They are no better off, and my heart grows more heavy with every passing day.

If I could but perceive any success in my undertaking; if I could descry any gratitude--but no; I see false routine, vice, distrust, helplessness! I am wasting the best years of my life in vain." But Nekhliudoff--Tolstoy was not alone in devoting himself to his peasants; before he withdrew to the country he had led a gay life in St.
Petersburg, after resigning from the army, and in writing his fine peasant story, "Polikushka," setting up peasant-schools on his estate, and the like, he was merely paying his tribute to the spirit of the time (which reached him even in his seclusion), and imitating the innumerable village schools and Sunday schools in the capitals (for secular instruction of the laboring classes who were too busy for education during the week) in which the aristocratic and educated classes in general took a lively interest.[44] But the leisure afforded by country life enabled him to compose his masterpieces.

"War and Peace," which was begun in 1864, was published serially in "The Russian Messenger," beginning in 1865, and in book form in 1869, and "Anna Karenin," which was published serially in the same journal, in 1875-1876.

His style is not to be compared to that of Turgeneff, with its exquisite harmony, art, and sense of proportion.

Tolstoy writes carelessly, frequently repeats himself, not infrequently expresses himself ambiguously or obscurely.