Tolstoy on Shakespeare

Tolstoy on Shakespeare

A critical Essay on Shakespeare

By

LEO TOLSTOY

Translated by V. Tchertkoff and I. F. M.

Followed by

Shakespeare's Attitude to the Working Classes

By

ERNEST CROSBY

And a Letter From

G. BERNARD SHAW

NEW YORK & LONDON
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
1906

This Volume is issued by arrangement with V. Tchertkoff, sole
literary representative of Leo Tolstoy outside Russia, and
Editor of "The Free Age Press," Christchurch, Hants.

no rights reserved

Published, November, 1906

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CONTENTS

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[1]

PART I

TOLSTOY ON SHAKESPEARE

I

[3]

Mr. Crosby's article[1] on Shakespeare'sattitude toward the working classes suggestedto me the idea of also expressing my own long-establishedopinion about the works of Shakespeare,in direct opposition, as it is, to thatestablished in all the whole European world.Calling to mind all the struggle of doubt andself-deceit,—efforts to attune myself to Shakespeare—whichI went through owing to mycomplete disagreement with this universaladulation, and, presuming that many haveexperienced and are experiencing the same, Ithink that it may not be unprofitable to expressdefinitely and frankly this view of mine,opposed to that of the majority, and the moreso as the conclusions to which I came, whenexamining the causes of my disagreement[4]with the universally established opinion, are,it seems to me, not without interest and significance.

My disagreement with the established opinionabout Shakespeare is not the result of an accidentalframe of mind, nor of a light-mindedattitude toward the matter, but is the outcomeof many years' repeated and insistent endeavorsto harmonize my own views of Shakespearewith those established amongst allcivilized men of the Christian world.

I remember the astonishment I felt when Ifirst read Shakespeare. I expected to receivea powerful esthetic pleasure, but having read,one after the

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