'The Last Station' And Last Days Of Leo Tolstoy

Russian writer Leo Tolstoy lived a life of incongruities: a landed aristocrat who espoused socialist values; the author of two of the greatest novels, War And Peace and Anna Karenina, but who later scorned their meaningfulness; a preacher of chastity who did not observe the ideal himself; a man who loved his wife but found he could not tolerate living with her. The complex final year of Tolstoy's life was told in a novel by Middlebury College professor Jay Parini, and that book is the basis for an acclaimed new movie by the same name, The Last Station. We talk with Parini about Tolstoy's devoted followers, and the epic struggle between them and his wife over control of his vast estate. Listen

 

  Also in the program, the ancient burial customs of coastal people in modern-day Chile. An environmental geologist at Green Mountain College has won a Fulbright scholarship to study the soils and materials the Chinchorro people used in their elaborate masks and mummy preparations. We talk with Professor John Van Hoesen about his research. Listen

See photos here.