Article on Tolstoy, Marx and Aesthetics - pretty good.  (Need JSTOR or other access to see full text).  http://www.springerlink.com/content/m555371rh4425517/   Seems to me that Tolstoy's aesthetic views are as interesting (to me, more interesting) than his views on religion or politics, but that's just me.  Still, I guess I'm pondering adding a section on aesthetics.  One of the reasons Tolstoy has so many popular culture references is due to his strong sense of the visual and the sensual.  There's another whole article on just how he depicts hands - I have the link somewhere.   LeValley