What Is Art? · Chapters

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Chapter companions for What Is Art? by Leo Tolstoy.

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Chapter 1
The Author’s Preface
Tolstoy explains the history of his book 'What Is Art?', detailing how it was mutilated by Russian censors after he agreed to compromises to get it published. He describes the alterations made by Professor Grote and the Spiritual Censor, which distorted his views, and he now presents the work in its true form.
Chapter 2
What Is Art?
Tolstoy introduces the central problem of defining art, critiquing existing aesthetic theories that rely on pleasure or beauty. He argues that true art must be distinguished from counterfeit art and that the prevailing confusion stems from a lack of a clear, objective definition. The chapter sets the stage for his infection theory of art, which will be developed later.
Chapter 3
I
The chapter opens with a translation of Mallarmé's 'The Future Phenomenon,' depicting a decaying world where a showman presents a preserved, beautiful woman from the past to a miserable crowd. The spectators react with indifference or sorrow, while poets find fleeting inspiration, forgetting they live in an age that has outlived beauty.
Chapter 4
Chapter II
This chapter presents a collection of poems by contemporary French poets, including Jean Moréas, Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac, Francis Vielé-Griffin, and Émile Verhaeren, all drawn from page 28 of their respective works. The poems explore themes of love, beauty, time, and the ethereal, with translations provided. The chapter serves as an illustration of modern art that Tolstoy critiques as obscure, exclusive, and disconnected from universal human feeling.
Chapter 5
III
Tolstoy provides a detailed, sarcastic summary of Wagner's 'The Nibelung's Ring' cycle, highlighting its absurdities, incoherent plot, and the unintelligible motivations of its characters, ultimately arguing that even his own unfavorable recapitulation is more favorable than the original librettos.

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The Author’s Preface

What Is Art?

I

Chapter II

III