A Critical Essay on Shakespeare Leo Tolstoy

'Mr. Crosby`s article on Shakespeare`s attitude toward the working classes suggested tome the idea of also expressing my own long-established opinion about the works ofShakespeare, in direct opposition, as it is, to that established in all the whole Europeanworld. Calling to mind all the struggle of doubt and self-deceit,—efforts to attune myselfto Shakespeare—which I went through owing to my complete disagreement with thisuniversal adulation, and, presuming that many have experienced and are experiencing thesame, I think that it may not be unprofitable to express definitely and frankly this view ofmine, opposed to that of the majority, and the more so as the conclusions to which Icame, when examining the causes of my disagreement with the universally establishedopinion, are, it seems to me, not without interest and significance.'

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