This guide points you to some useful starting places for your research on Tolstoy and his works. I'm happy to consult with you about any part of the research process, from finding and evaluating sources to understanding how to cite them. You can email me (kstorz@wellesley.edu) or make a Zoom appointment on my calendar: bit.ly/storzappt.
Karen Storz, Research & Instruction Librarian
Historical Dictionary of Russian Literature by See Selected Books on Tolstoy below for more ideas.
Although SuperSearch can be a great starting place for finding sources, it can be challenging to find the most relevant material in a flood of results. More specialized databases, like the ones below, can provide a "less is more" experience, by helping to focus your search on scholarly sources in your area of interest. A database such as MLA International Bibliography will also turn up results that SuperSearch misses. It's always a good idea to search in more than one database. Even when there's considerable overlap in content, the different search capabilities and features of each database can help you find different sources.
Books and journal articles in the humanities, arts, and social sciences.
Full-text scholarly journal articles and books on all aspects of literature, along with literary reference works (encyclopedias, dictionaries, biographies, and topic overviews) and the full text of thousands of literary works from the 8th century to the present.
See also Selected Books on Tolstoy below.
If you search for Tolstoy in MLA and look at the Subjects that come up in the results list, you'll see that the Subject term used for Tolstoy in MLA is Tolstoĭ, Lev Nikolaevich. Using that term will ensure that you get the most relevant results.
Then you can add other terms to narrow your focus:
Look at the Subjects that come up under the citations. They can provide you with ideas for alternative search terms. Using a variety of keywords is essential to getting the best results in MLA.
You can also try out the MLA Thesaurus (above the search box) to find additional terms to use in your search.
Search for a term in the thesaurus to find broader, narrower, and related terms. For example, a search for point of view will direct you to related terms such as narration and narrative voice. Clicking on those terms will take you to additional lists of terms.
For more tips on database searching, see the Search Tips tab.
Find more books on Tolstoy and his works under the subject heading Tolstoy, Leo, Graf, 1828-1910 in the library catalog.
Tolstoy and His Problems: Views from the Twenty-First Century by 
Tolstoy's Family Prototypes in War and Peace by 
Tolstoy On War : Narrative Art and Historical Truth in "War and Peace" by 
Tolstoy's Art and Thought, 1847-1880 by 
Epic and the Russian Novel from Gogol to Pasternak by 
Tolstoy's the Death of Ivan Ilich: A Critical Companion by 