The Murder of Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy and his wife, Sonya, had a strained relationship, but after he saw her digging through his personal items, he had had enough. He boarded a train and bought tickets as he went to try to lose Sonya. Within a few days, what was once a mild cough became a fever for Tolstoy. Once he reached Astapovo, he became too ill to continue. This is the room where Tolstoy died on November 7. His daughters were the last people he saw before he died, since his wife, Sonya, was not allowed to see him. She waited for him just outside in a train car. She had decided that if Tolstoy dared to try to flee, she would hire a private detective to follow him.

Source: Finegold, Leo. Room in Astapovo Where Tolstoy Died. Digital image. The Last Days of Leo Tolstoy. N.p., 19 Aug. 1999. Web. 20 Aug. 2013.

The Murder of Leo Tolstoy is a memoir-style essay that discusses Tolstoy's life and relationships and how they might have contributed to his death. Elif Batuman sets out to challenge the traditional notion that Leo Tolstoy's death was natural. In the essay, she attends the International Tolstoy Conference in Yasnaya Polyana, where she decides to write a field-research proposal hoping to earn a travel grant of $2,500. Batuman is an American author and journalist who graduated from Harvard University and later earned a doctorate in comparative literature from Stanford University. She also won a Whiting Award; these awards are given annually to ten writers that show remarkable talent early in their career. Elif Batuman is evidently credible. Her pupose was to investigate whether Leo Tolstoy died of natural causes or was murdered. Batuman subtly aims to persuade readers of the latter. Batuman uses various rhetorical devices to investigate Tolstoy's death and to convince the reader that Tolstoy might have been murdered. Several times in her essay, the author uses rhetorical questions to force the reader to come to the same conclusion she came to about a particular piece of evidence. This proves useful because it almost lets the reader convice his/herself that Batuman's idea is correct. With that said, The Murder of Leo Tolstoy was written for people with a particular interest in Tolstoy and his work or for people who appreciate a connection-based analysis of someone's life and death. This essay was thoroughly entertaining and well written in a way that allowed Batuman to accomplish her purpose. She made many conclusions that made sense in light of her evidence and thought process. Batuman did not set out to prove that Leo Tolstoy died one way or another, she simply set out to investigate how he might have died. In that light, Batuman investigated in a way that made her idea that Tolstoy was murdered not necessarily proven-without-a-doubt, but at least leaving some solid reasoning as to why Tolstoy didn't definitely die of natural causes.

Source: 

Finegold, Leo. "The Last Days of Leo Tolstoy: Chapter III." The Last Days of Leo Tolstoy: Chapter                 III. N.p., Aug. 1999. Web. 25 Aug. 2013.