Book description
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.
Count Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 on the family estate of Yasnaya
Polyana, in the Tula province. He took part in the Crimean war and
after the defence of Sevastopol wrote The Sevastopol Sketches
(1855-6), which established his literary reputation. He is the author,
among many other works, of War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina
(1877) and A Confession (1879 82).
Ronald Wilks has translated widely from the Russian, including for
Penguin works by Gorky, Gogol and Chekhov.
Hugh McLean has published widely on Russian literature, including
contributing an essay on "The Countryside" to the Cambridge
Companion to the Classic Russian Novel and one on Tolstoy's
Resurrection to the Cambridge Companion to Tolstoy.
Paul Foote was, until his retirement, a University Lecturer in
Russian and Fellow of the Queen's College, Oxford.
