Showing results by author "Leo Tolstoy" in All Categories

A classic short story by Leo Tolstoy, this is the tale of the journey of Vasili Andreevich and his servant Nikita, set in rural Russia in the 1870's. It provides insight into the human character and condition, greed, and social hierarchy. Gripping, touching, and reflective.

Leo Tolstoy describes the mental and emotional journey of Ilyich as he is suddenly confronted with his own mortality and must question his entire way of life. Ilych had chosen to ignore his family and the health of his own soul as he attempted to reach new heights in his career and social standing. As his ideas and opinions come under intense scrutiny, he begins to understand the futility and consequences of his way of life. In describing the deconstruction of this worldview, Tosltoy reveals the serious dangers of selfish and short-sighted living.

When a troubled schoolboy forges a cash coupon to pay off a debt, his deed starts off a chain reaction of tragedies that effects the lives of dozens, leading to thefts, imprisonments, murders, and in the end redemption. Originally published posthumously, this was one of the last works of Tolstoy, now excommunicated and raging against the hypocrisies of the Russian state and church.

Prompted by his late-in-life conversion to Christianity, Tolstoy's novella describes the early Christians' philosophy and their difficult road to freedom of religious expression. Also included is a prefatory story, "A Talk Among Leisured People", which presents the divergent views of enthusiastic, optimistic youth as compared to their elder's mundane acceptance of life and its burdens.

The book contains the famous story of love, "The Kreutzer Sonata", of the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910).

In this essay on church and state, Tolstoy explains that the word ekklesia means "an assembly" and is so used in the Gospels. He argues that it was only since the Emperor Constantine and the Council of Nicaea that the Church becomes an institution. To him it was a fraudulent institution, designed to obtain power over people.

At a glittering society party in St Petersburg in 1805, conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon’s army marches on Russia, and the lives of three young people are changed forever. The stories of quixotic Pierre, cynical Andrey, and impetuous Natasha interweave with a huge cast, from aristocrats and peasants, to soldiers and Napoleon himself.

A children’s story about the origin of the Great Bear constellation. There was a drought on the earth: The rivers dried up and the trees withered, and and men and beasts died of thirst. One night, a little girl went out with a pitcher to find some water for her sick mother. On her journey, the water and the pitcher took on miraculous properties.

Part 6: Dolly, her children, and her mother, the Princess Shcherbatskaya, spend the summer with Kostya and Kitty. The couple's life is simple and unaffected, although Kostya is uneasy at the "invasion" of so many Shcherbatskys. He becomes extremely jealous when one of the visitors, Veslovsky, flirts openly with the pregnant Kitty. Kostya tries to overcome his jealousy, and briefly succeeds during a hunt with Veslovsky and Oblonsky, but eventually succumbs to his feelings and asks Veslovsky to leave. Veslovsky immediately goes to stay with Anna and Vronsky at their nearby estate.

The novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy was published in 1886 and is considered a masterpiece of his late-period fiction. It tells the story of a high-court judge in 19th-century Russia. He lives a simple, carefree life with his family until he is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Confined to bed, he is disgusted that his family avoids the subject of his death by pretending that he is only sick and not dying. He finds comfort only in Gerasim, the peasant boy who does not fear death.

The Forged Coupon is a novella in two parts by Leo Tolstoy. In Part One, the schoolboy Mitya is in desperate need of money to pay a debt, but his father refuses to help him. He then changes a 2.50 rouble bond coupon to read 12.50 roubles. This one wicked deed sets off a chain of events which affects the lives of dozens of others. In Part Two, a good deed also sets of a series of events, but to the benefit of many people.

War and Peace is a literary work mixed with chapters on history and philosophy by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy. It was first published serially, then published in its entirety in 1869. It is regarded as one of Tolstoy's finest literary achievements and remains an internationally praised classic of world literature.

After a year of marriage, Eugene Irtenev's wife, Liza, employs two peasant women. One of them is Stepanida, with whom Eugene had a passionate relationship prior to meeting Liza. Eugene notices Stepanida dancing, and their glances rekindle his desire. Tormented by lust, he thinks of resuming relations with her, but realizes that the affair would cause too much of a scandal.

Kholstomer is a work by Leo Tolstoy that has been referred to as "one of the most striking stories in Russian literature". It was started in 1863 and left unfinished until 1886, when it was reworked and published as Kholstomer: The Story of a Horse. This story prominently features the technique of defamiliarization by adopting the perspective of a horse to expose some of the irrationalities of human conventions. Kholstomer's altruistic life is recounted parallel to that of his selfish and useless owner. At the end of the story horse dies but his corpse gives birth to a new life - that of wolf cubs.

Leo Tolstoy is widely recognized as one of the world's greatest novelists and short story writers and a master of realistic fiction. He is equally known for his complex and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, developed following a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became known for his deep moral thinking and social reforms.

Hadji Murad, Tolstoy's final novel, tells the story of a real-life Caucasian Avar general who served under Imam Shamil, the leader of the Muslim tribes of the Northern Caucuses and, for a time, Russia's greatest enemy. Hadji Murad plans to defect to the Russians and then lead a Russian-backed army to defeat Shamil.

The Cossacks is one of the finest depictions of Cossack society in Russian literature. Against that primitive background, Tolstoy examines two psychological problems. The first is that of a young man who wants to love and wants to fit into society. The other is that of the difficulty of a primitive society in accepting the domination of a higher culture. This is a brilliant exploration of the themes of individuality and social identity.

Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Nekhlyudov, having fulfilled his duty on a jury, unexpectedly recognizes a woman named Katerina Maslova. She was once a maid he had seduced and subsequently abandoned, leaving her pregnant. His aunt cast her out, and she eventually found herself drawn into a life of prostitution, eventually becoming entangled in a crime. As he observes her unjust trial and subsequent imprisonment, Nekhlyudov becomes consumed with guilt and a desire for redemption.

Outside of Russia, Leo Tolstoy is known mostly as the author of the Napoleonic War epic War and Peace. Therefore, this collection is bound to be a new experience for most, since it includes a set of Tolstoy's stories intended for children.

A Letter to a Hindu (also known as "A Letter to a Hindoo") was a letter written by Leo Tolstoy to Tarak Nath Das on 14 December 1908. The letter was written in response to two letters sent by Das, seeking support from the Russian author and thinker for India's independence from colonial rule. In A Letter to a Hindu, Tolstoy argued that only through the principle of love could the Indian people gain independence from colonial rule.