What Is Art? cover art

What Is Art?

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

What Is Art?

By: Leo Tolstoy
Narrated by: Geoffrey Blaisdell
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £8.99

Buy Now for £8.99

About this listen

 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 himself was an artist of the highest stature will always remain relevant and fascinating to anyone interested in the place of art and literature in society.

Public Domain (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Essays Philosophy Nonfiction
All stars
Most relevant
Highly instructive book. Though provoking it's a very important material for such an important matter in society.

A theory of art

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
interesting analysis that doesn't answer all the questions we have about art in the 21st century but does provide some consideration of how we construct value in art which is worth listening to. Some of the sociopolitical ideas are still struggling for a hearing in the corridors of power now.

Radical forward thinking mixed with 1890s values

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It’s a marvellous text but the audio version quotes extensive sections in German and French, without translating them!

Lacks translations

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews