5 ways Tolstoy can change your life

Crucial life advice from Tolstoy, Dostoevsky--and Professor Gary Saul Morson, a renowned scholar of Russian literature

Art by Isaac Levitan, a 19th century Russian classical landscape painter who advanced the genre of the "mood landscape".

When I think back to some of the mistakes I made in my youthful love life, so many of them came from the movies I’d seen. I imagined my twenty-something self as a character in a film, with music swelling and moody lighting following me through the New York City streets. The drama of it all felt so important; I confused intensity with meaning.

But the source of such confusion is far older than Hollywood. Tolstoy warned us about it long ago.

This Sunday, at 1 pm EST on Zoom, the great Russian literature scholar and most popular professor at Northwestern U, Professor Gary Saul Morson, will be the honored guest at our Candlelight Chat. (I’ll send out the log-in info on Saturday, and the replay video a week later, to all paid Quiet Life members).

But for today, I’d like to give you a taste of GSM’s insights— five ways to change your life, via the wisdom of Russian literature: