Leo Tolstoy was never a man to choose the easy path.
When he wasn't turning his satirical guns on the Russian aristocracy in works including 'War and Peace' and the play 'Fruits of Culture', he was targeting the established church and organised religion.
In 'My Religion', he explains how a recent epiphany led him to reject the over-complicated teachings of the Church.
Instead, he adopts Jesus' Sermon on the Mount as his guide for life.
It forces him to place pacifism at the heart of his faith.
The work that grew out of this conversion went on to inspire the non-violent movements of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
This book provides a fascinating insight into how he became such an inspiration.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian author, a master of realistic fiction and one of the world’s greatest novelists. Tolstoy’s major works include 'War and Peace' (1865–69) and 'Anna Karenina' (1875–77), two of the greatest novels of all time and pinnacles of realist fiction. Beyond novels, he wrote many short stories and later in life also essays and plays.
In the years following the publication of 'War and Peace' Tolstoy - who was born to a Russian aristocratic family - had a spiritual awakening that made him a committed Christian anarchist and pacifist. His philosophy inspired Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.