Heretical Orthodoxy

"Throughout his long life, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoi (1828-1910) grappled with the major questions of human existence. Who are we? What is the purpose of life? Where are we going? (Paperno 2014) Almost all his major fictional characters are concerned with these questions and give different answers to them (Orwin 1993). In the autobiographical trilogy Childhood, Boyhood and Youth, the protagonist 'tries out' various philosophical beliefs, seeking to find what can give meaning to human life. These are also the aspects that elevate War and Peace from being a purely historical epic to becoming an existential drama"--