Leo Tolstoy was unquestionably the most prolific letter-writer of all the great Russian novelists of the nineteenth century. R.F. Christian selected and translated into English only the most important, from his point of view, part of the huge number of Tolstoy’s letters. In this two-volume edition, he divided Leo Tolstoy's letters into three categories. First there were those to do with Tolstoy the writer, his views about his own work and the works of other writers. Secondly there were those which concerned Tolstoy the thinker in a broader sense, and expressed his attitude to the times he lived in, contemporary social problems, rural life, industrialisation, education, and more especially in later life, religious and spiritual questions. Thirdly there were the letters which were more loosely to do with Tolstoy the man, the main stages of his biography, his relations with his family and friends, and the growth and development of his own personality.