Jay Parini

"1910. Tolstoj e ormai vecchio, circondato da tanti discepoli, oggetto di una vera e propria adorazione, assistito da sempre da sua moglie Sofja, dal suo medico, il suo segretario, la figlia Sasha... Pur avvolto da questa rete di presenze, la sua vecchiaia non e serena: avverte infatti intorno a lui i primi conflitti per il futuro del suo patrimonio e crescono le pressioni per controllare il suo testamento. A chi andranno i diritti della sua opera? Alla moglie, che ne fara fonte di arricchimento familiare o, come vogliono i suoi discepoli, alla collettivita, per diffondere il tolstoismo? Lacerato da questi contrasti, Tolstoj litiga con la moglie, ma nello stesso tempo non vuole soccombere alla volonta dei discepoli; non trovando altre soluzioni, per liberarsi da tutti, sceglie un gesto disperato: la fuga. Ma anche cosi non trovera pace ne evitera i conflitti; arrivera solo all'ultima stazione... "

Inspirándose en los diarios de León Tolstoi, así como en los de familiares y allegados, Jay Parini sumerge al lector en los últimos tiempos de la vida del gran escritor ruso, un hombre atormentado por la relacion con su esposa Sofia, la cual temia no convertirse en la heredera de sus lucrativos derechos de autor. Dividido moralmente entre valores como la pobreza y la castidad, el amor a Dios y la entrega a los demas, y la realidad de una vida privilegiada y llena de placeres, asediado por unos y por otros y desesperado por encontrar la paz al final de su vida, Tolstoi, a los ochenta y dos años, decide desprenderse de su mundo material para respetarse a si mismo y ser consecuente con sus propias creencias.

Parini's The Last Station is a study of the end of Russian author Leo Tolstoy's life. You don't need to be a fan of Tolstoy to enjoy it-you don't even need to have read any of his novels. This book stands on its own merits. Told in multiple first person narratives, the book explores how the various players see themselves and each other, enabling the reader to make up their own mind about their characters and motives. Personally, I came to like Tolstoy's long-suffering wife Sofya Andreyevna the best, if only because all the other characters are ranged against her. She's depicted by them as insane, hysterical, controlling, and I don't know what else, when all she wants is to secure the royalties from Tolstoy's work to their descendants. This simple-some might say, laudable-ambition finds her ranged against her husband, their daughter Sasha, and various of Tolstoy's adherents and hangers-on. As it becomes obvious to her that she's failed, she rages in various frightening-and impotent-ways, and finds herself excluded from her husband's deathbed. The winners write the history: she drove Tolstoy from his lifetime home; she wouldn't let him die in peace. But Parini makes sure Sofya's voice is also heard. Russia stands on the brink of momentous change, but this novel, like Tolstoy's own work, is more about the personal than the political. Tolstoy may despise the luxury in which he lives, but he's unable to break away from it. He may wish to make the grand gesture of leaving his work to the nation, but he does it in secret, fearing a confrontation with his wife. What we see is a man who's lionised by everyone around him-except Sofya-but who is too weak to live up to their perception of him. Yet his feet of clay go unobserved. He's already an icon, no longer a man. All that's left to him, therefore, is to die. Parini writes well, and does a good job of distinguishing the various narrators-Sofya, Tolstoy himself, their daughter Sasha, Tolstoy's new secretary Bulgakov, his doctor Makovitsky, and the scary Chertkov, the leader of Tolstoy's fan club. The most likeable character is B

En cette année 1910, suite à la publication de Guerre et Paix et d'Anna Karénine, Léon Tolstoï est l'écrivain le plus célèbre au monde. Mais la notoriété a un prix. Déchiré entre ses exigences ascétiques et le luxe dans lequel il vit, le comte cherche la paix, loin de ses treize enfants et des discordes qu'attisent sa femme Sophia et son disciple Tchertkov. Il s'enfuit donc, ultime étape d'une quête vécue comme un chemin de croix qui s'avèrera dans la petite gare d'Astapovo, envahie le temps d'une agonie par une meute de journalistes. S'inspirant des journaux intimes et de la correspondance des familiers de Tolstoï, Jay Parini dresse le portrait d'un mythe vivant, idolâtré ou manipulé, aimé ou haï, avant tout profondément humain. François-René Daillie est né à Nîmes en 1925. Après des études à Lyon, il enseigne dans plusieurs lycées parisiens, puis devient directeur à l'Alliance française et conseiller culturel en Malaisie, au Ghana, au Pakistan et en Egypte. Il est auteur de nombreux ouvrages et traducteur de plusieurs langues. Jay Parini est actuellement professeur d'anglais à l'Université de Middlebury, dans le Vermont. Il est l'auteur, entre autres, de biographies de Robert Frost et de William Faulkner, ainsi que d'une biographie autorisée de John Steinbeck. Il a également dirigé la publication de L'Encyclopédie de la littérature américaine pour l'Oxford University Press. Il écrit régulièrement pour The Guardian. Une année dans la vie de Tolstoï a été publié dans dix-sept pays. Le réalisateur Michael Hoffman a adapté ce roman au cinéma, avec Christopher Plummer dans le rôle de Tolstoï et Helen Mirren dans celui de sa femme.

Set in the tumultuous last year of Leo Tolstoy´s life, The Last Station centres on the battle for his soul waged by his wife and his leading disciple. Torn between his professed doctrine of poverty and chastity on the one hand and the reality of his life Set in the tumultuous last year of Leo Tolstoy´s life, The Last Station centres on the battle for his soul waged by his wife and his leading disciple.

Herman had often walked these streets, eyeing the forest of tall ships, their blackened strakes handsomely curved, masts like crosses, empty of sails ...1841. A young Herman Melville is yet to write Moby Dick. He sets out on a voyage aboard a whaling ship. What happens on that trip will give him enough material for a lifetime of writing. But what of the dark things Melville encounters on his journey, and the illicit relationships he embarks upon that are to torment him once he returns home to his wife Lizzie? All is revealed as Jay Parini lifts the lid on one of the greatest writers of the nineteenth century ...

 J ay Parini era un joven poeta y estudiante de literatura estadounidense cuando conoció a Jorge Luis Borges. El encuentro fortuito con el formidable escritor que narran estas páginas cambió para sie