Understanding Tolstoy recreates Tolstoy's lifelong artistic and spiritual journey, taking readers to the core of the writer's world through nuanced close readings of his major novels and novellas. Andrew D. Kaufman's broad and accessible analysis of Tolstoy's work speaks to the ways in which Tolstoy, despite living in a manner far removed from the experiences of most modern-day Americans, is still applicable and contemporary.

From a reconstruction of Olenin's search for truth in The Cossacks to an illuminating analysis of Hadji-Murat's tragic last stand, Understanding...