What to Do? Thoughts Evoked by the Census of Moscow

📓 Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian author who is regarded as one of the greatest writers of all time. Born into an aristocratic family, he is best known for the novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877), often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction. He first acheved literary acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy Childhood, Boyhood and Youth (1852-56), and Sevastopol Sketches (1855) based upon his Crimean War experiences. Tolstoy's fiction includes dozens of short stories and several novellas, and he also wrote plays and numerous philosophical essays. In this non-fiction work he describes the social conditions of Russia in his day. He completed the work in 1886 and this first English translation came out the following year.