But after several years of intensive listening and reading, I have come to the conclusion that the reigning stereotype of the tortured genius is to a large extend a myth created by Romantic ideology and supported by evidence from isolated and--one hopes--atypical historical periods. In other words, if Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy showed more than their share of pathology it was due less to the requirements of their creative work than to the personal sufferings caused y the unhealthful conditions of a Russian society nearing collapse.