Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: An Essay in the Old Criticism

The first book of criticism from the acclaimed author of After Babel—a "provocative and probing" look at Russian literature's most influential writers (The New York Times).

"Literary criticism," writes Steiner, "should arise out of a debt of love." Abiding by his own rule, Tolstoy or Dostoevsky is an impassioned work, inspired by Steiner's conviction that the legacies of these two Russian masters loom over Western literature. By explaining how Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky differ from e...