Boris Eikhenbaum 
Tolstoi in the Sixties.
Ardis, 1982. First edition. 0882334700 xxv/255 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 6.5" x 9.5", is bound in red cloth, with stamped gilt lettering to spine. Book shows very light wear. Binding is firm. Final blank pages display minor foxing at fore edge. Interior is otherwise clean and bright. Dust jacket shows large tear at top of spine panel. 
"It is generally accepted that "War and Peace" was conceived in 1860. In March 1861 Tolstoi wrote Alexander Herzen: "Four months ago I started a novel in which the hero will be a returning Decembrist." The plan changed, but the 1860s became the decade of "War and Peace".
Accordingly, the largest volume of Eikhenbaum's work on Tolstoi is devoted mainly to the genesis, writing and aftermath of the great novel that established Tolstoi's world-wide reputation.
No period in Tolstoi's life was fuller or more complicated than this one. As early as 1860 he renounced writing for the first time, saying it was a waste of time; and he began his famous experiments in educating the peasants. This led to entanglements with the suspicious secret police of the Tsar's Third Section. His sensational fight and near duel with Turgenev came in 1861. In 1862 Tolstoi married Sonya Behrs, beginning an extraordinarily tortured family life, centered on the great estate of Yasnaya Polyana. The years 1864-1869 saw teh volume by volume publication of "War and Peace".
Eikhenbaum's account of Tolstoi's life and writing in this period is the keystone to his trilogy on Tolstoi. Eikhenhaum's study is the most often quoted study of Tolstoi in any language. The debt of all other Tolstoi scholars is openly acknowledged: E B. Greenwood ("Tolstoi") calls him "the foremost Tolstoi scholar"; Ralph Matlaw ("Tolstoi") calls Eikhenbaum "the best book extant on Tolstoi"; and Edward Crankshaw ("Tolstoi") says it is "the best and most complete study of Tolstoi in Russian".