British Novelists and Leo Tolstoy
Contents: Preface. 1. An introduction to Leo Tolstoy. 2. Large loose baggy monsters : Henry James\'s radical critique of Leo Tolstoy\'s fiction. 3. A born writer : Somerset Maugham\'s estimation of Leo Tolstoy the fictionist. 4. No English novelist is as great as Tolstoy : E.M. Forster\'s laudatory assessment of Leo Tolstoy\'s mind and art. 5. Genius in the raw : Virginia Woolf on Leo Tolstoy. 6. Extremes of literary criticism--Old Liar, one of the greatest writers of all time : D.H. Lawrence\'s denunciation of, and adulation for, Leo Tolstoy. 7. Joyce Cary\'s critical response to Leo Tolstoy\'s art and ideas. 8. Summing up. Index.
A creative artist of the calibre and stature of Leo Tolstoy merits discussion time and again. Indeed, the writer of the greatest novel of the world, War and Peace, would always inspire people interested in fiction to scrutinise his mind and art. Small wonder great British novelists of his time and of the succeeding generations were irresistibly attracted towards the master fictionist, and made numerous statements about his art and ideas in their expository writings. This has impelled me to study closely the great Russian and some of the major English novelists varied critical responses to him. The volume begins with a compact introduction to the making of Tolstoy the writer. The next six chapters analyse six great English novelist critics variegated critical observations on, and assessments of, Tolstoy\'s inimitable creative genius and his different forms of writings. The British novelists considered in this context are: Henry James, Somerset Maugham, E.M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence and Joyce Cary. It is hoped that the book will be interesting and stimulating to the academics in India and abroad. (jacket)
A creative artist of the calibre and stature of Leo Tolstoy merits discussion time and again. Indeed, the writer of the greatest novel of the world, War and Peace, would always inspire people interested in fiction to scrutinise his mind and art. Small wonder great British novelists of his time and of the succeeding generations were irresistibly attracted towards the master fictionist, and made numerous statements about his art and ideas in their expository writings. This has impelled me to study closely the great Russian and some of the major English novelists varied critical responses to him. The volume begins with a compact introduction to the making of Tolstoy the writer. The next six chapters analyse six great English novelist critics variegated critical observations on, and assessments of, Tolstoy\'s inimitable creative genius and his different forms of writings. The British novelists considered in this context are: Henry James, Somerset Maugham, E.M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence and Joyce Cary. It is hoped that the book will be interesting and stimulating to the academics in India and abroad. (jacket)
