6 Men Who Weren't Afraid To Be Themselves
2. Leo Tolstoy
If War and Peace defined Tolstoy's literary achievements, peace and then war - lots and lots of war - defined his personal life, such were his absolute conviction in his beliefs.
Most people would be pretty satisfied marrying someone 16 years their junior, and that the legendary Russian author sired no fewer than 13 children with Sophia Behrs suggests there was no shortage of love between the pair. Yet by all accounts, Tolstoy tore his happy marriage asunder, a sacrifice to his steadfast adherence to anarchism and pacifism.
Tolstoy's radical new beliefs encouraged him to eschew his inheritance, and renounce all copyright on his masterworks. You really have to be convinced of something to throw it all away in such spectacular fashion.
All happy families are alike; each unhappy is unhappy in their own way - and few more than Tolstoy's.