Married life

In the prime of his life Leo Tolstoy is a man of contradictions who suffers terribly from rotten teeth and has a tortured relationship with the opposite sex. His uncontrollable sexual impulses make him fear the power women have over him, colouring his views on love and marriage.

Yet it is only after he marries 18-year-old Sophia Behrs after a short courtship that he finally settles down and achieves his potential as a writer. He is aged 34 when he brings her back to Yasnaya Polyana, finally choosing a simple life governed by the seasons, rather than a high society existence in Moscow or St Petersburg.

They immediately have the first of their 13 children and he commences War and Peace. In six years it is finished and a couple of years later he starts Anna Karenina. Sophia place a big part in the creation of these two extraordinary novels.

He has another family too on his country estate, namely the serfs that are tied to him under Russia’s feudal system. Throughout his adult life he identifies with them and their way of life, experiments with educating their children and helps them achieve equality.

Physicality
Women
A proposal and a marriage
Married life and children
His other family: The peasants