Author Description

Albert and Lucerne are two very different stories composed by author and philosopher Leo Tolstoy. Both stories reflect Tolstoy's interest in music and melody. Albert (1858) presents the hardships and ridicule faced by an artist as he pursues his passion for playing music. Lucerne (1857) reflects his disenchantment with the elitism of the European bourgeois. To the author, Westerners' sophistication is indicative of their moral decay.