Of all Russian writers Leo Tolstoy is probably the best known to the Western world, largely because of War and Peace, his epic in prose, an...
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Jul 27, 2011
El
rated it: 
ETA: I'm a little confused by the number of reviews that claim these works aren't "short" as the title indicates. Have you read War and Peace or Anna Karenina? Those are loooong. These are short.
Family Happiness (1859): A young girl falls in love with a much older man; the story follows their relationship from the start of their love, when things are always gooey-heart-shaped-eyeballs-for-each-other through their marriage, when Mashechka realizes that love and marriage i More...
Family Happiness (1859): A young girl falls in love with a much older man; the story follows their relationship from the start of their love, when things are always gooey-heart-shaped-eyeballs-for-each-other through their marriage, when Mashechka realizes that love and marriage i More...
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Nov 28, 2010
Tyler
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Do not buy this book. The Maude translation of Tolstoy's works is exceptionally bad. My rating is for the translation, not the merit of Tolstoy's stories. As best I can, let me rate them separately below:
Family Happiness -- (*) -- I didn't care for this story because Tolstoy writes it from a female perspective, and he doesn't quite carry it off. This is an early work of his, an idealized portrait of how love and marriage might proceed.
The Cossacks -- (***) -- A short wor More...
Family Happiness -- (*) -- I didn't care for this story because Tolstoy writes it from a female perspective, and he doesn't quite carry it off. This is an early work of his, an idealized portrait of how love and marriage might proceed.
The Cossacks -- (***) -- A short wor More...
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Jan 03, 2012
Ted
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This is a tremendous collection of stories by Tolstoy. Don't be fooled, "short works" does not mean they are "short stories", rather they are more like novellas. Although the last story, Alyosha The Pot, is only seven pages long, the other eight stories consume over 650 pages - averaging over 80 pages.
I read them all a few years ago and enjoyed every one of them. I would have to reread them to remember my favorites (which I may well do), but one that I remember p More...
I read them all a few years ago and enjoyed every one of them. I would have to reread them to remember my favorites (which I may well do), but one that I remember p More...
Feb 10, 2011
Kris
rated it:
Below is a review I wrote for ninetyandnine.com in 2003. I think it sums up my thoughts on Tolstoy quite nicely! - Kris
Tolstoy? Timeless!
What Men Live By
By Kris A. Newman
November 3, 2003
In an age where we are inundated with information, sometimes it’s hard to remember what the nitty-gritty of Christianity is all about—is it found in worship? Is it found in Bible memorization? Is it found in hearing the best preacher? Isn’t there More...
Tolstoy? Timeless!
What Men Live By
By Kris A. Newman
November 3, 2003
In an age where we are inundated with information, sometimes it’s hard to remember what the nitty-gritty of Christianity is all about—is it found in worship? Is it found in Bible memorization? Is it found in hearing the best preacher? Isn’t there More...
Nov 23, 2010
Austin
rated it:
The great short works of Tolstoy are in fact great, but they are not, unsurprisingly, short. My edition of almost 700 pages approximates a cube (it will stand up by itself on any of its six faces), and it's colored a dyspeptic puce as if to warn you in advance of the excess of it, the literary heartburn. The size of the book accurately suggests the titanic, unparalleled power of Tolstoy. In the cover photograph of the great writer working at his desk, his beard is like a cloud of factory smok
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Apr 18, 2009
Dia
rated it: 
I'm not sure how to review a collection of stories. Am I commenting on the stories themselves, or on the editors' choices -- which stories they included, the value of the Introduction, and other such choices? So I've mixed all such considerations together and pulled four stars out of my furry ushanka hat. One factor that diminished my rating is simply the poor quality of the print in this particular book. The ink is thick and blobby on many of the rather flimsy pages. I shouldn't have been
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Jan 27, 2011
Brian
rated it:
This review is of the stories "Father Sergius", "The Devil", and "Alyosha the Pot". I'd read the other stories before in a separate collection which is also on a bookshelf here on goodreads. Of those stories, "The Cossacks", "The Kreutzer Sonata", and "Master and Man" rank among my favorite stories of all time both for enjoyment of the content as well as appreciation for their artistic boldness and creativity. Of the stories being revie
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Jan 27, 2010
Blayze
rated it: 
i mostly enjoyed the read. there were a few things that concerned me about this text. first, like some reviewers have said, this collection was put together posthumously and in no way shows cohesion. it does in some way demonstrate a progression as these are tolstoy's popularized short fiction works in chronological order beginning with 'family happiness' in 1859 and ending with 'alyosha the pot' in 1905. the distance in time is all too obvious to notice while reading the stories through, and wh
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Sep 22, 2010
Jackal
rated it:
I'm not sure how to review the book as a whole, being a collection of short stories, but I do have some things to say of it. Well, particularly about Tolstoy, which is important to the types of stories that he writes. I think that Tolstoy is rightly recognized worldwide for his profound philosophies and practices. He plays a key role in the development of "Christian anarchism," and strongly believed in nonviolence, most specifically and especially when it came to his beliefs concerning
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Aug 13, 2010
TheRealSky
rated it:
Thus far I have only read Tolstoy's short stories/novellas, and I have come away let down with the majority of them. "Father Sergius" dazzled me at the start & gave me hope, but in the end left me trailing as it veered toward it's ending. "The Cossacks" & "Hadji Murad" delved into too much description of clothing and warfare for my liking, which seems to dissuade me from tackling "War & Peace." The saving grace of the collection was "Family Happiness,
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Jul 19, 2009
Julie
rated it: 
This week I attempted to read from Tolstoy and began with the first story in this book called "Family Happiness". Though I rated it "ok", it did have lots to think about. It showed quite the contrast between the joy of exciting romance and falling in love to the more long-lasting love that suffers long and is kind. I couldn't really decide if I liked it or not. It is the story of a girl--happy when young and in love, getting caught in the social traps of the world and the
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Aug 25, 2011
Rachel
rated it:
i was in the bookstore deciding between "War and Peace" and a collection of short stories. I wimped out on War and Peace in favor of what i thought would be more digestible short stories. While the stories themselves are interesting and typical Tolstoy themes, the translation is so poor i can only give this version three stars. I've had to put the book down, the language is very difficult to muddle through and unfortunately is distracting. I would very much like to revisit a better tr
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Aug 07, 2008
Jacob
rated it:
My exposure to Russian writers until a year ago was limited to Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky which I found to be painfully slow and grossly dark. Recently our book club read Fathers and Sons by Turgenev which was pretty good and gave me a little more hope. So I decided to finally pick up the short works of Tolstoy off my shelf expecting something somewhere in between Turgenev and Dostoevsky but instead was absolutely delighted to find a master at work with his own unique style. "Cos
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Jan 03, 2011
Joe
rated it:
Comment:
Hadji Murad, which was written towards the end of his life, is the greatest example of heroic epic since the death of Homer! Note that Tolstoy is writing this poem of heroism two decades after becoming a Christian pacifist. Indeed, this single story filled him with such unease that, in a conversation with Gorky (I believe), he referred to it as an 'indulgence'! Even the indulgences of this man will be exalted throughout the Ages!
Hadji Murad, which was written towards the end of his life, is the greatest example of heroic epic since the death of Homer! Note that Tolstoy is writing this poem of heroism two decades after becoming a Christian pacifist. Indeed, this single story filled him with such unease that, in a conversation with Gorky (I believe), he referred to it as an 'indulgence'! Even the indulgences of this man will be exalted throughout the Ages!
Feb 07, 2010
Brian
rated it:
Referring strictly to this particular edition: I speak only a lazy variation of the English language, so when I can tell that a translation is bad something is seriously wrong. I read only "Hadji Murad" and "The Cossacks". The stories themselves were strong enough to shine through, but the wording and syntax was so awkward that I just put the book down and decided to find better translations of the rest.
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Feb 23, 2008
Paul
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The problem with reading Tolstoy (whether it is a few of the selections in this book, Anna Karenina, or War and Peace) too often is that he may convince you to never marry.... But the problem with not reading Tolstoy is that you miss some of the best literature ever written.
The Kreutzer Sonata - frightening and fascinating at once! What does it feel like to be consumed with jealousy to the point of killing your wife? Tolstoy can make you feel it.
Family Happiness is Tols More...
The Kreutzer Sonata - frightening and fascinating at once! What does it feel like to be consumed with jealousy to the point of killing your wife? Tolstoy can make you feel it.
Family Happiness is Tols More...
May 03, 2009
Julie
rated it:
Read in college, I believed that Tolstoy was the world's greatest writer. I've since changed my mind, but I really lost sleep over pondering these stories.
Mar 19, 2010
Elijah
rated it:
A good collection, even if the translations are rather on the old side.
The Kreutzer Sonata: Good God, what an intense story. It's all caught up in the voice of a man whose views are at once progressive (women should be treated as human beings) and regressive (but since they aren't they're all whores) as he recounts learning of his wife's humanity once he had killed her. Harrowing and fascinating, and all the better because Tolstoy does not take the time out to tell us which parts we More...
The Kreutzer Sonata: Good God, what an intense story. It's all caught up in the voice of a man whose views are at once progressive (women should be treated as human beings) and regressive (but since they aren't they're all whores) as he recounts learning of his wife's humanity once he had killed her. Harrowing and fascinating, and all the better because Tolstoy does not take the time out to tell us which parts we More...
Jun 25, 2011
Francine Prose recommends this book and translation in her list of Books Must Read Now.
Dec 08, 2009
Hunter
rated it:
A master. The best story is probably 'Hadji Murad', or 'The Death of Ivan Ilych'.
Mar 30, 2009
Keith
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Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy (Perennial Classics) by Leo Tolstoy (2004)
Mar 15, 2008
Rob
rated it:
I love short stories. These were good, but not as good as I was hoping for after reading War and Peace. Tolstoy is so good at dedicating stories towards something of moral consequence and these short stories are no different. I can, however, only handle so many consecutive treatises on humanity and human nature if they aren't carefully concealed in a gripping plot. These, sad to say, really were not.
Aug 11, 2008
Pelagicunicorn
rated it:
I was afraid of this thick book and it sat on my shelf for a while. So engaging! I love glimpsing the crazy guy in The Kruetzer Sonata and watching characters emerge in many of his tales. The Cossacks...Family Happiness. Look, I can't do Leo Tolstoy any kind of justice. It is Leo Tolstoy. I will say that after reading this, I know that I will read War and Peace in my lifetime.
Feb 03, 2009
Janetrev
rated it:
When I was younger I didn't appreciate Tolstoy and found him heavy-handed in his morals. Now, as I read more of his works, his morals also have clearly been refined as he got older. I am now on the last novella, Hadji Murad, which I am enjoying very much. It ties in nicely with his earlier works on the Crimean War.
