Why did critics say that Leo Tolstoy’s novels feel like pieces of life?

Critics often describe Leo Tolstoy’s novels as "pieces of life" rather than works of art because his writing seems to elude all artifice. This perception stems from his unparalleled ability to observe and record the most minute details of human experience.1

Tolstoy possessed a unique capacity to observe the smallest changes in consciousness and the slightest movements of the body. While other novelists might describe a single act of consciousness as a whole, Tolstoy convincingly breaks such moments down into a series of infinitesimally small steps. This granular level of detail creates a sense of realism so profound that it led the 19th-century critic Matthew Arnold to famously remark that a novel by Tolstoy is not a work of art but a piece of life.1

Furthermore, Tolstoy’s work is characterized by an appreciation for contingency and the value of everyday activity. By focusing on the complexity of human behavior and the "infinite number of small decisions" made by ordinary people, he avoided the artificiality of rigid systems or models, resulting in narratives that feel as complex and unpredictable as life itself.23