Tolstoy's work is closely linked to his personality and life, more so than with many other great writers. In this early biography, Philipp Witkop aims to illustrate this connection. Witkop avoids dry literary analyses and vividly recounts how Tolstoy's themes arise from his worldview, emotional life, and inner struggles with his faith. Central to this is the connection to nature and the common people, especially the peasantry. Witkop leaves hardly any of Tolstoy's writings unexamined, so that by the end, the reader not only has a clear picture of the man Tolstoy but also of the vast richness of his work. Philipp Witkop (1880-1942) was a professor of modern German literature in Freiburg and focused on worker education after his studies. Witkop was one of the first literary figures to do so.