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Best of Leo Tolstoy Short Stories
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
12 people are currently reading
165 people want to read
About the author
Leo Tolstoy
7,835 books27.7k 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 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 26, 2020
A good bunch of short stories for a short period reading. And it also provides knowledge about that era and their natural narration of situations.
April 8, 2015
Just a thought on Leo Tolstoy’s Short Stories
http://justathoughtliteratureandart.t...
I read 10 short stories by Leo Tolstoy last month prior to tackling The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky; I wanted to ease into my latest run-in with Russian literature, often filled to the brink of spillage with heavy philosophy and psychological analysis of deeply troubled characters—this was proven by my encounter with Anna Karenina, also Tolstoy, a couple of years ago (I bought a copy of Android Karenina at a thrift bookstore recently. Hopefully I get around to it soon enough).
Tolstoy is a very smart man, who understands all types of people in and out, from their motivations, ideals, intentions, dreams, and so on and so forth. Not only that, he likes to challenge these seemingly unique characters—“seemingly” because they are not unique at all, but are very similar to the people in our very own life today—with contemporary environmental troubles. How they react to the time’s politics, religion, and other people depend solely on the character’s individuality. His protagonists often go into lengthy ruminations upon the flaws of the current establishment, not only of Russia but of the Capitalist west. Hypocrisy is exposed and similarities are found hiding behind differences. Most importantly, and unfortunately, many if not all of the issues brought up about 19th century Russia still scourges the world today; and while his recognition of these problems gives us a glimmer of hope that humanities vices are recognized at least by some and so may have solutions sometime in the future, the fact that no solutions to these perennial problems have been found keeps these same hopefuls cynical, including myself. Human nature is hard to change, but change is not impossible. Although a realist writer, he can also be a bit eclectic. The fates of some characters are tragic and depressingly without justice, but yet others times poetic justice is present. But even more impressive is his ability to make justice and tragedy exists simultaneously at times, while other times neither is present, just a simple anecdotal account that makes one think about the current status of things.
Simply put, he is one of the greats. A natural to say the very least, his short stories strike the visceral just as much as his masterpiece.
image
Here is my list, but in all honestly they are all wonderful and carry their own weight in their own unique ways; it really took me a while because I kept changing the orders. If I were to read them all again I’m sure that the list would look different upon reconsideration. Nevertheless, here is the list as it stands, from best to not-as-good (for lack of a better term):
1) Does A Man Need More Land?
2) Lucerne
3) A Spark Neglected Burns the House Down
4) There Are No Guilty People
5) Alyosha the Pot
6) A Candle
7) God Sees The Truth But Waits
8) After The Dance
9) An Old Acquaintance
10) Albert
http://justathoughtliteratureandart.t...
I read 10 short stories by Leo Tolstoy last month prior to tackling The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky; I wanted to ease into my latest run-in with Russian literature, often filled to the brink of spillage with heavy philosophy and psychological analysis of deeply troubled characters—this was proven by my encounter with Anna Karenina, also Tolstoy, a couple of years ago (I bought a copy of Android Karenina at a thrift bookstore recently. Hopefully I get around to it soon enough).
Tolstoy is a very smart man, who understands all types of people in and out, from their motivations, ideals, intentions, dreams, and so on and so forth. Not only that, he likes to challenge these seemingly unique characters—“seemingly” because they are not unique at all, but are very similar to the people in our very own life today—with contemporary environmental troubles. How they react to the time’s politics, religion, and other people depend solely on the character’s individuality. His protagonists often go into lengthy ruminations upon the flaws of the current establishment, not only of Russia but of the Capitalist west. Hypocrisy is exposed and similarities are found hiding behind differences. Most importantly, and unfortunately, many if not all of the issues brought up about 19th century Russia still scourges the world today; and while his recognition of these problems gives us a glimmer of hope that humanities vices are recognized at least by some and so may have solutions sometime in the future, the fact that no solutions to these perennial problems have been found keeps these same hopefuls cynical, including myself. Human nature is hard to change, but change is not impossible. Although a realist writer, he can also be a bit eclectic. The fates of some characters are tragic and depressingly without justice, but yet others times poetic justice is present. But even more impressive is his ability to make justice and tragedy exists simultaneously at times, while other times neither is present, just a simple anecdotal account that makes one think about the current status of things.
Simply put, he is one of the greats. A natural to say the very least, his short stories strike the visceral just as much as his masterpiece.
image
Here is my list, but in all honestly they are all wonderful and carry their own weight in their own unique ways; it really took me a while because I kept changing the orders. If I were to read them all again I’m sure that the list would look different upon reconsideration. Nevertheless, here is the list as it stands, from best to not-as-good (for lack of a better term):
1) Does A Man Need More Land?
2) Lucerne
3) A Spark Neglected Burns the House Down
4) There Are No Guilty People
5) Alyosha the Pot
6) A Candle
7) God Sees The Truth But Waits
8) After The Dance
9) An Old Acquaintance
10) Albert
June 20, 2024
two short stories by leo tolstoy reflect his own experiences as a young man in the caucasus in russia during a time when russian soldiers were sent to help the cossacks against the chechens... 'the cossacks' and 'hadji murat' are fascinating stories which read today as ethnic reflections of those who lived in these mountains and river valleys. the second one, hadju murat is the story of a real fighter who decided to fight on the side of russia, to keep his family safe from a controlling imam. tolstoy's sensitivity, and skills as a writer bring his fascinating story to our time...i recommend them both.
February 5, 2025
'What men live by' is my favourite. The angel Michael (an archangel according to wider Christian theology) learns to live among men, and must learn lessons from them to return to heaven. The ordinariness and homeliness of the Russian peasants contrasts with Michael's ethereality. A powerful story. I like 'How Much Land Does a Man Need?', poor unfortunate Pahom though!
March 24, 2023
Death of Ivan Ilyich was great, but some of the religious characters in the other stories are very sanctimonious. Super well written, obviously
March 13, 2014
I have read some of his short stories and tweaked some of the pages of Anna Karenina often. His most write ups seemed to be much analysed ones and I thought he has a great philosophy, but continuously reading many of his short stories, I understood more than a philosopher he is another stupid God fearing personality. All the stories I read, suggest to believe in God and trust his miracles. Oh, where is the story going??.. ALl are like excerpts from Bible. All have almost same moral. Love and pray. I dont have why he wrote stories such as children better than grown up...and many other stories. Nevertheless, I found, some of the stories was good enough for their ability to touch a particular place in our hearts. How much land does a man wants? God sees truth but waits, three questions are some I loved,
October 14, 2014
Poor editing & proof reading
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February 23, 2015Terrible translation.. stopped reading so I could read the stories with better translation later.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews