The broad ax., 1899-05-23

composes, from 9 O'Clock in the morn
ing until In the afternoon, and dur
Ing these hours he will not permit
himself to be disturbed under any pre-
text He uses the first pen and sheet
OF paper that comes TO hand, no mat
ter what the quality may be, and he
writes very rapidly. about twenty
pages Of manuscript being an average
days work. These twenty pages are
then copied by some friend, or BY the
Counts wife and daughters. after
which they are placed on his study ta-
BILE There the Count finds them on
the following day, and he then thor
oughly revises them, adding Q ssn-
tsnce here, excising q phrase there,
and otherwise shaping the work to
his satisfaction-
This done q fresh copy Is made. Ae-
cording to Sergheenko, Tolstoi Is %
careful over his manuscript, not be-
cause he desires to make It a. perfect
as possible in regard TO form and Ian
guage, but because he finds that new
ideas come to him after his arst rough
draft has been made, and he feels
bound TO embody them In his COM
plsted manuscript In other words,
with Tolstoi the idea Is everything
and style or form nothing. or next TO
nothing. Indeed, he complains that
the manual task of writing IL detri-
mental to sincerity OF thought and ex-
preston, and that this Is the reason
why his FIRST drafts are, as q rule, 90
unsatisfactory.
His days work done, he loves to
read aloud to q circle Of friends. After
he had written The Power Of Dark
ness" he read It to some Of his neigh
bors, and derived much profit from
their criticisms and comments. His Sc |
verest critics Is his wife. She expresses |
her opinion freely, and, as she Is Q
woman Of unusual intelligence, To-stoi |
values 1t highly.
The authors famous romance, War |
and Peace" says Sersheenko, was at |
arst intended to be an introduction to
another work Of fiction, which was to
be called The Deeembrists." Ultimate
y, however, Tolstoi decided not to
write this latter work, As the topic
lid not seem to him TO be Of sufficient
human interest. On the other hand,
he events Of 1905 and the campaign
II 1S12 seemed to him OF absorbing in
crest, and he spent i've years In writ
ng the romance which is based on
hem BY the way. the manuscript OF
War and Peace" lay for q long time
neglected In a drawer, until finally
,ount Tolstoi found II and deposited It
n the Moscow Museum
A romance with Peter the Great as
he hero was also planned By TolstoI.
,ut after q thorough study Of his life
md epoch he found that the subject
Eas not congenial Peter the Great
eemed to him an admirable Character
a many ways, but he could not wholly
ympathize with him or his plans, and
Iis fine literary Judgment told him
hat he could not nttinsly portray the
haraeter with whom he was not Who'll
, In sympathy.
The idea Of writing anna Kars-
ina" came to Tolstoi during a certain
yening In 1873 as he was Listening to
story In Pushkin, which was being
ead aloud BY his son The story was
simple one, and Tolstoi especially
dmirsd the opening sentences for
leir simplicity and naturalnsss.
That IL the way one ought to Vrits,"
Q remarked You must attract the
,adsr's attention at once Il you wish
!, retain IT. to which some members
his family replied that It would Be |,
ell for him to set the example him
IL By writing simple modern ro-
ance himself That evening, In the
,elusion Of his study. Tolstoi wrote .
y frst chapter Of -Anna Karenfna.s :