<영어로 읽는 톨스토이 책23>
1897년 톨스토이가 러시아어로 완성하였으나 러시아의 검열이 까다로워 처음에는 영어로 출판된 책으로 예술을 정의하고 무엇이 예술러 간주되는지에 대한 논쟁이 주요 내용이다.
톨스토이가 이 책을 쓰게 된 것은 예술과 예술가에 대한 시간, 노력, 공적자금, 대중의 존경, 예술에 대한 일반적인 견해의 부정확성 때문이라고 하였다. “예술이 의미하는 바가 무엇이지, 특히 제사에 바쳐지는 희생을 우리가 용인할 수 있는 선하고 유용한 예술인지 말하기 어렵다.”고 말한다.
책 전체에 걸쳐 톨스토이는 “끊임없는 도덕주의”를 보여주고, 자신의 급진적인 기독교 윤리를 기반으로 예술작품을 평가하거, 바그너, 세익스피어, 단테를 포함한 거장들을 비평하고 있다.

Introduction
Author's Preface
CHAPTER I. Time and labor spent on art?Lives stunted in its service?Morality sacrificed to and anger justified by art?The rehearsal of an opera described
CHAPTER II. Does art compensate for so much evil??What is art??Confusion of opinions?Is it "that which produces beauty"??The word "beauty" in Russian?Chaos in æsthetics
CHAPTER III. Summary of various æsthetic theories and definitions, from Baumgarten to to-day
CHAPTER IV. Definitions of art founded on beauty?Taste not definable?A clear definition needed to enable us to recognize works of art
CHAPTER V. Definitions not founded on beauty?Tolstoi's definition?The extent and necessity of art?How people in the past have distinguished good from bad in art
CHAPTER VI. How art for pleasure has come into esteem?Religions indicate what is considered good and bad?Church Christianity?The Renaissance?Skepticism of the upper classes?They confound beauty with goodness
CHAPTER VII. An æsthetic theory framed to suit this view of life
CHAPTER VIII. Who have adopted it??Real art needful for all men?Our art too expensive, too unintelligible, and too harmful for the masses?The theory of "the elect" in art
CHAPTER IX. Perversion of our art?It has lost its natural subject-matter?Has no flow of fresh feeling?Transmits chiefly three base emotions
CHAPTER X. Loss of comprehensibility?Decadent art?Recent French art?Have we a right to say it is bad and that what we like is good art??The highest art has always been comprehensible to normal people?What fails to infect normal people is not art
CHAPTER XI. Counterfeits of art produced by: Borrowing; Imitating; Striking; Interesting?Qualifications needful for production of real works of art, and those sufficient for production of counterfeits
CHAPTER XII. Causes of production of counterfeits?Professionalism?Criticism?Schools of art
CHAPTER XIII. Wagner's "Nibelung's Ring" a type of counterfeit art?Its success, and the reasons thereof
CHAPTER XIV. Truths fatal to preconceived views are not readily recognized?Proportion of works of art to counterfeits?Perversion of taste and incapacity to recognize art?Examples
CHAPTER XV. The quality of art, considered apart from its subject-matter?The sign of art: Infectiousness?Incomprehensible to those whose taste is perverted?Conditions of infection: Individuality; Clearness; Sincerity
CHAPTER XVI. The quality of art, considered according to its subject-matter?The better the feeling the better the art?The cultured crowd?The religious perception of our age?The new ideals put fresh demands to art?Art unites?Religious art?Universal art?Both cooperate to one result?The new appraisement of art?Bad art?Examples of art?How to test a work claiming to be art
CHAPTER XVII. Results of absence of true art?Results of perversion of art: Labor and lives spent on what is useless and harmful?The abnormal life of the rich?Perplexity of children and plain folk?Confusion of right and wrong?Nietzsche and Redbeard?Superstition, Patriotism, and Sensuality
CHAPTER XVIII. The purpose of human life is the brotherly union of man?Art must be guided by this perception
CHAPTER XIX. The art of the future not a possession of a select minority, but a means toward perfection and unity
CHAPTER XX. The connection between science and art?The mendacious sciences; the trivial sciences?Science should deal with the great problems of human life, and serve as a basis for art