Books By Leo Tolstoy

If you have only seen the movies of Anna Karenina you have missed over half the story. This is a long novel and is much more than the love story of the married Anna Karenina and Count Vronsky. The book also focuses on the courtship of Kitty and Levin. There are views of life in Moscow, St. Petersburg and of country living in the Russia of that era.

Written by Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina was originally published in periodical installments from 1875 to 1877. The novel first appeared as a serial in the periodical Ruskii Vestnik, but Tolstoy clashed with its editor Mikhail Katkov over issues that arose in the final installment. Therefore, the novel's first complete appearance was in book form.

Anna Karenina is #1 in Time Magazines "The 10 Greatest Books of All Time" list

Anna Karenina

The artistic work of Leo Tolstoy has been described as "nothing less than one tremendous diary kept for over fifty years." This particular "diary" begins with Tolstoy's first published work,CHILDHOOD, which was written when he was only 23. A semi-autobiographical work, it recounts two days in the childhood of 10-year-old Nikolai Irtenev, recreating vivid impressions of people, place and events with the exuberant perspective of a child enriched by the ironic retrospective understandng of an adult. BOYHOOD and YOUTH soon followed, and Tolstoy was launched on the literary career that would bring him immortality.

This trilogy provides an indispensable introduction to Tolstoy's literary method and his major preoccupation--love, morality and the avoidance of violence. His mastery as a story-teller survives both translation and the passage of time to delight modern readers of every age.

Childhood, Boyhood, Youth

Father Sergius is a short fictional story authored by Leo Tolstoy in 1873. This story also exists as Yakov Protazanov's silent film from 1917 of the same name.

Beginning with his childhood and following with a successful career in the military and general high society, Prince Stefan Kasatzky discovers on the eve of his wedding his fianc%uFFFDe's affair with his beloved Tsar Nicholas I. Upset and disturbed, he retreats to the arms of the Russian Orthodoxy and becomes a monk. Many years of humility and doubt follow, and now a hermit, he performs miracles upon the village natives. Moments of temptation test his faith, and unfortunate instances of female provocation leads to his failure.

Father Sergius

Master and Man is a short story written by Leo Tolstoy in 1895.

A land owner, Vasili Andreevich, takes along one of his peasants, Nikita, for a short journey to another town. He wishes to get to the town quickly 'for business'. They find themselves in the middle of a blizzard, but the master in his avarice wishes to press on. They eventually get lost off the road and they try to camp. The master's peasant soon finds himself about to die from hypothermia. The master leaves him on the horse to stubbornly try to find the road. When he returns, he attains a spiritual/moral revelation, and Tolstoy once again repeats one of his famous themes: that the only true happiness in life is found by living for others. The master then lays on top of the peasant to keep him warm. He, himself is too exposed to the cold though and dies. His peasant's life is saved.

Master and Man

Resurrection first published in 1899, was the third and last novel written by Leo Tolstoy.

The last of his major long fiction works published in his lifetime, Tolstoy intended the novel as an exposition of injustice of man-made laws and the hypocrisy of institutionalized church. It was first published serially in the magazine Niva as an effort to raise funds for the resettlement of the Dukhobors.

The plot of Resurrection is based on a story Tolstoy read in a newspaper. A prostitute stands accused of murder. Prince Nekhlyudov serves on the jury at her trial. He recognizes her as the innocent young girl he once loved, seduced and abandoned. The story is compelling, the telling of it as masterful and exuberant as only the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina could make it. But the setting of Resurrection is the underworld, and Tolstoy turns a highly critical eye on the law, the penal system and, above all, the Church.

With its theme of fallen man and an emphatic regeneration, the novel presents a mature panorama of human life, shot through with searing spiritual intensity.

Resurrection

Leo Tolstoy's final novella, The Forged Coupon is an ingenious study of the destructive powers of evil set against a brilliant depiction of Russian life. He finished writing "The Forged Coupon And Other Stories" in 1905, and it was published posthumously.

"In an age of materialism like our own the phenomenon of spiritual power is as significant and inspiring as it is rare. No longer associated with the divine right of kings, it has survived the downfall of feudal and theocratic systems as a mystic personal emanation in place of a coercive weapon of statecraft."

"The Forged Coupon And Other Stories" includes: List of Posthumous Works, The Forged Coupon, After The Dance, Alyosha The Pot, MY Dream, There Are No Guilty People, The Young Tsar

The Forged Coupon And Other Stories

The Kingdom of God is Within You Christianity Not As A Mystic Religion But As A New Theory Of Life

The Kingdom of God is Within You is a non-fiction work written by Leo Tolstoy and was first published in Germany in 1894, after being banned in his home country of Russia. The title of the book is taken from Luke 17:21. In the book Tolstoy speaks of the principle of nonresistance when confronted by violence, as taught by Jesus:

Tolstoy presented excerpts from magazines and newspapers relating various personal experiences, and gave keen insight into the history of nonresistance as being professed by a prominent minority of believers from the very foundation of Christianity.

Tolstoy recounted challenges by various people of all classes that his views on nonresistance were wrong, but argued that no matter how the challengers tried to attack the doctrine, its essence could not be overcome, as illustrated by the biblical illustration of perhaps the first occurrence of nonresistance.

The Kingdom of God is Within You

The Kreutzer Sonata is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1889 and promptly censored by the Russian authorities. After the work had been forbidden in Russia by the censors, a mimeographed version was widely circulated. In 1890, the United States Post Office Department prohibited the mailing of newspapers containing serialized installments of The Kreutzer Sonata. This was confirmed by the U.S. Attorney General in the same year.

Other stories include: Ivan The Fool, A Lost Opportunity, Polikushka (or, The Lot of a Wicked Court Servant) and The Candle.

The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories

A delightful criticism by Tolstoy on 19th-century art and science. It reveals the depth of his observation as well as his understanding of diverse subjects.

But this is unjust. I not only do not repudiate art and science, but, in the name of that which is true art and true science, I say that which I do say; merely in order that mankind may emerge from that savage state into which it will speedily fall, thanks to the erroneous teaching of our time,--only for this purpose do I say that which I say.

The Significance Of Science and Art

War and Peace, written by Leo Tolstoy (first published from 1865 to 1869), is a vast epic centred on Napoleon's Bonaparte's invasion of Russia in 1812 and Russian society during the Napoleonic Era. It was conceived as an example of Tolstoy's view that history proceeds inexorably to its own ends with mankind appearing as an incidental instrument of the historial process. Whilst so tendentious an approach to the philosophy of history is difficult to accept today, as one of the themes of Tolstoy's greatest novel, it adds depth and perspective to a narrative that intersperses historical, social and personal interaction. There are over five hundred characters in the book, each one individually rendered, which book presents a complete tableau of Russian society from 1805 to 1820, encompassing Emperors and their Ministers and Generals, as well as countless officers, soldiers, nobles and peasants.

The story opens in 1805 at a soiree in Moscow, where all the talk is of the recent proclamation of Napoleon as Emperor. There then follows a long passage in which the three principal characters, the artless and innocent Natasha Rostov, the arrogant and cynical Prince Andrew Bolkonsky and the thoughtful Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of Count Bezukhov are introduced, together with a large group of their friends, relatives and dependents. These people are show as they progress from youthful uncertainties towards a more mature view of life.

No summary can do justice to the magnificent and complex interweaving of the protagonists' lives, with each other and with the web of history. Tolstoy succeeds in expounding his views of life by attributing to his characters the contrasting qualities which he felt were to be adopted or eschewed in order to reach a proper understanding of mankind's place in the world. Thus, Prince Andrew progresses from a world-weary cynicism to a calm acceptance of death while Pierre's turbulent career culminates in the simple wisdom that life should be accepted for what it is, and experienced emotionally rather than be twisted by imperfect intellects into artificial forms.

War and Peace

What Men Live By and Other Tales by Leo Tolstoy originally published in 1885.

"What Men Live By": An angel named Michael, disobedient to the plan of God, has fallen to earth and relies upon the mercy of a simple peasant family. Michael is assigned three lessons to learn?what dwells in man, what is not given to man, and what men live by. Unwittingly, the peasants and their neighbors teach him the answers.

"Three Questions": It once occurred to a certain king, that if he always knew the right time to begin everything; if he knew who were the right people to listen to, and whom to avoid; and, above all, if he always knew what was the most important thing to do, he would never fail in anything he might undertake.

"The Coffee-House of Surat": In the town of Surat, in India, was a coffee-house where many travellers and foreigners from all parts of the world met and conversed.

"How Much Land Does a Man Need?": A man who, in his lust for land, forfeits everything, including his own life.

What Men Live By and Other Tales