Russian novelist (1828-1910). Autograph letter signed ("L. Tolstoy"). [Yasnaya Polyana]. 8vo. 2 pages on paper with perforated upper margin. In Russian. With one enclosure.
$ 23,795 / 22.000 €
(87125/BN57550)
To the unnamed philosopher Pyotr Petrovich Nikolaev in response to Nikolaev's new book. Tolstoy has read Nikolaev's book, and writes with a critique: "There is a lot of very good material in it, but you did well not to release it, and to want to work on it some more. The criticism of materialism is excellent, but you have not clarified what we feel and call matter. I think that there are other spiritual essences in which, just as in us, the basic essence (God) manifests itself partially, limitedly [...] / The book, as it is now, has merits [...] but the subject is so important that one cannot treat it seriously and attentively enough.