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The Hedgehog And The Fox

An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History

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About this listen

 'Brilliant. Searching and profound' E.H. Carr, Times Literary Supplement
'When reading Isaiah Berlin we breathe an altogether different air' New York Review of Books
'Beautifully written' W. H. Auden, New Yorker
'Ingenious. Exactly what good critical writing should be' Max Beloff, Guardian

The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

For Isaiah Berlin, there is a fundamental distinction in mankind: those who are fascinated by the infinite variety of things - foxes - and those who relate everything to a central all-embracing system - hedgehogs. It can be applied to the greatest creative minds: Dante, Ibsen and Proust are hedgehogs, while Shakespeare, Aristotle and Joyce are foxes.

Yet when Berlin reaches the case of Tolstoy, he finds a fox by nature, but a hedgehog by conviction; a duality which holds the key to understanding Tolstoy's work, illuminating a paradox of his philosophy of history and showing why he was frequently misunderstood by his contemporaries and critics.

With a foreword by Michael Ignatieff
A W&N Essential Consciousness & Thought Literary History & Criticism Philosophy Social Sciences Fox

Critic Reviews

Brilliant ... searching and profound
This little book is so entertaining, as well as acute, that the reader hardly notices that it is learned too
Very readable, with a lively honed down style
The most important study of Tolstoy's thought written in English for a long time
Delightful to read
[Berlin] has a deep and subtle feeling for the puzzle of Tolstoy's personality, and he writes throughout ... with a wonderful eloquence
Beautifully written and suggestive
Berlin's stunning command of the resources of scholarship, his sensitivity to literature and to character, and his eloquence as a writer give this essay the lustre of a virtuoso performance
The argument is ingenious and subtle, full of overtones - exactly what good critical writing should be
All stars
Most relevant
Isaiah Berlin always has interesting things to say, and says them in a way that is somehow concise and comprehensive all at once. His style is rapid yet not rushed, and his arguments are forceful without being heavy-handed.

A book about ‘Tolstoy’s theory of history’ might seem like a bore, but this is a lively text if ever there was one. Audible, you hoped that I enjoyed the presentation. I really did.

Isaiah Berlin, Amazing as Always

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