a secluded and idiosyncratic soul, he read and got inspiration from a vast range of Western writers, among whom we find the philosophers and literary geniuses of the past and contemporary era remarkably represented in his works.  If it had been an ordinary and unimaginative person, the vast reading would have emerged as a wasteland of butchered texts that are artificially strung together in a Frankenstein of the mélange. Tolstoy was such an original soul who despite taking inspiration from various and diverse western sources remained original and gave all those sources an original rebirth, where the deepest musing could only hint at some likeness which could have been incidental because the liking remains so subtle that in case of few contemporary Western writers it is hard to confirm whether Tolstoy’s work was the agent or the object of the influence. 

The evaluation of Tolstoy’s work focuses on his achievement and the influence of his genius on others. But it is a fact that he remained in constant contact with others. Letters, the favourite and reliable means of reaching out to other great souls of his time, enabled him to share his thoughts and get inspiration. Besides letters, his dwelling also remained a desired destination for many. His contact with others: in person with the visiting guests, or the correspondents of his expansive circle of friends—always returned something which enabled him to further his cause to serve humanity and purify the spirit.  




Writers of United States of America

As he was completing his monumental work on art, an attempt to define the nature and purpose of art, he communicated with a number of the leading figures of American literary and political life while he avidly read the writings of Mather, Franklin. His definition finally emerged in 1898 in the form of ??? ????? ?????????? or what is the meaning of art. This work is supported by several insightful thoughts he gleaned from the intellectual pastures of American literature that stocked his library. He also contributed to several publications in the USA including the journal of Franklin and his open letter to the people in the USA. In his readings and writings, he became an intimate spectator and commentator of Americanism and its spirit. He took a special interest in the writings which addressed social issues and inequality of social classes in the US society. The reason for his interest in the US society primarily stems from a close similarity between the US and Russian sociopolitical and economic lives. The cotton-based economy of the US with budding industrialization was very similar to what the Russian intelligentsia wanted to achieve in their own backyard. Though Russian monarchy was something that lagged behind the evolving democratic norms in the US. 

Tolstoy thought this difference to be largely due to the superiority of the education system in the USA. While he praised this trait of American life in his diaries and public writings he posed a unique case of Russia, where the spirit of Russian culture and society may reap the benefits of the US industries, democracy etc. as the people of Russia believed more fervently in the ideal of socialism. The influence of American education was more pronounced in his personal life where he kept a diary of weaknesses, which he worked on to eliminate gradually through self-discipline.  The young Tolstoy took interest in literature as a result of this self-discipline. This enabled him to gather from the 19th century what he thought to be the best practices. He believed more in moral achievement as compared to physical endurance (though he recognized a close relationship between the two). In the 195h and 18th-century literature, he focused on the simplicity of thoughts, clarity of common sense, and desire for excellence in aesthetic refinement. That is why his work contains such a vigorous moral taste and the gusto was derived in his case from the unfolding of the spirit of enlightenment in his contemporary USA. While he maintained a balance between the moral, spiritual, reason and aesthetic aspects of human existence, he gave preference to the moral over the later aspects and in fact incorporated all others into the fabric of his glorified moral code. In the American writers’ penchant for moral glory, he found it to be the result of a long tradition of social transformation in the light of moral rectitude and allegiance of the American writers to philosophical and religious refinement and adjustment to the contemporary realities. On one hand, the nineteenth and twentieth-century American writers became the locus of motivation, he blended and traced this American preference for higher moral values in the eastern (from the American perspective) lands, in German especially. While he combined the diverse inspiration from the American moral uprightness, he blended them into his system with such refinement that even the best critic and investigator will declare them to be Tolstoy’s own. His own life has also become a beacon of guidance for American writers and readers. 

In the personal library of Tolstoy, the collection of American writers is concise and precise. Very old editions of Coton Mather who was an American writer who focused on religion. The book that Tolstoy owned was an early edition  (shows that Tolstoy needed very little for inspiration and instead of following the author through successive editions, he found in the earliest edition all the essence of the writer), he got what he had to get and need only a small part of writing to grasp the whole essence of the writer’s intellectual and moral calibre. It is noteworthy that Yasnaya was also a publishing place for some American writer. A section in the library is known as the Collection of American authors of Durer, among these, the leading publication is “Representative of Humanity” by R.W. Emerson. The volumes from G. Longfellow published during 1858 is also noteworthy. 

Works of American literature were also published in Bernhard Tauchnitz's series "Collection of British Authors". In this series, there were, in particular, the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, a New England novelist, novelist (in the library there is his book: Transformation: or, The Romance of Monte Beni. - Leipzig, 1860). Most of the American books from the Yasnaya Polyana library were published in America in the 1890s - 900s. A significant number of books in these years were sent to Yasnaya Polyana, often by the authors themselves, with dedicatory inscriptions. The composition and size of the American department of the library do not always reflect the interests and preferences of Tolstoy; rather, on the whole, it speaks about the scale of the popularity of the Russian writer in America at the turn of the century, about the establishment of diverse contacts. A huge number of books - on religious issues, among them the most famous authors such as T. Harris, E. Hale, C. Russell. The library contains many books on Buddhism, including L. Hern’s. There is a book by H. Ballou, the founder of universalism. The books of the Holy Scriptures and commentaries to them are kept. Tolstoy focused on the Quaker religious movement and has several books on the subject in his library. The library also contains books by D.F. Cooper, H. Garland, M. Twain, D. London, the socialist poet E. Markham, E. Glasgow.

By the end of the 1880s. W. Stead, like some other contemporaries of Tolstoy, noted the relationship between Tolstoy and the American audience (“mutual sympathy”). It is known that   Tolstoy read American literature throughout most of his life, beginning in the 1840s. It so happened that the first works of American literature were read by   Tolstoy, not in the original, but German and French translations. But, of course, the most intensive reading of the works of American authors falls on the 80-900s, when American writers, public, political, religious figures, philosophers were discovered; reading occurs most often in English, sometimes in Russian (by this time good translations of American literature began to appear, and   Tolstoy himself was actively involved in this process), less often in other languages. Remarkably that the assimilation of American literature by Tolstoy took place in parallel with the assimilation by the Americans of the works of   Tolstoy. Only a small number of American readers became acquainted with the works of Tolstoy in the late 1860s, when the first translation of his "Sevastopol Tales" appeared in America).

The doctrine of non-resistance to evil by violence, along with the preaching of love and moral self-improvement, occupies a central place in the religious and moral philosophy of   Tolstoy, whose roots go back to the early work of the writer. The theme of the horror of war and the violence associated with it sounds already in the "Sevastopol Tales", passes through all creativity, having finally received a religious and philosophical foundation in such works as "What is my faith?", "The Kingdom of God is within you", " Letter to a Hindu "," Thou shalt not kill anyone "and others. Attempts to philosophically substantiate the nature of nonviolence were undertaken by   Tolstoy back in the early 60s. in the excerpt "[On Violence]". In his understanding of the doctrine of non-resistance to evil by violence, Tolstoy develops traditions, the origins of which go back to Hebrew, Chinese, Greek wisdom and which, according to   Tolstoy, take a perfect form in the Christian commandments. In contrast to the law of violence, according to   Tolstoy, there is the law of non-violence, the law of love.   Tolstoy understands the doctrine of non-resistance to evil by violence in its strictest, literal essence, defined in the fourth commandment of the Sermon on the Mount, Chapter V of the Gospel of Matthew. According to Tolstoy, Christianity, the doctrine of the law of love, which allows violence even as an exception, is an internal contradiction, an oxymoron. 

Address by Tolstoy to the literary and philosophical heritage of the Americans is quite understandable. As David Bowers rightly notes, in comparison with the interests of Europeans in the 18th and 19th centuries, the interests of Americans were in the moral sphere, and they brought to the fore the ideas of equality and independence of the individual from the state. In 1901, in his address to the American people, Tolstoy names writers who, in his opinion, “especially influenced” him, and in whose work the idea of non-violence is central. For them, it is the moral law of the universe.

For the first time with the theme of open protest against violence in American literature against slavery inspired Tolstoy in 1854. After reading Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. In the context of the ideas that soared in Russia on the eve of the abolition of serfdom, in the light of the attitude of   Tolstoy quite obvious is his interest in this American novel, in the theme of abolitionism, which has not yet been finally formulated. By the time he finalized the treatise "What is Art?" he was already well acquainted with the theme of abolitionism, the abolition of slavery, not only based on the novel by G. Beecher Stowe. In 1886, he received from America, a biography of William Lloyd Harrison, a major abolitionist. The artistic work, the great accusatory power of   Tolstoy encountered a genuine document of the era, the previous abolition of slavery in America, in particular, the "Declaration of Feelings of 1838", or, as translated by   Tolstoy "The Kingdom of God is within you", "Proclamation of the foundations adopted by members of a society founded for the establishment of universal peace among people"; this document was included in the biography of Harrison written by his children.

Perception of Tolstoy by H.D. Thoreau and R.W. Emerson

In the teachings of the New England philosophers, the Yasnaya Polyana writer saw what he himself came to in the early 1880s, having experienced, like the transcendentalists, the influence of Plato's philosophy, classical German idealism, the works of Coleridge and Carlisle, as well as the philosophical systems of the East. Despite the commonality of sources based on the commonality of interests and methods of resolving troubling problems, the religious and moral teachings of   Tolstoy was specifically Russian, and the transcendentalism of American writers bore the imprint of New England ideology. But during the years of widespread cooling towards religion, transcendentalists in America and Tolstoy in Russia, asserted faith in the divine principle both in nature and in the human soul, considering the achievement of the moral ideal as a real possibility. The transcendentalists assigned the writer the high role of a visionary, equal to the mission of a learned theologian, a philosopher.   Tolstoy carried out this mission, becoming the voice of conscience not only in Russia but throughout the world. Tolstoy turned his gaze to writers whose work, organically reworking European and Eastern borrowings, raised American literature to the world level.

The deepest interest in Henry David Thoreau that was shown by Tolstoy appeared in the first half of the 1890s, although, according to the testimony of some contemporaries of   Tolstoy, in particular - the religious writer W. Newton, who visited   Tolstoy at the beginning of 1889, at this time he was already familiar with the work of Thoreau. Among the periodicals in the library, there is a copy of the English magazine Labor Prophet (1893, No. 24, Dec.) with an article about Thoreau, on which   Tolstoy's notes are preserved. life ", translated from English by I. Nakashidze and containing 213 excerpts from the works of Henry Thoreau. More than ninety of them were noted by   Tolstoy But, undoubtedly, the strongest impression made on Tolstoy article "On civil disobedience". Thoreau and   Tolstoy agreed with the abolitionists' assertion, that the freedom of the people is a gift that comes from God and nature. March 20, 1905, Tolstoy reads in the magazine "The Review of Reviews" the article "Hindooism versus Judaism", which contains an excerpt from Thoreau's diary, where he compares Hinduism and Judaism against the latter. Copies of the magazines "Review of Reviews", as well as "The Crank" (1908, No. 6), in which Tolstoy read an excerpt from "Civil Disobedience", are kept in the Yasnaya Polyana library. How highly did   Tolstoy "Civil disobedience", so, at first glance, he did not perceive, did not understand "Walden". His secretary V.F. Bulgakov mentions this in his diary. D.P. Makovitsky writes about this on May 25, 1910. The authors of some articles about   Tolstoy and Thoreau, drawing attention to Tolstoy's rejection of Walden, overlook the fact that on the pages of "Walden" he leaves marks to the contrary. In the book collection of the great writer, there are three copies of this book by GH Thoreau. Two of them are in English, one is in Russian. This copy, not completely cut, contains   Tolstoy. Despite the general disapproval of this work of Thoreau, his attention is riveted by many of the thoughts of the American writer - in the margins, you can see the underscores, "NB". Statements of   Tolstoy V.F. Bulgakov and D.P. Makovitsky wrote about Toro on May 25, 1910.   Tolstoy on this day testifies to the background against which the comment about "Walden" sounded, possibly accidental. It is quite obvious that   Tolstoy, who subjected all the vices of modern civilization to merciless criticism, could not help but appreciate Thoreau's experiment in the Walden forests, where his disgust for civilization, bourgeois morality, the desire to live simply, reducing his needs to a minimum, which corresponded to Thoreau's ideas about the image life of a real artist. A follower of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, this, in the words of Emerson, "bachelor of nature" believed that pondering such a subject as true life is possible only among meadows and fields.

The materials stored in the Yasnaya Polyana library allow us to say with some caution that with the works of R.W. Emerson. Tolstoy was familiar since the 1850s. In the German magazine Literarisches Zentralblatt (1858, No. 11), the young   Tolstoy read a note on the German translation of Emerson's two articles on Goethe and Shakespeare from the book Representatives of Humanity. A copy of this book, published in Leipzig in 1856, is available in the book collection Tolstoy, although it is not known when this book appeared in the Yasnaya Polyana library. Firmly and for a long time in the orbit of interests of the Yasnaya Polyana writer, Emerson entered the orbit of interests of the Yasnaya Polyana writer after several decades, as evidenced by the diary entries in May-June 1884. Probably at this time he read the collection "Experiments" ("Essays", 1841), which contains the most famous of the "experiments" Emerson - "Self-reliance. In June 1884, Tolstoy turned to Emerson's book Representatives of Humanity, in which Emerson appears not only as a philosopher, essayist but also as a subtle psychologist. T. especially attracts an essay about Napoleon, “the man of this world.” In the Yasnaya Polyana library, there is a copy of this book and translated into Russian. Emerson's faith in the strength of man, his will, abilities, reason is boundless. to be indifferent to the opinion of others - this is what is necessary for the unity and harmony of the world, Emerson believed. According to individual statements in the diary, letters, reflections and appeals in several articles, one can trace the undoubted similarity of Tolstoy's views with Emerson's theory of self-confidence, it fits very naturally into the system of his views on the world and the place of the individual in it.   Tolstoy puts Emerson very highly, calling him a "Christian religious writer." The Yasnaya Polyana library contains two more books by Emerson in English: 1). “Ideal life” (Emerson RW The Ideal life ... - London, Sa); 2). A collection of excerpts from the works of Emerson (Emerson viewed with an oriental eye ... – (Lily Dale, 1900). On the last page of the last book, there are traces of Tolstoy's reading. He erases the key messages of Emerson, revealing the essence of his teachings. In the December 1908 book of the American magazine Fellowship, Tolstoy deleted the thought of Emerson, which in a more complete form entered the "Reading Circle" (entry 16.XII, 4). In his doctrine of the state, Emerson sets out the views, who further developed the American tradition of philosophical anarchism, which in many respects coincided with Tolstoy's concept of the functions of state power.

Leo Tolstoy and W. Whitman

Many considered Walt Whitman to be the direct successor of R.W. Emerson in America, whose book of poems "Leaves of Grass" was enthusiastically greeted by Emerson in 1855. The source that nourished both the transcendentalists and Whitman was undoubtedly the Age of Enlightenment. It is no coincidence that Whitman was called the perfect embodiment of the spirit of this era: the democratic philosophy of the rationalist 18th century permeated all his work, taking into account, of course, the realities of his contemporary reality. Whitman called himself a "radical of the radicals", who endorsed Rousseau and Payne's positions on government as an institution brought about by the inability of virtue to rule the world. And in one of his articles, he proclaimed the thesis, which Tolstoy could have signed without hesitation, about “the best government that controls the least.” Tolstoy addressed this statement, speaking with enthusiasm about Thoreau, before whom Whitman also admired, who openly despised the law, the order in the form as it was understood by the American writers.

The process of reading and comprehending Whitman's poetry by Tolstoy can be divided into several stages. The first is a complete rejection of the poet's work. A few months later, in October 1889, Tolstoy again turns to the poems of the American poet, and this can be called the second stage of reading Whitman: "... I have already found something good, for example," Biography of a Writer "(50, 165). Probably at this time, reading the London edition" Leaves of Grass ", Tolstoy leaves marks in the form of underscores on the pages of the collection preserved in the Yasnaya Polyana library. Concentrated reading of Whitman's poems allows Tolstoy to discover the philosophical world of the poet, which, at first glance, is complicated because of such a new expression of Whitman himself, an idiomatic style, and so simple and wise in essence, revealed upon careful reading. "The biography of the writer "is the poem" When I read the book ", which  Tolstoy underlines with a simple pencil on page 5. In this only poem mentioned in the diary, Tolstoy fully agrees with his But Tolstoy begins to read "Leaves" with a preface by Ernest Rees, in which, on p.xxxiv, he crosses out the poem "I dreamed of a city" with a purple pencil. Tolstoy eliminates the following poems: “I am not accessible to alarms” (“Me imperturbable”), “Europe”, “When I heard the learned astronomer”, “Thoughts”). Letter to   Tolstoy L.P. Nikiforov, July 21-22marks out with a simple pencil on page 5. This only poem mentioned in the diary by  Tolstoy fully agrees with its author. But to read "Leaves" by   Tolstoy begins with a foreword by Ernest Rees, in which, on p.xxxiv, he underlines the poem "I Dreamed of a City" with a purple pencil. Against this poem, in the margin,   Tolstoy writes: "love".   Tolstoy deletes the following poems: “I am not accessible to alarms”, “Europe”, “When I heard the learn'd astronomer”). Letter from   Tolstoy to L.P. Nikiforov on July 21-22 marks out with a simple pencil on page 5. In this connection the only poem mentioned in the diary by Tolstoy fully agrees with its author. But to read "Leaves" by Tolstoy begins with a foreword by Ernest Rees, in which, on p.xxxiv, he underlines the poem "I Dreamed of a City" with a purple pencil. Against this poem, in the margin, Tolstoy writes: "love".  Tolstoy deletes the following poems: “I am not accessible to alarms”, “Europe”, “When I heard the learn'd astronomer”, “Thoughts”). Letter from   Tolstoy to L.P. Nikiforov, July 21-22 1890 suggests that he intended to recommend the poems he noted to Nikiforov for translation.   Tolstoy not only recognizes the obvious merits of the poet but also acts as his popularizer in Russia. But already in 1897-1898. in one of the versions of the treatise "What is Art?"   Tolstoy mentions Whitman in a completely negative context, along with the names of Baudelaire, Verlaine, Zola, Kipling, Ibsen (30, 394). In his 1901 address to the American people, Tolstoy mentions Whitman among the "brilliant galaxy" of American writers. 900s - this is, perhaps, the third stage in the reading of   Tolstoy Whitman, in his final recognition of the American poet, as evidenced by the record of D.P. Makovitsky, made on December 12, 1907. Tolstoy likely got acquainted with the work of Whitman not only through the collection "Leaves of Grass", but also on some other books stored in his library.

From a fragmentary address by  Tolstoy to the works of American literature and philosophy in his youth, his steady interest in literature, philosophy, the religion of America in the last three decades of his life grows, which allowed him not only to identify the "brilliant galaxy" of writers but also to feel the support in the work of American writers, philosophers, religious and public figures whom he mentions in his famous address to the American people, as well as in several articles, addresses, letters. Tolstoy's system of moral and aesthetic values with the priority of moral parameters found its confirmation in the American literature of the 19th century with her adherence to the ideals of humanism of the 18th century, with her desire, on the one hand, to resist the disintegration of patriarchal foundations, on the other, to create her American philosophical concept of the development of literature and society, in which European borrowings would harmoniously combine with the needs of the New World. The interest of   Tolstoy in American literature in the light of its close connection with both the Christian tradition and the ideals of the French enlighteners, as well as with its partial belonging to the context of English literature, is quite natural. But this interest was formed quite obviously and unconditionally in the last decades of   Tolstoy's life when he got the opportunity to observe not only the development of fiction but also the entire socio-political thought of America. The works of Emerson, Thoreau, Harrison, Whitman, widely known back in the 1850s, Tolstoy discovers for himself in the 1880-1890s, along with the works of W. D. Howells, E. Keller, E. Bellamy, E. Sinclair, E. Glasgow, H. James and other American writers. With the works of Prescott, Cooper, Hawthorne, Longfellow   Tolstoy was familiar from his youth, to some of them, he again turns in his mature years. The “universality” of moral and aesthetic values of   Tolstoy allowed him to act as a translator of some works of American authors, to write prefaces to works of American literature, that is, his own reading experience led to the desire to translate, write a preface, publish, “convey to people”. Having defined the pinnacle of American literature in the works of writers who “flourished in the 1850s,”   Tolstoy very biasedly read the works of contemporary American authors. And not all of them withstood his strict trial.

Influence and “help” of American writers, about whom   Tolstoy says in his address, were reduced mainly to a stimulating beginning, to the confirmation of the correctness of his path and conclusions, spiritual kinship with several American authors. The writings of many American authors were served by Tolstoy sources for the collections "Reading Circle", "Every Day", "The Way of Life", and other works. Relationships Tolstoy and American writers took shape against the background of typological convergences between Russian and American literature of the mid-19th century, repeatedly noted by Tolstoy, which manifested themselves in analogies to themes, ideas, motives, styles, even forms of versification - “a worldwide circulation of ideas, images, designs, forms” (Veselovsky, nd).

Laurence Stern

Laurence Stern (1713 - 1768) - English writer, a major representative of sentimentalism. In the grotesque novels “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman” and “Sentimental Journey” he polemicizes with the educational-rationalistic interpretation of the thoughts and actions of a person.

The skill of literary parody, experiments with artistic form, keen observation and psychologism determined Stern's attractiveness in the eyes of writers of different ideological and artistic attitudes - E.T.A. Hoffman, J. Joyce, L.N. Tolstoy.

Stern was for   Tolstoy in his youth, not only a beloved author but also had a strong influence on his first literary experiments. The influence of Stern's manner on the work of the young   Tolstoy not yet fully understood. It can be traced in some things, from Childhood to the first Caucasian stories.

  Tolstoy himself wrote: “During the writing of this“ Childhood ”I was far from independent in the forms of expression, but was under the influence of two writers who strongly influenced me then: Stern (his“ Sentimental Journey ”).

Translated by Stern Tolstoy studied in the Caucasus in 1851, as evidenced by several indications in his diaries.

June 2, 1851, Tolstoy quotes Stern: "A conversation is a bargain, and if it is undertaken without sufficient equity capital, the balance does not add up and the trade falls." (Written in French).

August 10, 1851: "Despite the great talent for storytelling and clever chatter of my beloved writer Stern, the digressions are difficult even for him." The translation was done from the original. This translation was conceived, as the diary of   Tolstoy says, “for the development of the memory of a syllable,” and, indeed, it does not always show a successful struggle with the language and the structure of the phrase. The entire translation was made in a very difficult and tense speech.

More clearly than anywhere else, Stern's influence is reflected in the theme of the essay "The History of Yesterday." The whole manner of narration is a detailed analysis of the most fleeting psychological states, frequent digressions and the replacement of small observations with general aphorisms; the decoding of “silent conversation” with glances, characteristic of English humour, is all purely “stern”.

In his diary dated April 14, 1852: “I read Stern. Delightful. "

In a diary dated December 25, 1909: “I read “Sentimental Journey ”. Reminiscent of youth and artistic demands.”

In a letter to M.M. Lederle in October 1891   Tolstoy in the list of writings that made an impression mentions Stern's Sentimental Journey as a book that made a “very big impression” on him between the ages of 14 and 20”.

Ernest Miller Hemingway

Hemingway Ernest Miller (1899 - 1961) - an outstanding American writer and publicist.

Hemingway's first meeting as a reader with Russian classics took place in the 1920s. in Paris at the Sylvia Beach bookstore. Here he discovered translations of   Tolstoy's works, whom he later began to consider, along with Chekhov, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, his teacher. Hemingway immediately felt the power of true art. Already in his declining years in the book "The Holiday That Is Always with You", recalling the years he spent in Paris when he was looking for his path, his style, his position in life, he will remember, first of all, about Russian realist writers: “First there were Russians, and then everyone else. But for a long time only Russians. "

Under L. T., the American writer studied the depiction of war. "Compared to Tolstoy," he admits, "Stephen Crane's description of our Civil War seemed like a brilliant invention ..." Already being a major prose writer, Hemingway has repeatedly argued that "every experience of war is priceless for a writer."

In his book The Green Hills of Africa, he told how, while reading “The Sevastopol Tales” by Tolstoy, one of his favourite books, he “thought about Tolstoy and the enormous advantage that military experience gives the writer. War is one of the most important topics, and one when it is most difficult to write truthfully, and writers who have not seen war, out of envy try to convince themselves and others that this topic is insignificant, or unnatural, or unhealthy, when in fact they just didn’t have to experience something that cannot be compensated by anything”.

Hemingway expressed the idea of the absolute, standard truthfulness of Tolstoy. The latter was for him a writer “who rarely found a mot just (the right word) and yet sometimes he knew how to make his characters so alive, which they were not at anyone else. " This was said at a time when Hemingway thought a lot about writing techniques and often struggled in search of the "right word." It is indisputable that   Tolstoy helped him get rid of many delusions, shortened the path to understanding the truth in art. In works of fiction, in Hemingway's fiction, the artistic “presence” of   Tolstoy was barely noticeable. He admired the "Sevastopol Stories", descriptions of the feelings of a young man who first went to war, but he portrayed war and a man in the war in a completely different way. First of all, it is much more restrained. Neg does not have the powerful epic scope that is observed in the works of Tolstoy. The author of War and Peace has remained largely speculative in terms of creative influence. At the same time, when the hero's personality realizes itself as a part of integral being, Hemingway needed an epic style, and here the artistic experience of   Tolstoy in Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea," Santiago experiences a sense of the endless fullness of life, to which he feels involved. Like the young Olenin from Tolstoy’s Cossacks, the hero in his thoughts directly unites himself with the surrounding Universe.

When asked which books a writer should read, Hemingway gave a huge list, but in the first place were always "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" by   Tolstoy.

William Shakespeare

Shakespeare William (1564 - 1616) - English playwright and poet. For the first time in Russia, Shakespeare was named in the Epistle on Poetry (1748) by A.P. Sumarokova. Prepared by pre-romantic influences, the European romantic cult of Shakespeare penetrated into Russia at the beginning of the 19th century. A.A. Bestuzhev, K.F. Ryleev, V.K. Kuchelbecker, A.S. Griboyedov, A.S. Pushkin, I.S. Turgenev, N.S. Leskov and others. A realistic interpretation of Shakespeare's work was given by V.G. Belinsky.

Shakespeare occupied a special place in Tolstoy’s thoughts and works. From his youth, Shakespeare was an iconic figure for him. Respecting Shakespeare, Tolstoy at the same time, was skeptical about him. The reason for this is the discrepancy between the worldview of the two artists: the Christian position and the realistic method of   Tolstoy opposed Shakespeare's “objective” method. An internationally recognized genius, and suddenly we deny Tolstoy. What is the secret of Tolstoy about Shakespeare? In one of the conversations about contemporary dramatic art, Tolstoy said: “Even Shakespeare is above modern dramas. Even Shakespeare, whom I did not like from a young age. I argued about him with Turgenev ... "

The reaction to the Shakespearean cult was fully expressed in an article by   Tolstoy “On Shakespeare and the Drama” (1903 - 1904, publ. 1906).

This article struck at the beginning of the century all cultured humanity and caused numerous excited responses from contemporaries not only in Russia but also in the West. " Tolstoy's revolt against Shakespeare, which took the form of a critical essay" On Shakespeare and the Drama ", absorbed anti-Shakespearean tendencies that accumulated not only in Russian but also in world literature and journalism, giving these tendencies the most complete declarative character" (Yu. D. Levin).

In his essay, Tolstoy argued: "... Shakespeare cannot be recognized not only as a great, brilliant but even the most mediocre writer." This is a paradoxical statement by   Tolstoy backed up with a tendentious analysis of King Lear. In the works of Shakespeare, Tolstoy declared, “everything is exaggerated” and there is no “sense of proportion”. The general glory of the English author Tolstoy considered one of the "epidemic suggestions" that possessed people at all times and saw its harm in the fact that it deviates drama from its main purpose - "clarification of religious consciousness."

Currently, three main aspects of the negative attitude of Tolstoy to Shakespeare: psychological, socio-ethical and aesthetic.

There is no doubt that psychologically Tolstoy was more than any of his contemporaries capable of overthrowing Shakespeare. At all periods of his life, he was distinguished by a spirit of protest, a fearless desire to overthrow unshakable authorities.

The social problems of the article by Tolstoy directly related to his ethical teaching, proclaimed after the period 1870 - 1880 when the writer moved to the position of a Christian-oriented peasant. Shakespeare was not accepted by him as part of a non-religious, morally indifferent ideology.

Tolstoy attributed his "ability to lead scenes in which the movement of feelings is expressed" to the merits of the English author. “Shakespeare, himself an actor and an intelligent person, was able not only with speeches but with exclamations, gestures, repetition of words, to express states of mind and changes in feelings occurring in the characters”.

Article by   Tolstoy was an essential moment in the history of Russian Shakespeare studies. She did not destroy Shakespeare, his influence on readers and viewers, but put an end to the thoughtless irresponsible enthusiasm towards the playwright, from the cult attitude towards him.

In the Yasnaya Polyana library of the writer, Shakespeare's works are kept in Old English with Tolstoy's notes, which have not yet been studied.




George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950) - English writer, one of the founders of the social reformist "Fabian Society" (1884).

The creative heritage of   Tolstoy is such a wealth that is difficult to grasp at one glance, the genius of the writer is so broad and universal that it is not easy to answer the question of what the novelty, originality and strength of his talent were most manifested in. Three properties - subtle and accurate psychological analysis, objective epic art, and the fearless sincerity of denunciation - make him a great, unmatched writer.

Tolstoy himself, of course, did not think so - he had a lot of friends among Russian and foreign writers, many came to Yasnaya Polyana, while Tolstoy could communicate with others only through letters. The response in this address by Tolstoy was evoked in the most daring English literary contemporary - Bernard Shaw.

Shaw repeatedly referred to Tolstoy, his works; he published two large articles about the Russian writer and philosopher, sent his plays, wrote letters. It was Shaw who was one of the initiators of the publication of Tolstoy in English.

The influence of Tolstoy as a thinker is felt in many of Shaw's works. Thanks to   Tolstoy Shaw discovered the critical-realistic direction. Tolstoy Shaw found a ruthless, direct posing of the most basic questions. But in the solution, in the way of solving these questions, the way of writers diverged.   Tolstoy believed that contradictions can be dealt with the help of internal moral cleansing, and Sh., the great humorist and old man, sought only to point out and ridicule the vices of society. Tolstoy did not like the absence of a religious and moral ideal in the works of the Englishman, attempts to “get rid of” global issues with a play on words and mind. So, Tolstoy was very critical of Shaw's play "Man and Superman" and pointed out to him in a letter the shortcomings - lack of seriousness, a desire to surprise with erudition and intelligence, but not resolve the issue. But Shaw's work attracted   Tolstoy its sharp, problematic character, although it repulsed many. He wrote to Shaw twice - in 1908 and 1910. And in his notebook for 1907 Tolstoy noted: “He has got more brains than is good for him” ( “He has more brains than he needs”).

In the light of the study of the creative ties, Shaw and Tolstoy of particular interest is Shaw's play “Unmasking Blanco Posnet”, which he sent to Tolstoy with a letter on February 14, 1910. The plot is based on the trial of a tramp accused of stealing a horse. Often critics draw an analogy with Tolstoy. In both plays, the authors pose a very urgent question: how and for what reasons does a person, unspoiled by nature, come into conflict with the law and become a criminal?

Admiring   Tolstoy's talent, Shaw said: “Tolstoy saw the world as a man who penetrated behind the scenes of public and political life, and most of us are subject to all illusions [...] Alas! One who succumbs to the deceptions of civilization is easily inclined to think that the one who exposes these deceptions is insane. " In Tolstoy, the English writer saw both a spiritual mentor, a teacher and a fellow writer, although in many ways he did not agree with him.

Conclusion

The genius of Tolstoy is so pure and original that it is hard to discern and influence in the negative sense of the term. However, the vast collection in his possession, his eagerness to note the worthiness of the English language literature in his diaries and letters, and his ability to rise above the local constraint onto the global fraternity of literary masters make him a person who imbibed the positive influence of a large range of writers. His admiration for the American and British society, their education and political dispensation and his desire that they flourish further to reach the level of ideal social justice opened up his receptive imagination to the positive influence of the English and American imagination in making his fiction better. For those who value his writing as well as the greatness of English and American literature, it is pertinent to take a view of the connection that exists between Tolstoy and the Anglophone writers. 

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