<b>Leo Tolstoy (September 9, 1828 – November 20, 1910) was a Russian writer who earned fame and global renown for his novels </b><i><b>War and Peace</b></i><b> and </b><i><b>Anna Karenina</b></i><b>.</b> Writing during the late 19th century, Tolstoy lived during a literary period in which Realism flourished, and today his two novels are considered the apex of realist fiction. Dostoevsky himself declared <i>Anna Karenina </i>"flawless as a work of art," and it is invariably included among discussions of the greatest novels ever.