Lev and Sonya: The Story of the Tolstoy Marriage

by Louise Smoluchowski

English, Russian (translation)

Genres: Biography

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Rick]

When the Tolstoys married in 1862 they agreed to leave their personal diaries open so that each could review the other. In a way this would be the 19th century version of texting, wouldn't it? At any rate the marriage was a rocky one because of, or in spite of, the open diaries...and other things. But they stayed together for 48 years. It's fascinating to get into their lives and see what made them tick. Did you know that Sonia Tolstoy copied "War and Peace" seven times for Leo? That book is 1300 pages! By the way the movie "The Last Station" is about their last tumultuous years, and it's very well done.

[K.C. Bratt-Pfotenhauer]

An interesting and thorough approach to analyzing the Tolstoy marriage. My main takeaway is that I need to go back in time and shove Vladimir Chertkov into a lake.

[Kathy]

Tolstoy was in his thirties and already somewhat famous when he married a barely 18 year old Sonya Bers. The marriage lasted 48 years and produced 13 children.
Sonya was a woman before her time. She took care of everything involving the management of their daily life (household, properties, children, even proofing and recopying his manuscripts and seeing to his every need) so that he could devote all of his attention to his craft. I’m sure she (and her family) was not only an inspiration for characters in his book, but probably had a lot to do with the fact that he wrote such rich female characters.
They both wrote extensively in their diaries and they both read what each other wrote. They ached for each other physically.
After writing two of his great novels, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Lev suffered in a period of depression and searching. He had trouble resolving his philosophical beliefs while living his aristocratic lifestyle. He said he wanted to give away everything but at the same time he enjoyed his comfortable life. Sonya was the one who had to manage the finances in order to give him the lifestyle that he enjoyed but felt guilty about, while listening to him rant and rave about it and berate her for not being as virtuous and feeling the same way. He wanted to live humbly, but couldn’t and then continually berated the closest person to him for not following along – and holding him back.
He gave her, verbally, the rights to publish his works before 1881 (which included the two great novels). She used the money to raise the children and keep him in the lifestyle he was accustomed to. He wanted to give away the publishing rights to everything after 1881 to the general public – anyone who wanted to could publish his work. He wrote in his diary that this is what he wanted his children to do after he was gone. He didn’t want to leave a formal will, he just wanted them to follow his wishes.
He wrote about the virtues of living simply and had a large discipleship of Tolstoyans, who hung on every word he said and wrote and flattered his ego. The only way Sonya could get Tolstoy to pay attention to her was to act hysterically. Chertov and one of the Tolstoy’s daughters, Sasha conspired against her. They edited and published entries from his diaries when Tolstoy was upset with his wife, not the ones where he declared her the love of his life. They discredited her as demented and hysterical. Tolstoy was so upset by the hysterical atmosphere of his home that he left his family and headed for a monastery where he spent the remainder of his days. The only one to have access to him was his daughter, Sasha. While he lay dying, they wouldn’t even allow Sonya, his wife and partner of 48 years, access to him. She was photographed looking in the window for a glimpse of him. Biographers before have often portrayed Sonya in an unflattering light prone to hysteria. When the diaries are read, that is not the impression I got.

[Amy]

school read