ABSTRACT
In 1947, George Orwell claimed in a well-known essay that L. Tolstoy’s criticism of Shakespeare is based not on reasoned argument but on personal antipathy and religious prejudice. He has been very influential. Some hold, indeed, that Tolstoy’s essay on Shakespeare is the most perverse of all his works. In pursuit of an answer, Orwell raises the question of why, when he had some thirty of Shakespeare’s works to choose from, Tolstoy should have chosen King Lear in particular. Tolstoy supplies an answer to that question at the beginning of his essay: Shakespeare wrote some thirty works, but not all of them are masterpieces and Tolstoy wishes to tackle him at his best. Tolstoy in his essay implies that his view of Shakespeare has not been determined by his religious conversion. Tolstoy was a voluminous diarist. He left a record of his life stretching from early manhood to old age. His diaries contain a number of references to Shakespeare.
