Tolstoy was actually a Count, but he spend part of his life 'among the peasants'. Chesterton considers this a 'heroic desire to return to nature', but he points out that there is a kind of artificiality in it, and a kind of futility. One cannot wish himself simple.
Tolstoy is, of course, a great writer. There is, however, a disparity between his literary writing and his didactic writing. This is particularly clear in 'War and Peace', where the reader can safely skip Tolstoy's philosophy of history, and just follow the story. Chesterton writes that this all 'arises from the search after a false simplicity, the aim of being, if I may so express it, more natural than it is natural to be'.
Chesterton continues by expressing admiration of Tolstoy's taking Christ's teachings really serious. Even here, though, he has a serious side-note: the 'accuracy' of some statements about the New Testament 'is by no means so striking as the confidence'. Chesterton points out the error of 'cutting up the teachings of the New Testament into five rules'.
All in all I am a little surprised about the amount of criticism Chesterton has on Tolstoy. But then, in our modern times we probably tend to disregard Tolstoy's philosophies and focus on his literary productions. In this Chesterton may have agreed: Count Tolstoy, he confesses, is a great artist.
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