What Is Art? is the result of fifteen years’ reflection on the nature and purpose of art.
Tolstoy claims that all good art is related to the authentic life of the broader community and that the aesthetic value of a work of art is not independent of its moral content. The book is noteworthy not only for its famous iconoclasm and compelling attacks on the aestheticist notion of “art for art’s sake” but even more for its wit, its lucid and beautiful prose, and its sincere expression of the deepest social conscience.
Tolstoy is an author critics typically rank alongside Shakespeare and Homer. A sustained consideration of the cultural import of art by someone who was himself an artist of the highest stature will always remain relevant and fascinating to anyone interested in the place of art and literature in society.
Audiobook details
GenreOther, Philosophy
Length6 hrs 32 mins
Narrated byGeoffrey Blaisdell
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateJul 23, 2008
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Chapter 1
11Chapter 11
2Chapter 2
12Chapter 12
3Chapter 3
13Chapter 13
4Chapter 4
14Chapter 14
5Chapter 5
15Chapter 15
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6Chapter 6
16Chapter 16
7Chapter 7
17Chapter 17
8Chapter 8
18Chapter 18
9Chapter 9
19Chapter 19
10Chapter 10
20Chapter 20
About the author
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was born about two hundred miles from Moscow. His mother died when he was two, his father when he was nine. His parents were of noble birth, and Tolstoy remained acutely aware of his aristocratic roots, even when he later embraced doctrines of equality and the brotherhood of man. After serving in the army in the Caucasus and Crimea, where he wrote his first stories, he traveled and studied educational theories. In 1862 he married Sophia Behrs and for the next fifteen years lived a tranquil, productive life, finishing War and Peace in 1869 and Anna Karenina in 1877. In 1879 he underwent a spiritual crisis; he sought to propagate his beliefs on faith, morality, and nonviolence, writing mostly parables, tracts, and morality plays. Tolstoy died of pneumonia in 1910 at the age of eighty-two.View all by Leo Tolstoy
