Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy's epic novel "War and Peace" is notoriously massive, running to over 1,200 pages in most English editions. The sprawling narrative tracks the lives of several aristocratic Russian families during the Napoleonic Wars.

A significant portion of the tragic plot of "Anna Karenina" was inspired by a real-life event in Tolstoy's life. The shocking suicide of a neighboring landowner's mistress, who threw herself under a train, directly informed the famous fate of Tolstoy's heroine.

Leo Tolstoy was born, raised, and lived much of his life at his ancestral estate, Yasnaya Polyana, located south of Moscow. He wrote his most famous novels, including "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina," in this serene environment.

Despite being widely considered one of the greatest novelists of all time, Leo Tolstoy never won the Nobel Prize in Literature. In fact, his omission in 1901 was highly controversial and reportedly disappointed the author himself.