Last Steps (Penguin Classics)

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The year is 1910. Anna Karenina and War and Peace have made Leo Tolstoy the world's most famous author. But fame comes at a price. In this fascinating look at a tortured genius on the eve of death, Jay Parini presents Tolstoy's autobiographical writing alongside letters from loved ones to paint a portrait of the great author's final year. Desperate to find respite from his troubled marriage, Tolstoy ventures into the wilderness in search of isolation, only to find a battle for his soul and legacy that offers no peace. Last Steps puts a literary giant's life and work in perspective as it bears witness to his struggle to reconcile the two.

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Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) wrote two of the great novels of the nineteenth century, War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Aylmer Maude (1858-1938) was a biographer and translator of many of Tolstoy's works into English. Leo Wiener (1862- 1939) translated more than twenty volumes of Tolstoy into English. He was a professor of Slavic literature at Harvard University. Jay Parini is Axinn Professor of English at Middlebury College. He is the author of six novels, including Benjamin's Crossing and The Apprentice Lover.