Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Tolstoy's Family Prototypes in War and Peace

Tolstoy's Family Prototypes in War and Peace

Cooke, Brett

Hardcover

Series: Evolution, Cognition, and the Arts

Literary Criticism

ISBN10: 1644694085
ISBN13: 9781644694084
Publisher: Academic Studies Pr
Published: Nov 24 2020
Pages: 318
Weight: 1.37
Height: 0.75 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English
What were the consequences of Tolstoy's unusual reliance on members of his family as source material for War and Peace? Did affection for close relatives influence depictions of these real prototypes in his fictional characters? Tolstoy used these models to consider his origins, to ponder alternative family histories, and to critique himself. Comparison of the novel and its fascinating drafts with the writer's family history reveals increasing preferential treatment of those with greater relatedness to him: kin altruism, i.e., nepotism. This pattern helps explain many of Tolstoy's choices amongst plot variants he considered, as well as some of the curious devices he utilizes to get readers to share his biases, such as coincidences, notions of fate, and aversion to incest.

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