Leo Tolstoy

‘A Confession’ is Tolstoy’s chronicle of his journey to faith; his account of how he moved from despair to the possibility of living; from unhappy existence to ‘the glow and strength of life’. It describes his spiritual and philosophical struggles up until he leaves the Orthodox Church, convinced that humans discover truth not by faith, but by reason. The story begins when at the age of 50, Tolstoy is in crisis. Having found no peace in art, science or philosophy, he is attacked by the black dog of despair, and considers suicide. His past life is reappraised and found wanting; as slowly light dawns within. ‘As gradually, imperceptibly as life had decayed in me, until I reached the impossibility of living, so gradually I felt the glow and strength of life return to me… I returned to a belief in God.’ Here is a quest for meaning at the close of the 19th century - a time of social, scientific and intellectual turbulence, in which old forms were under threat. Tolstoy looks around at both old and new alike, and like the author of Ecclesiastes, discovers that ‘All is vanity’. His spiritual discoveries first take him into the arms of the Orthodox Church; and then force his angry departure from it. ‘My Religion’ carries on from where ‘A Confession’ left off. Describing himself as a former nihilist, Tolstoy develops his attack on the church he has left. He accuses them of hiding the true meaning of Jesus, which is to be found in the Sermon on the Mount; and most clearly, in the call not to resist evil. For Tolstoy, it is this command which has been most damaged by ecclesiastical interpretation. ‘Not everyone,’ he writes, ‘is able to understand the mysteries of dogmatics, homilectics, liturgics, hermeneutics, apologetics; but everyone is able and ought to understand what Christ said to the millions of simple and ignorant people who have lived and are living today.’ Here is Tolstoy’s religion; and non-violence is at its heart. Simon Parke, author of The Beautiful Life

Written over a period of more than half a century, Leo Tolstoy’s stories reflect every aspect of his art and personality. They cover his experiences as a soldier in the Caucasus, his married life, his passionate interest in the peasantry, his cult of truth and simplicity, and his growing preoccupation with religion. The stories in Volume 1 of the Collected Shorter Fiction date from the period in which the young Tolstoy wrote Anna Karenina and War and Peace. Ranging from brief, masterfully sketches of military life such as “The Wood-Felling” to novellas like Family Happiness, an uneasy imagining of the idyllic possibilities of marriage by the not-yet-married writer, all feature Tolstoy’s characteristically lavish deployment of detail, shrewd observation, and imaginative power.

Ranging in scope from lengthy novellas to fables and folktales only a few pages long, Leo Tolstoy’s short fiction provides a marvelous opportunity to become closely acquainted with Russia’s great novelist. Volume 2 of the Collected Shorter Fiction reveals how Tolstoy’s growing spiritual preoccupations flowered into a series of extraordinary late masterpieces that equal anything in the earlier novels for intensity and power. Readers of The Death of Iván Ilých, The Kreutzer Sonata, Father Sergius, Master and Man, and Hadji Murád will recognize the brilliant novelist now transfigured by his passionate quest for salvation and forgiveness. Aylmer and Louise Maude’s classic translations are supplemented by new translations by Nigel J. Cooper of six stories, including two that have never before appeared in English.

(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)Written over a period of more than half a century, these stories reflect every aspect of Tolstoy's art and personality. They cover his experiences as a soldier in the Caucasus, his married life, his passionate interest in the peasantry, his cult of truth adn simplicity, and, above all, his growing preoccupation with religion. Ranging in scope from novellas like The Kreutzer Sonata and Hadji Murad to folk-tales only a few pages long, they provide a marvelous opportunity to become closely acquainted with Russia's great novelist. Aylmer and Louise Maude's classic translations are supplemented by new translations by Nigel J. Cooper of six stories, including two that have never before appeared in English.

(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)The only comprehensive hardcover edition of Tolstoy's shorter fiction--57 stories and novellas, including two that have never before appeared in English.In these two handsome volumes, every aspect of Tolstoy's art and personality is reflected: his experiences as a soldier in the Caucasus, his married life, his passionate interest in the peasantry, his belief in truth and simplicity, and above all, his growing preoccupation with religion. Ranging in scope from the short novels Hadj Murad and The Kreutzer Sonata to folktales only a few pages long, they bring us intimately into the world of the great Russian novelist.

A master of realistic fiction, Leo Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest novelists. He is best known for his two longest works, ‘War and Peace’ and ‘Anna Karenina’, commonly regarded as among the finest novels ever written. During his later years, Tolstoy also achieved world renown as a moral and religious teacher. His doctrine of non-resistance to evil had an important influence on Gandhi. Some viewed him as the embodiment of nature and pure vitality, others saw him as the incarnation of the world’s conscience, while all regarded him as a living symbol of the search for life’s meaning. This eBook presents Tolstoy’s complete fictional works, with numerous illustrations, rare texts, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 4)* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Tolstoy’s life and works* Concise introductions to the major texts* All the novels and novellas, with individual contents tables* Features rare stories appearing for the first time in digital publishing* Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts* Excellent formatting of the texts* Easily locate the short stories you want to read* Includes rare plays* Large selection of non-fiction works — spend hours exploring the author’s diverse works* Special criticism section, with 11 essays evaluating Tolstoy’s contribution to world literature* Features three biographies – discover Tolstoy’s literary life, including Maude’s seminal study* Ordering of texts into chronological order and genres* UPDATED with new and revised texts, more rare short stories, novellas, non-fiction and biographiesCONTENTS:The NovelsWar and Peace (1869)Anna Karenina (1877)Resurrection (1899)The NovellasChildhood (1852)Boyhood (1854)Youth (1856)Sevastopol Sketches (1856)A Russian Proprietor (1856)Two Hussars (1856)Family Happiness (1859)Polikushka (1862)The Cossacks (1863)The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886)Katia (1888)The Kreutzer Sonata (1889)Walk in the Light While There is Light (1893)Master and Man (1895)The Devil (1911)The Forged Coupon (1911)Hadji Murat (1912)The Unfinished NovelThe Decembrists (1884)The Short StoriesThe Short Stories of Leo TolstoyThe PlaysThe Power of Darkness (1886)The First Distiller (1886)The Light Shines in Darkness (1890)The Fruits of Culture (1891)Redemption (1891)The Live Corpse (1900)The Cause of It All (1910)The Non-FictionA Confession (1880)Moscow Census (1882)My Religion (1884)What Shall We Do? (1886)On the Significance of Science and Art (1886)Church and State (1891)The Kingdom of God is within You (1893)Introductions to Books (1894)Christianity and Patriotism (1894)Reason and Religion (1895)Patriotism or Peace (1896)Letter to Ernest Howard Crosby (1896)Journal (1895-1899)The Slavery of Our Times (1900)Thou Shalt Not Kill (1900)What is Art? (1904)Bethink Yourselves! (1904)Tolstoy on Shakespeare (1906)A Letter to a Hindu (1908)The CriticismLeo Tolstoï (1887) by W. D. HowellsTolstoy the Artist (1889) by Ivan PaninTolstoy the Preacher (1889) by Ivan PaninExtract from ‘My Literary Passions’ (1895) by W. D. HowellsExtracts from ‘A Survey of Russian Literature’ (1902) by Isabel Florence HapgoodTolstoy and the Cult of Simplicity (1902) by G. K. ChestertonExtract from ‘Essays on Russian Novelists’ (1911) by William Lyon PhelpsThe Russian Point of View (1912) by Virginia WoolfRussian Romance (1913) by Earl of Evelyn Baring CromerExtract from ‘An Outline of Russian Literature’ (1914) by Maurice BaringExtract from ‘Prophets of Dissent’ (1918) by Otto HellerThe BiographiesThe Life of Tolstoy: First Fifty Years (1908) by Aylmer MaudeTolstoy (1911) by Romain RollandReminiscences of Tolstoy (1914) by Count Ilya Tolstoy

Although best known for War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy did not confine his literary talents to voluminous works. He was also a master of the short story and the long story — the particularly Russian form known as povest'. Each of the tales in this collection exhibits the rich detail, vivid narration, and startling truths that characterize Tolstoy's famous novels. Two unusual, intriguing short stores — "Three Deaths" and "The Three Hermits" — appear here, along with four powerful long stories: "Family Happiness," "The Devil," "Father Sergius," and "Master and Man. " "Family Happiness," the first story in this compilation, features a Tolstoyan theme that recurs both here and elsewhere in the author's writings: "The only certain happiness in life is to live for others. " Written over a period of 40 years or more, these works display the author's evolving perspectives on love, marriage, art, politics, and patriotism. They offer an eclectic introduction to the great Russian writer's fiction as well as a feast for those already acquainted with the pleasures of reading Tolstoy.

This book presents writings Tolstoy was never, in his lifetime, allowed to publish in his native Russia. He was a successful author by middle age; world famous for his novels ‘War and Peace’ and ‘Anna Karenina.’ But after a mid-life spiritual awakening, Tolstoy chose a different direction, and for the last 30 years of his life, produced material that offended both Church and State. His religious writings set him at odds with the Orthodox Church, and led eventually to his excommunication. His political and social writings set him in opposition to the government, and brought strict censorship and the threat of imprisonment. But though doors closed on him in Russia, doors opened for him elsewhere; for when Tolstoy’s secretary and friend Vladimir Chertkov was exiled by the government in 1897, he travelled to England. Tolstoy was at first distressed at his departure. He missed the devotion of his most intimate disciple; and also worried for him: ‘I’m very much afraid you’ll be corrupted in England,’ he wrote to Chertkov. ‘I’ve just received the Review of Reviews and read it, and I caught such a sense of that astonishing English self-satisfied dullness that I put myself in your place and tried to think how you would get on with them.’ But Tolstoy need not have worried. It was said of Chertkov that he was even more Tolstoyan than Tolstoy, and his time in England was entirely spent in promoting his master’s cause. Chertkov put his money, energy and leadership skills into the remarkable Free Age Press, run by AC Fifield. Over the next few years, this small press produced 424 million pages of Tolstoy’s writing. Seven of these short works are presented here, each with their own introduction, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Tolstoy’s death. He died on the railway station in Astapovo, in November, 1910. By then, however, thanks to the Free Age Press, his writings were spilling out way beyond the borders of his Russian homeland. The censors could only reach so far...

<p>The ten stories collected in this volume demonstrate Tolstoy's artistic prowess displayed over five decades - experimenting with prose styles and drawing on his own experiences with humour, realism and compassion. Inspired by his experiences in the army, 'The Two Hussars' contrasts a dashing father and his mean-spirited son. Illustrating Tolstoy's belief that art must serve a moral purpose, 'What Men Live By' portrays an angel sent to earth to learn three existential rules of life, and 'Two Old Men' shows a peasant abandoning his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in order to help his neighbours. And in the highly moving 'Master and Man', Tolstoy depicts a mercenary merchant travelling with his unprotesting servant through a blizzard to close a business deal - little realizing he may soon have to settle accounts with his maker.</p> <p>The ten stories collected in this volume demonstrate Tolstoy's artistic prowess displayed over five decades &#8211; experimenting with prose styles and drawing on his own experiences with humour, realism and compassion. Inspired by his experiences in the army, 'The Two Hussars' contrasts a dashing father and his mean-spirited son. Illustrating Tolstoy's belief that art must serve a moral purpose, 'What Men Live By' portrays an angel sent to earth to learn three existential rules of life, and 'Two Old Men' shows a peasant abandoning his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in order to help his neighbours. And in the highly moving 'Master and Man', Tolstoy depicts a mercenary merchant travelling with his unprotesting servant through a blizzard to close a business deal &#8211; little realizing he may soon have to settle accounts with his maker.

Serving on a jury at the trial of a prostitute arrested for murder, Prince Nekhlyudov is horrified to discover that the accused is a woman he had once loved, seduced and then abandoned when she was a young servant girl. Racked with guilt at realizing he was the cause of her ruin, he determines to appeal for her release or give up his own way of life and follow her. Conceived on an epic scale, Resurrection portrays a vast panorama of Russian life, taking us from the underworld of prison cells and warders to the palaces of countesses. It is also an angry denunciation of government, the upper classes, the judicial system and the Church, and a highly personal statement of Tolstoy's belief in human redemption.

A brilliant short novel inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s experience as a soldier in the Caucasus, The Cossacks has all the energy and poetry of youth while also foreshadowing the great themes of Tolstoy’s later years. His naïve hero, Olenin, is a young nobleman who is disenchanted with his privileged and superficial existence in Moscow and hopes to find a simpler life in a Cossack village. As Olenin foolishly involves himself in their violent clashes with neighboring Chechen tribesmen and falls in love with a local girl, Tolstoy gives us a wider view than Olenin himself ever possesses of the brutal realities of the Cossack way of life and the wild, untamed beauty of the rugged landscape. This novel of love, adventure, and male rivalry on the Russian frontier—completed in 1862, when the author was in his early thirties—has always surprised readers who know Tolstoy best through the vast, panoramic fictions of his middle years. Unlike those works, The Cossacks is lean and supple, economical in design and execution. But Tolstoy could never touch a subject without imbuing it with his magnificent many-sidedness, and so this book bears witness to his brilliant historical imagination, his passionately alive spiritual awareness, and his instinctive feeling for every level of human and natural life. Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude

“Over the past hundred years we have had numerous versions . . . of [Tolstoy’s] major works. This volume, however, is arguably the best so far.” —Times Literary Supplement In the last two days of his own life, Peter Carson completed these new translations of The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Confession before he succumbed to cancer in January 2013. Carson, the eminent British publisher, editor, and translator who, in the words of his author Mary Beard, “had probably more influence on the literary landscape of [England] over the past fifty years than any other single person,” must have seen the irony of translating Ilyich, Tolstoy’s profound meditation on death and loss, “but he pressed on regardless, apparently refusing to be distracted by the parallel of literature and life.” In Carson’s shimmering prose, these two transcendent works are presented in their most faithful rendering in English. Unlike so many previous translations that have tried to smooth out Tolstoy’s rough edges, Carson presents a translation that captures the verisimilitude and psychological realism of the original Russian text.

"I am acting badly," thought Yevgeny, "But what's one to do? Anyhow it is not for long. "Leo Tolstoy is known for epic novels that brilliantly dissect society, but the novella The Devil may be the most personally revealing—and startling—fiction he ever wrote. He thought it so scandalous, in fact, that he hid the manuscript in the upholstery of a chair in his office so his wife wouldn't find it, and he would never allow it to be published in his lifetime. Perhaps that's because the gripping tale of an aristocratic landowner slowly overcome with unrelenting sexual desire for one of the peasants on his estate was strikingly similar to an affair Tolstoy himself had. Regardless, the tale—presented here with the two separate endings Tolstoy couldn't decide between—is a scintillating study of sexual attraction and human obsession. The Art of The Novella Series Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.

'The Kreutzer Sonata' is the self-lacerating confession of a man consumed by sexual jealousy and eaten up by shame and eventually driven to murder his wife. The story caused a sensation when it first appeared and Tolstoy's wife was appalled that he had drawn on their own experiences together to create a scathing indictment of marriage. 'The Devil', centring on a young man torn between his passion for a peasant girl and his respectable life with his loving wife, also illustrates the impossibility of pure love. 'The Forged Coupon' shows how an act of corruption can spiral out of control, and 'After the Ball' examines the abuse of power. Written during a time of spiritual crisis in Tolstoy's life, these late stories reflect a world of moral uncertainties.

In the winter of 1854 Tolstoy, then an officer in the Russian army, arranged to be transferred to the besieged town of Sebastopol. Wishing to see at first hand the action of what would become known as the Crimean War, he was spurred on by a fierce patriotism, but also by an equally fierce desire to alert the authorities to appalling conditions in the army. The three “Sebastopol Sketches”—December, May and August—re-create what happened during different phases of the siege and its effect on the ordinary men around him. Writing with the truth as his utmost aim, he brought home to Russia's entire literate public the atrocities of war. In doing so, he realized his own vocation as a writer and established his literary reputation.

During his decades of world fame as a novelist, Tolstoy also wrote prolifically in a series of essays and polemics on issues of morality, social justice and religion. These works culminated in What is Art?, published in 1898. Impassioned and iconoclastic, this powerfully influential work both criticizes the elitist nature of art in nineteenth-century Western society, and rejects the idea that its sole purpose should be the creation of beauty. The works of Dante, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Baudelaire and Wagner are all vigorously condemned, as Tolstoy explores what he believes to be the spiritual role of the artist - arguing that true art must work with religion and science as a force for the advancement of mankind. This profound analysis of the nature of art is the culmination of a series of essays and polemics on issues of morality, social justice, and religion. Considering and rejecting the idea that art reveals and reinvents through beauty, Tolstoy perceives the question of the nature of art to be a religious one. Ultimately, he concludes, art must be a force for good, for the progress and improvement of mankind. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. During his decades of world fame as a novelist, Tolstoy also wrote prolifically in a series of essays and polemics on issues of morality, social justice and religion. These works culminated in What is Art?, published in 1898. Impassioned and iconoclastic, this powerfully influential work both criticizes the elitist nature of art in nineteenth-century Western society, and rejects the idea that its sole purpose should be the creation of beauty. The works of Dante, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Baudelaire and Wagner are all vigorously condemned, as Tolstoy explores what he believes to be the spiritual role of the artist - arguing that true art must work with religion and science as a force for the advancement of mankind.