This book is neither a biography nor a literary portrait. It is the voice of the times in which Tolstoi lived. These reminiscences, contributed by people from widely different circles - by Tolstoi's wife and children whose contributions give us a true picture of the great writer's private life; by writers, artists and actors who were his friends; by comrades who accompanied him on the military campaigns in which he took part; by the doctors who tended him; by people who served as prototypes of characters from his novels; by teachers in his school at Yasnaya Polyana; by peasants of Yasnaya Polyana, representing that "human ocean" whose flux and flow Tolstoi followed with such rapt attention - all of them taken together present the total impression that Tolstoi made upon his generation.