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Six Short Masterpieces By Tolstoy
Two Hussars, A Happy Married Life, Yardstick,The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Kreutzer Sonata and After The Ball
380 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1946
2 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
Leo Tolstoy
7,945 books28.4k followersLev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой; most appropriately used Liev Tolstoy; commonly Leo Tolstoy in Anglophone countries) was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist fiction. Many consider Tolstoy to have been one of the world's greatest novelists. Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer.
His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 7, 2025
In truth, there's really just one masterpiece out of the purported six in this volume. When one soars to the heights of literary greatness as Tolstoy did with his great novels, particularly, in my opinion, Anna Karenina, then everything else written is bound to share in the glow of such greatness, even when it doesn't match up to it. There's also the worship that comes with designated genius: every thought is pure, every action is right, and every work written, of course, is a masterpiece.
But short(er) fiction reveals a writer's strengths and frailties in ways longer prose may conceal. The shorter fiction here represent various stages in a writer's life and development; in the earlier stories there are the prototypes of the heroes and heroines that will become beloved in the great novels. Tolstoy’s uncanny ability of rendering a scene with picture perfect clarity is manifest even in the earliest story. The romantic scenery: a young maiden gazing out of her window into the moonlit garden with the moonlight reflected in its pond and the nightingale singing in the trees while she waits and longs. Tolstoy's ideals of what a proper and right life and wife should be are also clear here. The ideals get in the way as they never seem to be true depictions, and reading Chekhov these past weeks makes it more apparent. Where Chekhov seems to see people as they are, Tolstoy seems to see them as he wishes them to be and so the people in some of these stories seem more like projections and ideations than they are real people.
The idealized life here is one where all is shredded to the charming simplicity of provincial life, and one can theorize why Tolstoy was drawn to this: perhaps due to all the turbulence that occurred in nineteenth century Russia that spilled onto the twentieth century and which culminated with the Bolshevik revolution. Times of upheaval do tend to inspire this romanticized vision of a peaceful country life. The one true masterpiece here is The Death of Ivan Ilyich. A wonderful tale of a man who has lived his life in the way he feels he was meant to, an established and respected judge, and finally has to confront illness and death. It read even better than the first time I'd read it, and is the best fictional tale on mortality I have ever read.
But short(er) fiction reveals a writer's strengths and frailties in ways longer prose may conceal. The shorter fiction here represent various stages in a writer's life and development; in the earlier stories there are the prototypes of the heroes and heroines that will become beloved in the great novels. Tolstoy’s uncanny ability of rendering a scene with picture perfect clarity is manifest even in the earliest story. The romantic scenery: a young maiden gazing out of her window into the moonlit garden with the moonlight reflected in its pond and the nightingale singing in the trees while she waits and longs. Tolstoy's ideals of what a proper and right life and wife should be are also clear here. The ideals get in the way as they never seem to be true depictions, and reading Chekhov these past weeks makes it more apparent. Where Chekhov seems to see people as they are, Tolstoy seems to see them as he wishes them to be and so the people in some of these stories seem more like projections and ideations than they are real people.
The idealized life here is one where all is shredded to the charming simplicity of provincial life, and one can theorize why Tolstoy was drawn to this: perhaps due to all the turbulence that occurred in nineteenth century Russia that spilled onto the twentieth century and which culminated with the Bolshevik revolution. Times of upheaval do tend to inspire this romanticized vision of a peaceful country life. The one true masterpiece here is The Death of Ivan Ilyich. A wonderful tale of a man who has lived his life in the way he feels he was meant to, an established and respected judge, and finally has to confront illness and death. It read even better than the first time I'd read it, and is the best fictional tale on mortality I have ever read.
May 15, 2013
Some books are entertaining. Some books have underlying messages. Some books are all message. Then some books are nothing short of works of art. Six Short Masterpieces is the correct title for these short stories.
August 15, 2015
What can be said about Tolstoy but that he was a master writer and was spot on with human psychology. All the stories are pure masterpieces.
September 24, 2023
I admire the reflection of Tolstoy and his morals reflected in the short stories found in this book. While I didn't enjoy all of them, A Happy Married Life and The Death of Ivan Ilyich have impacted me on an unforgettable level.
Some novels struggle to covey the fulness of life in three hundred pages. This short story manages to do so with a fraction of that, taking us into the young, rose eyed perspective of Marya. At only 17, she questions her love for an older family friend, Sergei. The whirlwind of love leaves her breathless, afraid, and exuberantly happy for the future. Without spoiling much, Tolstoy’s writing is so poetic, relatable and poised that I still feel the tugging of heartstrings today over the thoughts of young Marya. Its such a great lesson on marriage, love, the content of “happiness,” and allowing the past to exist in its impenetrable state. I loved this story very much.
A few quotes from AHML:
"And every thought was his thought, every feeling-his feeling. I did not realize then that this was love. I thought it was just a feeling that may come of itself at any time."
"My mind and even my affections were occupied, but there was another feeling-a feeling of youth, a need for excitement which found no satisfaction in our quiet life."
"Doing good was not what I wanted- I wanted excitement. I wanted love to order our life, and not life to order our love."
"I want something new every day, every minute, but he wants to stand still and have me stand still with him."
Of Lermontov: "But he, the mad one, seeks the storm, as though the storm could give him rest!"
"Worldly desires that remain unfulfilled are bad and ugly."
"You...sacrifice and so do I. What could be prettier? A contest for who is more magnanimous. What other happy married life is there?"
"Every time has its own form of love... I clearly and calmly realized that the love of that time had gone forever, and that it was not only impossible to revive it, it would have been painful and constraining to do so."
"That day ended my romance with my husband; my old love remained a dear memory of what would never return, but a new feeling of love for my children and for the father of my children provided the beginning of another happy life, but an entirely different one."
"You are envious of the leaves and the grass for being wet with rain- you would like to be the leaves and the grass and the rain. But I am satisfied merely to look at them, as at everything else that is young and beautiful and happy."
As for the Death of Ivan Ilyich, the most popular of the collection, it carries the reader through a slow and painful death. Its uncomfortable, but that's the point. And his reflection on childhood is both depressing and relatable:
"It was inconceivable that everyone, always, should be doomed to this horror."
The hardest part to me:
"And he began to go over in his mind the best moments of his pleasant life. But, strange as it may seem, all the best moments of his pleasant life no longer seemed to be what he considered them. All, except the earliest memories of his childhood. In his childhood there had been something really pleasant, something worth living for, if it could have been brought back again. But the person who had experienced this pleasantness was no more. He seemed to be calling up the memories of someone else."
"The further away he went from his childhood and the closer he came to the present, the more worthless and dubious became his joy."
"His life had grown complicated and the good things had decreased. Later on there was even less of the good, and the further he went, the less there was."
"Life, a series of increasing sufferings, is falling faster and faster toward its goal, which is unspeakable suffering."
Some novels struggle to covey the fulness of life in three hundred pages. This short story manages to do so with a fraction of that, taking us into the young, rose eyed perspective of Marya. At only 17, she questions her love for an older family friend, Sergei. The whirlwind of love leaves her breathless, afraid, and exuberantly happy for the future. Without spoiling much, Tolstoy’s writing is so poetic, relatable and poised that I still feel the tugging of heartstrings today over the thoughts of young Marya. Its such a great lesson on marriage, love, the content of “happiness,” and allowing the past to exist in its impenetrable state. I loved this story very much.
A few quotes from AHML:
"And every thought was his thought, every feeling-his feeling. I did not realize then that this was love. I thought it was just a feeling that may come of itself at any time."
"My mind and even my affections were occupied, but there was another feeling-a feeling of youth, a need for excitement which found no satisfaction in our quiet life."
"Doing good was not what I wanted- I wanted excitement. I wanted love to order our life, and not life to order our love."
"I want something new every day, every minute, but he wants to stand still and have me stand still with him."
Of Lermontov: "But he, the mad one, seeks the storm, as though the storm could give him rest!"
"Worldly desires that remain unfulfilled are bad and ugly."
"You...sacrifice and so do I. What could be prettier? A contest for who is more magnanimous. What other happy married life is there?"
"Every time has its own form of love... I clearly and calmly realized that the love of that time had gone forever, and that it was not only impossible to revive it, it would have been painful and constraining to do so."
"That day ended my romance with my husband; my old love remained a dear memory of what would never return, but a new feeling of love for my children and for the father of my children provided the beginning of another happy life, but an entirely different one."
"You are envious of the leaves and the grass for being wet with rain- you would like to be the leaves and the grass and the rain. But I am satisfied merely to look at them, as at everything else that is young and beautiful and happy."
As for the Death of Ivan Ilyich, the most popular of the collection, it carries the reader through a slow and painful death. Its uncomfortable, but that's the point. And his reflection on childhood is both depressing and relatable:
"It was inconceivable that everyone, always, should be doomed to this horror."
The hardest part to me:
"And he began to go over in his mind the best moments of his pleasant life. But, strange as it may seem, all the best moments of his pleasant life no longer seemed to be what he considered them. All, except the earliest memories of his childhood. In his childhood there had been something really pleasant, something worth living for, if it could have been brought back again. But the person who had experienced this pleasantness was no more. He seemed to be calling up the memories of someone else."
"The further away he went from his childhood and the closer he came to the present, the more worthless and dubious became his joy."
"His life had grown complicated and the good things had decreased. Later on there was even less of the good, and the further he went, the less there was."
"Life, a series of increasing sufferings, is falling faster and faster toward its goal, which is unspeakable suffering."
September 18, 2022
Sometimes, the history of ownership of a book is the point of the book. This book appeared in my house when I was in Jr. High School (what is now called Middle School for all of you children). I believe it was purchased by my older brother for a class in college, and since he is eleven years older than me, this would make sense that he had discarded it into the family’s bookcase by this time. I was intrigued by it. It contains the following short stories: “Two Hussars,” “A Happy Married Life,” “Yardstick,” “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” “The Kreutzer Sonata,” and “After the Ball.” At that time the title of “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” had a particular appeal to me; I do not remember why. Anyway, I “liberated” this book from the family bookcase, and it has traveled with me ever since. I always intended to read it. I owned it through high school and I took it to college. It went to my first apartment and to my first house. Three years ago, I brought it to my current house. As is usual with paperbacks from the era, the cheap wood-pulp paper is now yellow and brittle, and the pages have begun to come loose from the binding and to fall out. I decided it was time to read it or give up on it, so I finally read it.
All of these stories were well done and captured my attention, although I found “Yardstick” to be the weakest one. This about a horse, and I never really cared for the horse. The two that most grabbed my attention were “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” and “The Kreutzer Sonata.” I don’t want to spoil the story too much, but “The Kreutzer Sonata” is about a man’s descent into a killing rage over his imagined jealousies concerning his wife. It is a good portrait of a crazy man. It also seems a little tainted at times with Tolstoy’s wacko religious fixations. This actually strengthens the sense of impending disaster, although I do not think that Tolstoy meant for those implications to come through. As for “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” it did not hold all of the depths that I had imagined that it would, but it was still a very interesting portrait of the sudden illness and lingering death of an ambitious man whose life is cut short.
All of these stories were well done and captured my attention, although I found “Yardstick” to be the weakest one. This about a horse, and I never really cared for the horse. The two that most grabbed my attention were “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” and “The Kreutzer Sonata.” I don’t want to spoil the story too much, but “The Kreutzer Sonata” is about a man’s descent into a killing rage over his imagined jealousies concerning his wife. It is a good portrait of a crazy man. It also seems a little tainted at times with Tolstoy’s wacko religious fixations. This actually strengthens the sense of impending disaster, although I do not think that Tolstoy meant for those implications to come through. As for “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” it did not hold all of the depths that I had imagined that it would, but it was still a very interesting portrait of the sudden illness and lingering death of an ambitious man whose life is cut short.
October 12, 2024
one of the worst stories ive ever read
August 9, 2014
These are indeed masterpieces. "Two Hussars" and "The Kreutzer Sonata," aside from the more famous, "Death of Ivan Ilyich," are the best stories in the collection, in my opinion. And my opinion counts for everything. "The Kreutzer Sonata" in particular shows Tolstoy's incisive perception of human nature that not only understands but can recreate the worst of humanity--all the while being sympathetic to the worst of humanity. Truly lovely and fascinating to read.
Of course, Tolstoy is a man of Russia at a certain time period. To many contemporary American readers, late 19th and early 20th century works aren't interesting; let alone Russian ones. Perhaps that is why I like "The Kreutzer Sonata" so much: other than a somewhat awkward setting for the story that many contemporary readers might find unbelievable (who's going to sit and listen to some stranger on a train for hours on end? There are still people who do, like me, but most of contemporary American culture ignores this possibility), the story is captivating on a number of levels that allows for contemporary intrigue. A story like "Ivan Ilyich" may be hard for a number of readers today to delve into, despite being deemed a classic, so it's good that there are one or two stories in this particular collection that can still speak to a more contemporary audience. Human nature certainly hasn't changed, though culture has, so these works are, in a way, important to read.
Of course, Tolstoy is a man of Russia at a certain time period. To many contemporary American readers, late 19th and early 20th century works aren't interesting; let alone Russian ones. Perhaps that is why I like "The Kreutzer Sonata" so much: other than a somewhat awkward setting for the story that many contemporary readers might find unbelievable (who's going to sit and listen to some stranger on a train for hours on end? There are still people who do, like me, but most of contemporary American culture ignores this possibility), the story is captivating on a number of levels that allows for contemporary intrigue. A story like "Ivan Ilyich" may be hard for a number of readers today to delve into, despite being deemed a classic, so it's good that there are one or two stories in this particular collection that can still speak to a more contemporary audience. Human nature certainly hasn't changed, though culture has, so these works are, in a way, important to read.
May 3, 2016
Yeah. I liked this. A lot.
"Why reason?" I asked. "It is never of any use."
"Why reason?" I asked. "It is never of any use."
December 6, 2014
Sone were enjoyably illuminating, while others failed to grasp my complete attention.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews