Tolstoy

or Tol·stoi

[ tohl-stoi, tol-; Russian tuhl-stoi ]

noun

1. Leo or Lev Ni·ko·la·e·vich [lev nik-, uh, -, lahy, -, uh, -vich, lyef, nyi-kuh-, lah, -yi-vyich], Count, 1828–1910, Russian novelist and social critic.

Tolstoy

/ ˈtɒlstɔɪ; talˈstɔj /

noun

1. TolstoyLeo, Count18281910MRussianWRITING: novelistWRITING: short-story writerPHILOSOPHY: philosopher Leo , Russian name Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy. 1828–1910, Russian novelist, short-story writer, and philosopher; author of the two monumental novels War and Peace (1865–69) and Anna Karenina (1875–77). Following a spiritual crisis in 1879, he adopted a form of Christianity based on a doctrine of nonresistance to evil

Other Words From

• Tol·stoy·an Tol·stoi·an adjective noun
• Tol·stoy·ism noun
• Tol·stoy·ist noun

Example Sentences

He mastered Russian quickly and read Dostoevsky and Tolstoy in the original.

From Los Angeles Times

Ms. Edwards said that she chose the subjects of her biographies — which also included Sonya Tolstoy, the wife of Leo Tolstoy — for the themes she believed they personified.

From New York Times

The thought kept occurring to me while reading "War and Peace," Leo Tolstoy’s massive novel following a few Russian families during the Napoleonic Wars.

From Salon

“It’s hard to imagine that to be the case,” Zarin said, offering another laugh, “but many people live their whole lives and never read Jane Austen or Don DeLillo or Pynchon or Tolstoy. Or anybody.”

From Los Angeles Times

He’d been home-schooled, and by the time he turned 15 he’d already graduated from high school and read many of the classics — Leo Tolstoy, Alexandre Dumas and Jane Austen among them.

From New York Times