Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy formally known as Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian author who is often called the greatest novelist of all times.

He is most well-known for War and Peace (written between 1863-9) and Anna Karenina (1874-8), however is also well known for The Kreutzer Sonata and his short stories.

In 1879 he began turning his attention to religion, distancing himself from his literary excesses. Anna Karenina, for him, was 'an abomination that no longer exists for me'. He renounced the copyright of Karenina and his other pre-1880 works to his wife.