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What Is Art?

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What Is Art?

By: Leo Tolstoy
Narrated by: Geoffrey Blaisdell
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What Is Art? is the result of fifteen years’ reflection on the nature and purpose of art.

Tolstoy claims that all good art is related to the authentic life of the broader community and that the aesthetic value of a work of art is not independent of its moral content. The book is noteworthy not only for its famous iconoclasm and compelling attacks on the aestheticist notion of “art for art’s sake” but even more for its wit, its lucid and beautiful prose, and its sincere expression of the deepest social conscience.

Tolstoy is an author critics typically rank alongside Shakespeare and Homer. A sustained consideration of the cultural import of art by someone who was himself an artist of the highest stature will always remain relevant and fascinating to anyone interested in the place of art and literature in society.

(P)2007 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Aesthetics Art Essays Philosophy Nonfiction
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Critic reviews

“Eccentric and lucid, cranky and brilliant, funny and fierce.”

(New Criterion)

“The effectiveness of What Is Art? lies not so much in its positive assertions as in its rejection of much that was taken for granted in the aesthetic theories of the time.”

(John Bayley, literary critic and former Warton Professor of English at Oxford)

“What Is Art? itself is a work of science, though many passages, and even some whole chapters, appeal to us as works of art and we feel the contagion of the author’s hope, his anxiety to serve the cause of truth and love, his indignation (sometimes rather sharply expressed) with whatever blocks the path of advance, and his contempt for much that the ‘cultured crowd,’ in our erudite, perverted society, have persuaded themselves, and would fain persuade others, is the highest art.”

(Aylmer Maude, translator)

“Infuriating, irresistible, aesthetically unaesthetic.”

(E. Lampert, New Essay on Tolstoy)
All stars
Most relevant
It’s a marvellous text but the audio version quotes extensive sections in German and French, without translating them!

Lacks translations

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Tolstoy has an interesting view building on Hegels idea of the end of art Tolstoy wishes to see what art truly is. He makes some great points about how art became something of the elites and by that stopped being art and become the play thing of the rich. His answers are not as great as his criticisms but it is a book worth reading

Interesting perspective

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things did not turn out quite the way Tolstoy had hoped but the difference between his vision and reality are pretty fascinating

interesting look into a past future

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tolstoy, one of my favourite russian philosophers, asks relevant questions about the motivations behind art, which he answers beautifully, especially by asking more of the right questions. this was a great study to listen to, i would definitely recommend it.

regarding the sections in German and French, which some reviews mention, there is bit of that, mainly in the first part, but i did not think it was that much or that bothersome, and, for most, there is an explanation in english for the section before or after...this was the author's original text, i assume, and probably one of the first translations from russian. it did not feel like a problem for me, but i do know a bit of the two languages as well from school, so i managed getting over those snippets ok.

great treatise

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Highly instructive book. Though provoking it's a very important material for such an important matter in society.

A theory of art

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