Sonya: The Life of Countess Tolstoy

by Anne Edwards

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671240404
• ISBN13: 9780671240400
• Release Date: April 1981
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Dr Phil and a time machine

Spoiler Alert!! Basically, this book teaches us that the personal life of one of the greatest writers to ever live, would have made a pretty good Jerry Springer episode. He spends his young days sexing up various prostitutes (at the urging of his immediate family members), an older relative, and eventually, one of his serfs while her husband is away (at war i think, to boot). Serfs? Whats a Serf? It's kind of like a servant and sort of like a sharecropper on a big farm that belongs to the main rich SOB (in this case, Tolstoy), but with more legal restrictions -- which were lifted in the 1860s by the Tsar. Anyways. The russian Aristocracy spend an awful lot of time hanging around each others houses and not doing a whole hell of a lot. After reading this book I now understand the joke 'The Aristocrats'. Tolstoy is basically a grade A number 1 certified jerk. He often neglects or is indifferent to the plight of his serfs, but then in some crazy spurt of consciousness he will change, and start a school for their kids or whatever, only to abandon it when something else tickles his fancy. Basically Sonya describes him best. He is a genius, a great writer, but not a great man, because great men are not hypocrites. The Tolstoyans are "idlers", who sit around all day doing not a whole hell of a lot. their chief, Chertkov, is a scum sucking bottom feeder who bilks Sonya and her family out of the profits of Tolstoys works.... and somehow Chertkov never gives up his wealth or posessions and some money goes disappearing. . . . . . . and this is the tip of the iceberg people. What else? Sonya has like 13 kids, 6 of them die. Wow. Why so many? Because Tolstoy doesn't believe in birth control. And besides, the only method they apparently know of is the 'pull out' method. Aside from understanding the darkest corners of the human soul, these brilliant russian intellectuals have yet to discover the wonderful world of condoms. Abortion, of course, is a mortal sin, but Sonya is still driven to pile drive her belly onto hard objects in secret because she can't get the help of the local herbalist midwife --- who is too afraid of Tolstoy to help her. Tolstoy also doesn't believe that giant fissures on your nipples should excuse you from the 'duty' of suckling a baby. Regardless of the horrendous pain and suffering and possible infection. By the way, sex with a nursing woman is abhorrent as well to Tolstoy. Eventually, err, all sex is abhorrent to him. Maybe it is his guilt... after all his desire for sex has caused him to inflict a great deal of pain on his serf and her son, and this relationship is a constant pain for Sonya his wife... Not to mention the VD he contracts along the way somewhere that gives him health problems later on. But Sonya knows all this and marries him anyways, apparently he can never accept that she wants to be with him in spite of his sins. Whatever the reasons, guilt or philosophy or mental illness or something else, let's j

Where's the Prozac?

I am fond of Anne Edwards style of writing and find this book very interesting because it is well researched and the story of Tolstoy's marriage to Sonya is a fascinating glimpse of history. Particularly as it relates to the books he has written and how the characters and incidences were based on his real life. That said, I sometimes just wanted to reach into the book and hit them both on the head! Although he is certainly one of the greatest writers, Tolstoy definately would have greatly benefited if Prozac were available in his day. His wife Sonya, wasn't any better -- she vascillates between fanatic love and deep hate for him. They were both co-dependent and frankly, it just made my blood boil as I was reading the book. I just wanted to scream at them and say "enough - get a divorce...if not for your well-being, then think of the kids!...." After putting the book down, it is almost impossible to feel any empathy for these two people because ultimately, they just didn't get the concept that a relationship is between two people and not just about yourself.

A rare insight of a famous person

In reading this book I was reminded of the joke "behind every successful man there is a woman telling him he is wrong"This is the history of the marriage and life of Sonja, the Countess Tolstoy. It is a case where a well to do Russian family whose 19 year old daughter Sonja is courted and eventually marries Count Leo Tolstoy, a worldly middle-aged aristocrat and soon to be successful author. Count Tolstoy takes his young bride back to his family estate where she becomes a loving loyal wife and they start a family. The marriage and family endures various flare-ups as Sonja remains the loving loyal wife, whereas Count Tolstoy evolves from novelist to pacifist to espousing strict monastic type rules for living the proper life as he attempts to achieve the life of a religious ascetic. Count Lev Tolstoy had a reputation at that time as Russia's greatest interlectual before finally achieving a lifestyle as a sort of Russian holy-man, a wandering religious ascetic, just months before he died. The world saw him with his disciples, Tolstoyans, as they were called, championing the lot of the Russian serfs, running schools for the serf's children, and espousing doctrines comparable to strict monastic rules for living. Count Tolstoy over time became more dogmatic, revolutionary and estranged to family life, Sonya, by contrast remained fiercely loyal to her husband, and family throughout the marriage. She wrestled with the management of the estate, fought to preserve literary rights to provide income for the children, while her husband was becoming less worldly, dividing the estate among the serfs and assigning his royalties to his followers. Sonya was using her influence and contacts in the Czar's court to keep her husband from being arrested for political agitation. Count Tolstoy publicly had the sympathy of the people. Sonja appears as the reason behind Tolstoy's failures. This book makes one sympathize with Sonja as she copes with an increasingly dogmatic difficult vacillating husband. Nevertheless, a strong love was present throughout the marriage and the sad farewell death-bed drama of the Count as he lingered on in a railway station was a scene that Hollywood would envy. The book was very well written. The private story of this marriage is divulged through an incredible amount of research, gleaned from interviews of surviving members of the household and largely the personal diaries of both the Count and Countess Tolstoy. The same family events and flare-ups are seen from the perspective of both sides largely from their respective diaries or letters. It makes one see Count Tolstoy in a different light.