Physicality

Tolstoy is a man of great passion. Sometimes he sinks into the depths of despair because he doubts his talent as a writer or his lack of application, other times his attitude is one of supreme arrogance and moral superiority.

Those who aren’t big admirers accuse him of being contrary, hot headed and inconsistent in his beliefs. But none question his talent as a writer. Supporters find him to be a great inspiration. Said one of the teachers from the schools he set up: “I have never met a man capable of firing another mind to such white heat. In the course of my spiritual relationship with him I felt as though electric sparks were striking into the very depths of my soul and setting in motion all kinds of thoughts and plans and decisions” (p126, Tolstoy, Crankshaw).

On the one hand you could call Tolstoy a man of contradictions, on the other, you could say he just appeared that way because he relentlessly and ruthlessly examined the nature of himself, other people and the world -- and recorded so much of his thought processes in his diaries for biographers to pore over long after his death.

In the prime of his life Tolstoy is 5’9” in height and stocky. After meeting him for the first time NA Nekrasov, the first editor to publish his work, tells a friend by letter: “He is not handsome, but he has an extremely attractive face, at once forceful and gentle. His glance is a caress” (p126, Tolstoy, Crankshaw). When his contemporaries get to know him better or find themselves at the receiving end of his contempt, they are more likely to comment on his heavy eyebrows and piercing stare.

Health care in Russia in the 1800s is primitive by today’s standards -- and dental care too. Tolstoy suffers toothaches often during the first half of his life. After visiting a Russian family in Brussels in 1861 he writes in a letter to his brother Sergey that there are no marriage prospects under that roof. He adds: “Besides, I don’t have much hope left on that score because my last remaining teeth are crumbling to bits. But my spirits are high!” (p126, Tolstoy, Troyat). He is 33 years of age. When courting his future wife in the following year, he describes himself as toothless.

Following the death of his brother Dmitry in 1856, then his eldest brother Nicholas four years later, he is paranoid about tuberculosis. When he consults the lung specialist Professor Traube in Berlin at the beginning of his second trip to Europe, he is given the all-clear but is advised to go to Kissingen in Germany for treatment for dental neuralgia.

He has several operations under chloroform: first for fistulas while in the army, then to have his shoulder fixed after it mends badly after a fall from a horse. On more than one occasion he is treated for venereal disease with mercury.

In 1862, just before he marries, he stays in a tent with the nomadic Bashkir people and takes what is called the koumiss cure. Koumiss is fermented mare’s milk and he has to drink large quantities and eat mutton and dried horseflesh. (Nearly a decade later he returns and buys 6,700 acres of land. He visits often from that time and sometimes takes the whole family for the summer.)

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