Abstract: The article analyzes female characters in Leo Tolstoy's novels: from “Family Happiness” to “Resurrection.” By analogy with the autobiographical hero, the changing character of a heroine is revealed in the writer's works, while considering peculiar epic measures chosen by Tolstoy in the mid-1850s, which he used to evaluate a woman: beauty, intelligence, ability for solitude, attitude to work, religiosity. It is noted that the ideal of Tolstoy's woman was largely formed in letters to Valeria Arsenyeva while the writer was pondering his own path. Masha in “Family Happiness” begins a series of Tolstoy's heroines, who reflect Tolstoy's idea of the best qualities of a woman. Tolstoy considers indifference, even contempt for society and worldly pleasures one of the most important components of a woman’s correct life. The author of the article examines central female images of the epic novel “War and Peace,” novels “Anna Karenina,” “Resurrection” in their relation to secular society. In the course of analyzing drafts and comparing them with final texts, the author demonstrates the writer’s work on the appearance and inner world of heroines by constructing them from often contradictory, contrasting descriptions, excluding unnecessary details from draft materials as well as episodes that had unambiguous and evaluative specifications.
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