French Literature Reviews - 2026

V. Lebrun, Ten Years with Tolstoy (ed. J. Ibanès)
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs

Victor Lebrun

Ten Years with Tolstoy: Memoirs of His French Secretary, Featuring Unpublished Letters by Leo Tolstoy

Introduction and notes by Jacques Ibanès

Publication date: 26/02/2015

Publisher: Le Cherche-midi, coll. Documents

ISBN: 978-2-7491-3615-8

EAN: 9782749136158

No. of pages: 240 pages

Abstract

At the end of the 19th century, young Victor Lebrun (1882–1978)—whose father, an engineer, was building railways in Russia—embarked on an experience that would shape the rest of his life: meeting Leo Tolstoy. This encounter took place in 1900, and for ten years, until the writer's tragic end at the small railway station of Astapovo, Lebrun lived in close proximity to the great man south of Moscow.
He became his friend and secretary. His previously unpublished memoirs vividly and evocatively capture the daily life of his master, surrounded by devoted disciples. A truly unique document on this titan of literature.

Contents

The Encounter

The First Visit

The Caucasus

The Secretariat

The White Fiancée

The Exodus

Memoirs of this nature belong to a rich tradition of personal accounts left by the associates and disciples of major literary figures, offering intimate perspectives on their final years. Such documents often illuminate the domestic and intellectual environment surrounding a writer of global stature during an era of significant personal and philosophical transition. Readers interested in biographical accounts of nineteenth-century literary figures may find this volume relevant.

Victor Lebrun served as secretary to Leo Tolstoy for ten years until the writer's end at the railway station of Astapovo. Edited with an introduction and notes by Jacques Ibanès, the volume includes personal reflections alongside previously unpublished correspondence by Leo Tolstoy, documenting a decade spent in close proximity to the author.