The journalist and author Alexandra Popoff discusses her new book, Sophia Tolstoy: A Biography (Free Press, 2010), her impact on Leo Tolstoy’s work, the misconceptions of her, and her relevance today, with Joseph Planta.
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Sophia Tolstoy: A Biography by Alexandra Popoff. (Free Press, 2010)
Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Sophia Tolstoy [1] |
Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:
In Vancouver, I am Planta: On the Line, and this is THECOMMENTARY.CA.
There’s a new book out, that’s gotten attention already and some great notices. It is called Sophia Tolstoy: A Biography. It’s the first biography of the wife of Leo Tolstoy, one that also sets out to debunk a lot of the misinformation that’s been out there about Mrs. Tolstoy. She’s been portrayed in history, in books and films on Leo Tolstoy as a saboteur to his work, shrill, and tormentor to him and those around them. What the author Alexandra Popoff has done in this book is tell us more about her, that she’s a lot less harsh than she’s been portrayed as, and that she was a dedicated wife, and a talented editor and writer in her own right. Alexandra Popoff joins me now. A native of Moscow, she is a journalist and writer having appeared in various Russian publications, and in the Philadelphia Inquirer. She was an Alfred Friendly Press Fellow, and she now lives in Saskatoon, where she joins me from this morning. The website for more is www.sophiatolstoy.com [2]. The book is published by Free Press, an imprint of Simon and Schuster. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Alexandra Popoff; Good morning, Ms. Popoff.
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