On Life
A Critical Edition
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- $27.99
Publisher Description
In the summer of 1886, shortly before his fifty-eighth birthday, Leo Tolstoy was seriously injured while working in the fields of his estate. Bedridden for over two months, Tolstoy began writing a meditation on death and dying that soon developed into a philosophical treatise on life, death, love, and the overcoming of pessimism. Although begun as an account of how one man encounters and laments his death and makes this death his own, the final work, On Life, describes the optimal life in which we can all be happy despite our mortality.
After its completion, On Life was suppressed by the tsars, attacked by the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church, and then censored by the Stalinist regime. This critical edition is the first accurate translation of this unsung classic of Russian thought into English, based on a study of manuscript pages of Tolstoy’s drafts, and the first scholarly edition of this work in any language. It includes a detailed introduction and annotations, as well as historical material, such as early drafts, documents related to the presentation of an early version at the Moscow Psychological Society, and responses to the work by philosophers, religious leaders, journalists, and ordinary readers of Tolstoy’s day.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This first annotated translation of an 1886 work from Tolstoy marks a significant achievement in studies of the author. The book remains a difficult one to characterize, as, according to Medzhibovskaya, it's "neither an abstract nor a technical philosophical treatise" but rather a "piece of literary nonfiction" in which Tolstoy argues that true happiness can come only through "reasonable consciousness," a kind of spiritual consciousness that transcends the merely physical. Along with a fresh translation, this edition boasts a thorough introduction, which describes the book's genesis in Tolstoy's recovery from a near-fatal infection at his country estate, places it in the context of philosophy's rise as a professional academic discipline in Russia, and traces its contemporary reception (it was banned in Russia but promptly translated into French and English.) Medzhibovskaya also includes a supplement that excerpts relevant sections of Tolstoy's own diaries and presents a selection of letters, lectures, and reviews about the text essential material for serious study. Though clearly aimed at Tolstoy scholars, this critical edition will be of interest to anyone attracted to Tolstoy's unique brand of spirituality.
