Tolstoy on Shakespeare

by Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy on Shakespeare is a critical essay of Shakespeare's work, published in 1906. It was translated by V. Tchertkoffis, presented here as a novel due to its length and chapter format. His Shakespeare-bashing is quite thorough and cathartic, actually: "Not only did I feel no delight, but I felt an irresistible repulsion and tedium, and doubted as to whether I was senseless in feeling works regarded as the summit of perfection by the whole of the civilized world to be trivial and positively bad..."

It may prompt you to re-read some of Shakespeare's plays. [Painting at right by James Stephanoff, Sir John Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1832]

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

Part VIII