Power Search
Low Price Guarantee
We Take School POs
A critical Essay on Shakespeare By LEO TOLSTOY
Contributor(s): Leo Tolstoy (Author)

View larger image

 ISBN: 1512380482     ISBN-13: 9781512380484
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
OUR PRICE: $8.78  

Binding Type: Paperback
Published: May 2015
* Out of Print *
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Criticism | Shakespeare
Physical Information: 0.3" H x 6" W x 9" L (0.44 lbs) 142 pages
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
I remember the astonishment I felt when I first read Shakespeare. I expected to receive a powerful aesthetic pleasure, but having read, one after the other, works regarded as his best: "King Lear," "Romeo and Juliet," "Hamlet" and "Macbeth," not only did I feel no delight, but I felt an irresistible repulsion and tedium, and doubted as to whether I was senseless in feeling works regarded as the summit of perfection by the whole of the civilized world to be trivial and positively bad, or whether the significance which this civilized world attributes to the works of Shakespeare was itself senseless. My consternation was increased by the fact that I always keenly felt the beauties of poetry in every form; then why should artistic works recognized by the whole world as those of a genius, -the works of Shakespeare, -not only fail to please me, but be disagreeable to me? For a long time I could not believe in myself, and during fifty years, in order to test myself, I several times recommenced reading Shakespeare in every possible form, in Russian, in English, in German and in Schlegel's translation, as I was advised. Several times I read the dramas and the comedies and historical plays, and I invariably underwent the same feelings: repulsion, weariness, and bewilderment. At the present time, before writing this preface, being desirous once more to test myself, I have, as an old man of seventy-five, again read the whole of Shakespeare, including the historical plays, the "Henrys," "Troilus and Cressida," the "Tempest," "Cymbeline," and I have felt, with even greater force, the same feelings, -this time, however, not of bewilderment, but of firm, indubitable conviction that the unquestionable glory of a great genius which Shakespeare enjoys, and which compels writers of our time to imitate him and readers and spectators to discover in him non-existent merits, -thereby distorting their aesthetic and ethical understanding, -is a great evil, as is every unt
 
Customer ReviewsSubmit your own review
 
To tell a friend about this book, you must Sign In First!