P S: Vladimir Nabokov “considered Tolstoy’s writings, in spite of his  substitution of aesthetics by ethics, mysticism and moralistic messages, the product of his genius, with no impairment of his artistic dimension: “Actually, his ideology was so tame and so vague and so far from politics, and, on the other hand, his art was so powerful, so tiger bright, so original and universal that it easily transcends the sermon. In the long run what interested him as a thinker were Life and Death.”

Jansy Mello: There are so many riches hidden in, or by, V.Nabokov’s use of images and references that we sometimes skip an important item. I discovered just now an allusion to the mystical  and often quoted poem by William Blake, “The Tyger”. I  didn’t spot it at first because it was mentioned in the natural flow of his description of Tolstoy’s qualities. Its having been transformed into an adjective. “Tiger bright” isn’t simply a coloring that was joined to an adjective by VN. It shows a lot more since it indicates V. Nabokov’s position concerning good and evil and a powerful superior Being associated to the image we have of both.