Tolstoy on Shakespeare (Audio)

This book contains a critical essay on Shakespeare by Leo Tolstoy.

During his life, Tolstoy came to the conclusion that William Shakespeare was a bad dramatist and not a true artist at all.

Tolstoy explained his views in a critical essay on Shakespeare written in 1903: "I remember the astonishment I felt when I first read Shakespeare. I expected to receive a powerful aesthetic pleasure, but having read, one after the other, works regarded as his best: "King Lear", "Romeo and Juliet", "Hamlet" and "Macbeth," not only did I feel no delight, but I felt an irresistible repulsion and tedium..."