Two On Tolstoy

We would be remiss if we did not mention that our fastidious, erudite, and diligent book reviewer, Bob Blaisdell, has two new books out.

Readers may already know that Bob is the author of Chekhov Becomes Chekhov: The Emergence of a Literary Genius, about the turning point year in Chekhov’s life that led to his becoming one of the world’s greatest authors. He also wrote Creating Anna Karenina: Tolstoy and the Birth of Literature's Most Enigmatic Heroine, about Tolstoy’s creation of that masterpiece. These are just the latest steps in his long and distinguished teaching, editing, and writing career, in which he has written about everything from Frederick Douglass to Karl Ove Knausgaard, from philosophy to literature. 

Bob has been contributing to Russian Life since 2018, and we are very lucky to have his regular contributions and thoughts in our Under Review section. A longtime Russophile, Bob began learning Russian relatively late in his career, so that he could read Russian literature in the original.