What Is Art?

Written by Leo Tolstoy

Narrated by Geoffrey Blaisdell

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio
• Release date: Jul 23, 2008
• ISBN: 9781433258688

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy grew up in Russia, raised by a elderly aunt and educated by French tutors while studying at Kazen University before giving up on his education and volunteering for military duty. When writing his greatest works, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy drew upon his diaries for material. At eighty-two, while away from home, he suffered from declining health and died in Astapovo, Riazan in 1910.

Reviews for What Is Art?

[danielstj · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An interesting conception of the basis of art by the famed Tolstoy. The prose is stiff, but the ideas are original and considerable. A pleasant read, and one that gives rise to careful logical, and moral, consideration of the idea of art itself.3 stars.

[isolde100_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A book that could have been written today. His observations on the corruption of art and the creative process are as current as they were in 1899.

[stillatim · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Much better and more convincing than I was expecting. Even Tolstoy's literature review is entertaining. And yes, it gets a bit repetitive, and it's not perfectly thought through, but as a work of social and cultural criticism, this deserves (even) more praise than it receives.