The Paradox of History: Stendhal, Tolstoy, Pasternak, and Others

This collection of interrelated literary/historical essays is based on the author’s 1966 Christian Gauss lectures at Princeton University. The articles investigate the various attitudes of such giants as Stendahl, Tolstoy, Malraux, and Pasternak, plus other lesser-known authors, toward the idea of “history” as a replacement for earlier theocentric and rationalist world views.