Tolstoy, The Man and the Myth – We Needed the Myth

In recent years, the common view of the author has mutated from the saintly image propagated by his secretary, Vladimir Chertkov – brilliant, slightly nutty, gentle and generous – into the more mixed portrait depicted in the diaries of Tolstoy’s monumentally put-upon wife. “But would Sofia’s understanding of her husband, as accurate a perception as it may be of the creative artist, have inspired peaceful revolutions in India and Alabama?”