Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy as a Discovery

Abstract

In the review, V. A. Kotelnikov’s new book “Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy in Life and Literature” is regarded as a scientific discovery. The author lists various aspects of the great work that became the discovery of the personality of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy (the circumstances of his life, relations with contemporaries, opinions on pressing issues, philosophical reflections, etc.), the discovery of A. K. Tolstoy’s works, keeping many mysteries, the discovery of some of his remarkable contemporaries, the discovery of the time of the earthly existence of the writer and poet who lived and worked in a difficult transitional historical era. The review notes that the book by V. A. Kotelnikov is remarkable for the discovery of the historical and cultural era of the middle of the 19th century in her biggest achievements, characteristic tendencies. The author emphasizes the breadth and encyclopedic knowledge of the author of the new research, which is a necessary condition for creating a book about a personality of the scale of A. K. Tolstoy. The style of the new edition is assessed, the main substantive aspects considered by the author are given, the importance of labor in modern literary criticism is shown. The book by V. A. Kotelnikov through dialogue, analogies and comparisons with the creative personality of the writer of the golden age of the classics also becomes a discovery of himself for the modern reader.