<p>An important and long-overdue contribution to our knowledge of Tolstoy.' D. M. Thomas, <i>Sunday Times</i><br><br>Volume 2 of Tolstoy's <i>Diaries</i> covers the years 1895-1910. These <i>Diaries</i> were meticulously edited by R.F. Christian so as to reflect Tolstoy's preoccupations as a writer (his views on his own work and that of others), his development as a person and as a thinker, and his attitudes to contemporary social problems, rural life, industrialisation, education, and later, to religious and spiritual questions. Christian introduces each period with a brief and informative summary of the main biographical details of Tolstoy's life. The result is a unique portrait of a great writer in the variegation of his everyday existence.<br><br>'As a picture of the turbulent Russian world which Tolstoy inhabited these diaries are incomparable - the raw stuff not yet processed into art.' Anthony Burgess<br><br>'A model of scholarship, one of the most important books to be published in recent years.' A. N. Wilson, <i>Spectator</i></p>