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What Is Art? — Leo Tolstoy

Written work

What Is Art?

Что такое искусство?

Lev Tolstói en Yásnaia Poliana (1908)
byLeo Tolstoy

Aesthetic treatise written over fifteen years and published in 1897–1898. It rejects definitions of art by beauty or pleasure and defines it as an activity by which one person consciously transmits to others feelings he has lived through, infecting them with them. It condemns as false art much elite art — including Wagner, the Symbolists and some of his own works — and defends a universal art, intelligible to all, uniting people in brotherhood. First published in full in Aylmer Maude's English translation.

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Read the full textEditions and translations · 2

English

Editions and translations

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English

  • What Is Art? — Leo Tolstoy

    What Is Art?

    Penguin Classics, 1995

    Translation: Richard Pevear y Larissa Volokhonsky

    ISBN 0140446427

    Buy the book · Amazon (amazon.com)

  • What Is Art?

    Brotherhood Publishing Co., 1898

    Translation: Aylmer Maude

    Primera edición íntegra; dominio público (Project Gutenberg n.º 64908).

Other works by Leo Tolstoy

Sources

  • Толстой, Л. Н. Полное собрание сочинений в 90 томах (edición del Jubileo). Moscú–Leningrado: Gosudárstvennoe izdátelstvo judózhestvennoi literatury, 1928–1958. Serie I: obras (t. 1–45); serie II: diarios (t. 46–58); serie III: cartas (t. 59–89); t. 90: suplementos. Edición digital del Museo Estatal L. N. Tolstói.

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