The Diaries of Sophia Tolstoy

Sophia Behrs Tolstoy was introduced to Leo Tolstoy in 1862 when she was 18 years old and Tolstoy was 16 years her senior. On 17 September 1862 the couple became formally engaged and married a week later in Moscow. The Tolstoys had 13 children, eight of whom survived childhood. Sophia acted as copyist of War and Peace, copying and editing the manuscript seven times from beginning to end at home at night by candlelight. It was an increasingly troubled marriage -- the couple argued over Tolstoy's desire to give away all his private property -- and her diaries reflect all the turmoil, trials and tribulations as the wife of a famous, and famously opinionated, man. Her diaries also shed some light on the status of women in Russia as the 20th century approached.