== First paragraph == 

 Like many wikipedia articles, the first paragraph here is terrible. It is either written by someone who cares not whether his readers understand him, or who has simply paraphrased an advanced argument of some thesis on Tolstoy's writing style (in which case I doubt the writer fully understood this thesis). First paragraphs should be easy to read and contain a very brief summary of the topic. The first paragraph here attempts to crowd a host of opposing critical literary opinions into a few lines, though the article obviously shouldn't open with opinions.