The Kingdom of God is Within You by Count Lyof N. Tolstoi

Author: Tolstoi, Count Lyof N. 
Title: The Kingdom of God is Within You 
Publisher: Walter Scott, Ltd. 
Date: 1894 
Place: London 
Dimensions: 8vo. 19cm x 13.5cm 

viii + 376pp + [16] pub ads.
1st edition in English.

Blue cloth boards with gilt titles and ornamental decorations to top board and spine. Spine lightly sunned, rubbing and loss of approx 7mm of headcap. Corners a little scuffed. Faint ownership stamp to front paste down. Light, scattered foxing throughout. Binding tight and firm, a few of the final leaves of the text unopened. A very good copy.

The major work espousing Tolstoy’s political philosophy of passive resistance and Christian anarchism. This work would be a seminal influence on Mahatma Ghandi, especially during his time as a leader of the resistance movement in South Africa, where he carried on a correspondence with Tolstoy towards the end of the latter’s life. Ghandi established an ashram, Tolstoy Farm, near Lenasia in today’s Gauteng Province, which he ran as an experiment in communal living that aimed to teach members of the resistance the practice of ‘Satyagraha’ or passive resistance, through daily life on the farm.