Page:Sarolea - Great Russia.djvu/130

114 of English Puritanism, and to the licence of the City of Pleasure.

V

seems to be a devious and circuitous way of approaching the character and work of Tolstoy, but I am sure it is the only way to reach a deeper understanding of his personality and of his Art. Most critics approach the Russian giant in complete ignorance of the mental and spiritual atmosphere and climate in which his genius developed. They study his character under the strange impression that the preacher of the simple life was himself a simple man.

As a matter of fact, Tolstoy never was a simple man. Indeed, I do not know in the whole range of European literature a personality more uncannily complex and perplexing. Two years ago, Mr. Bernard Shaw wrote a brief and striking estimate of Tolstoy for the Fabian News, and it was amusing to observe how the great English master of paradox was simply bewildered by the paradox of Tolstoy's personality.

Tolstoy's biography illustrates better than any other the distracting contrasts of the typical Russian nobleman and Intellectual. He