Tash Hearts Tolstoy, and Here are 5 Reasons You Will, Too

When you hear the name “Tolstoy,” what comes to mind? Gigantic Russian novels? A grumpy, bearded old guy? Confusion over why anyone would read a thousand-page book you’ve heard isn’t exactly action-packed? Well, if you ask Tash from Kathryn Ormsbee’s upcoming Tash Hearts Tolstoy, the guy is so amazing he’s worthy of a poster hanging on your bedroom wall (gonna be totally honest here—I had one, too). As the creator of a web series based on Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina that becomes wildly popular, Tash is probably the biggest (fictional) Tolstoy fan out there. Of course, internet fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, as Tash navigates sudden attention, newly rocky friendships, and deciding how to share that she’s a romantic asexual with her new crush.
But through it all, there’s her beloved, reliable Tolstoy. So what does she see in his work? Does enjoying a Tolstoy novel require a different approach than indulging in modern fiction? Not necessarily. Tolstoy has a lot more in common with today’s young adult novels than you’d think. Here’s why:
1. He Writes About Teens
It’s easy to forget that many protagonists of classic novels are teenagers, even if they’re dealing with issues unfamiliar to modern readers (settling on someone to marry, the politics of the country the book is set in, etc.). When you first meet the main heroine of War and Peace, Natasha is a bright-eyed thirteen-year-old, still playing with her siblings and cousins but also longing for the excitement of adulthood. As she ages, she gets to attend her first ball, which she prepares for with the sort of wild anticipation many teens reserve for senior prom. In Anna Karenina, eighteen-year-old Kitty obsesses over Vronsky, determined to be with him—but he turns out to be the equivalent of a guy who takes you on a few dates, realizes things are getting too serious, and ghosts you. She falls apart in ways easily recognizable to any teen who has had their heart broken.
2. Unforgettable Characters
The books with the greatest staying power tend to have incredible characters. I’m willing to bet that if Tolstoy’s characters weren’t so richly developed, readers in nineteenth-century Russia wouldn’t have gobbled up his work so voraciously. For instance, here’s part of the first description you get of Anna from Anna Karenina, from Vronsky’s perspective: “In that brief glance Vronsky had time to notice the restrained animation that played over her face and fluttered between her shining eyes and the barely noticeable smile that curved her red lips. It was as if a surplus of something so overflowed her being that it expressed itself beyond her will…She deliberately extinguished the light in her eyes, but it shone against her will in a barely noticeable smile.” Just from those few sentences, you learn so much about the sort of person Anna is. I’ve been reading Tolstoy for five years and still can’t pick a favorite character.
3. Teens Have To Face Harsh Realities
Some are more drawn to fantasy and adventure YA than to realistic fiction. While Tolstoy’s books may not have dragons or magic, there’s plenty of fighting, and plenty of tragic character deaths to cry over (no spoilers here!). In War and Peace, Natasha’s brother Nikolai sets off to fight the French at the tender age of fifteen. Like many young adult protagonists, he’s eager to prove himself and protect the people he loves. The second bullets start flying, though, he quickly realizes he’s in over his head: “He looked at the approaching Frenchmen…their closeness now seemed so terrible to him that he could not believe his eyes…’Can it be that they’re running to me? And why? To kill me? Me, whom everybody loves so?’ He remembered his mother’s love for him, his family’s, his friends’, and the enemy’s intention to kill him seemed impossible.” As the novel progresses, characters must watch friends die, must suffer terrible injuries and illnesses, and see their homes overtaken by soldiers, tropes so common in adventure and dystopian YA novels they’ve practically become a staple.
4. Love Triangles
One of the most popular sections of War and Peace falls in the middle, when Natasha gets engaged to a soldier named Andrei. Before he returns to war, he tells her that if she falls in love with another man while he’s away, she’s free to break off their engagement. Natasha is confident this won’t happen—until she meets Anatole, a gambling, partying bad boy who can’t keep his eyes off her. Drama ensues as Natasha fights an inner battle: stay engaged to Andrei, a standup guy who will take good care of her but whose family dislikes her? Or marry Anatole, who sends exhilarating love letters and promises to give her the world? All this, along with the added pressure of a society that will judge her if she’s “disloyal” to Andrei, lead her down a road that may end in something terrible. If War and Peace were released today, you can bet there’d be a line of “Team Andrei” and “Team Anatole” graphic tees.
5. Reading a Tolstoy Novel = Binging A Netflix Show
War and Peace was originally published as a serialized story in the Russian magazine Russkiy Vestnik, meaning readers sped through bite-sized parts of the book and were often left waiting on a cliffhanger for the next installment. Unlike the readers from centuries ago, you don’t have to suffer—you can binge the whole “series” in one go. Many are intimidated by the length of Tolstoy’s novels, so it might help to think of them like you think of Netflix shows: each part is an episode, while each volume is a season. Even if the story isn’t always action-packed, knowing this history can help explain why readers became so enthralled by his work. You must know at least one person who agonizes over when the next Sherlock season will be announced by burying themselves in fandom. Imagine the fan theories during each War and Peace “hiatus”!
So go ahead—be like Tash and enjoy yourself some Tolstoy! And don’t forget, Tash Hearts Tolstoy is out now.