What is Art?

This profound analysis of the nature of art is the culmination of a series of essays and polemics on issues of morality, social justice, and religion. Considering and rejecting the idea that art reveals and reinvents through beauty, Tolstoy perceives the question of the nature of art to be a religious one. Ultimately, he concludes, art must be a force for good, for the progress and improvement of mankind.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Learn more

What is Art?

Author

Leo Tolstoy

Publisher

Penguin Classics

Format

Paperback

Pages

240

Size

7.75 x 5 Inches

ISBN

9780140446425

About the author

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was a renowned Russian novelist and moral philosopher known for his epic novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and for his influential ideas on pacifism and simple living.After experiencing a spiritual crisis in his later years, he became a prominent advocate for non-violence and Christian anarchism.His profound writings explore the complexities of human consciousness, society, and morality, influencing figures like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.