Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910) is regarded by some as the greatest novelist of all time. With such masterpieces as Anna Karenina and War and Peace, he influenced generations of writers and changed the course of world literature.
Someone who can see so much and so fully does not need to invent anything; someone who observes so poetically does not need to compose anything. For Tolstoy beauty and truth are one and the same thing. -- Stefan Zweig