Short Fiction by Leo Tolstoy (book reader for pc TXT) 📕
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While perhaps best known for his novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, the Russian author and religious thinker Leo Tolstoy was also a prolific author of short fiction. This Standard Ebooks production compiles all of Tolstoy’s short stories and novellas written from 1852 up to his death, arranged in order of their original publication.
The stories in this collection vary enormously in size and scope, from short, page-length fables composed for the education of schoolchildren, to full novellas like “Family Happiness.” Readers who are familiar with Tolstoy’s life and religious experiences—as detailed, for example, in his spiritual memoir A Confession—may be able to trace the events of Tolstoy’s life through the changing subjects of these stories. Some early stories, like “The Raid” and the “Sevastopol” sketches, draw from Tolstoy’s experiences in the Caucasian War and the Crimean War when he served in the Imperial Russian Army, while other early stories like “Recollections of a Scorer” and “Two Hussars” reflect Tolstoy’s personal struggle with gambling addiction.
Later stories in the collection, written during and after Tolstoy’s 1870s conversion to Christian anarcho-pacifism (a spiritual and religious philosophy described in detail in his treatise The Kingdom of God is Within You), frequently reflect either Tolstoy’s own experiences in spiritual struggle (e.g. “The Death of Ivan Ilyitch”) or his interpretation of the New Testament (e.g. “The Forged Coupon”), or both. Many later stories, like “Three Questions” and “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” are explicitly didactic in nature and are addressed to a popular audience to promote his religious ideals and views on social and economic justice.
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- Author: Leo Tolstoy
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“Dare to err and dream.” ↩
Made by scalding wood-ash taken from the stove, and used for washing clothes. ↩
The abacus, with wires and beads to count on, is still much used in Russia. ↩
A letter written six months after his marriage by Leo Tolstoy to his wife’s younger sister, the Natásha of War and Peace.
The first few lines are in his wife’s handwriting, the rest in his own. ↩
Tolstoy’s. ↩
“Auntie Tatiána”—Tatiána Alexándrovna Érgolski (1795–1874), who brought Tolstoy up. —A. M. ↩
Natálya Petróvna Okhótnitskaya, an old woman who was living at Yásnaya Polyána. —A. M. ↩
Alexéy Stepánovich Orékhov (who died in 1882), a servant of Tolstoy’s who had accompanied him to the Caucasus and to Sevastopol during the Crimean War. He was employed as steward at Yásnaya Polyána. —A. M. ↩
Novaya Azbuka. ↩
Diminutive of Ivan. ↩
In English, Five-Mountains. ↩
Vodka is a spirit distilled from rye. It is the commonest form of strong drink in Russia. ↩
One of a certain Tartar tribe. ↩
The samovar (“self-boiler”) is an urn in which water can be heated and kept on the boil. ↩
A three-horse conveyance. ↩
The value of the rouble has varied at different times from more than three shillings to less than two shillings. For the purposes of ready calculation it may be taken as two shillings. In reading these stories to children, the word “florin” can be substituted for “rouble” if prefered. ↩
The adventure here narrated is one that happened to Tolstoy himself in 1858. More than twenty years later he gave up hunting, on humanitarian grounds. ↩
One hundred kopecks make a rouble. The kopeck is worth about a farthing. ↩
A non-intoxicating drink usually made from rye-malt and rye-flour. ↩
The brick oven in a Russian peasant’s hut is usually built so as to leave a flat top, large enough to lie on, for those who want to sleep in a warm place. ↩
These government bonds were of a peculiar kind: At the moment of the abolition of serfdom, the Russian Government handed to the owners of serfs State bonds instead of money, called in Russia “the redemption bonds.” The money due by the Government on these papers were paid off at fixed periods—and the owners of those bonds sold them often like ordinary Government papers. ↩
A town in Bulgaria, the scene of fierce and prolonged fighting between the Turks and the Russians in the war of 1877. ↩
Wax candles are much used in the services of the Russian Church, and it is usual to place one in the hand of a dying man, especially when he receives unction. ↩
Worn by Russian peasants instead of stockings. ↩
Little Russia is situated in the southwestern part of Russia, and consists of the Governments of Kiev, Poltava, Tchernigof, and part of Kharkof and Kherson. ↩
In Great Russia the peasants let their shirt hang outside their trousers. ↩
An icon (properly ikón) is a representation of God, Christ, an angel, or a saint, usually painted, enamelled, or embossed. ↩
“For Christ’s sake” is the usual appeal of Russian beggars or poor pilgrims. ↩
It is often arranged that the shepherd who looks after the cattle of a Russian village Commune should get his board and lodging at the houses of the villagers, passing from one to another in turn. ↩
Kumiss (or more properly koumýs) is a fermented drink prepared from mare’s milk. ↩
A kibítka is a movable dwelling, made up of detachable wooden frames, forming a round, and covered over with felt. ↩
120 desyatins. The desyatin is properly 2.7 acres; but in this story round numbers are used. ↩
Three rubles per desyatin. ↩
Five kopecks for a desyatin. ↩
Kibítkas, as described in note 236. ↩
Diminutive of Michael. ↩
Dedicated to the memory of M. A. Stakhovitch, the originator of the subject, which was given by his brother to Count Tolstoy. ↩
Kasakín. ↩
Dvor. ↩
Two arshin, three vershoks, = 6.65 feet. ↩
The best breed of Russian horses is that of the Orlofs. ↩
Dvor. ↩
So in the original. ↩
So in the original. ↩
Pyégi. ↩
All expressed in the word strigúnchik. ↩
Pushchaï. ↩
Podi! belegis. ↩
Dugá. ↩
Do svidánya = au revoir. ↩
Valyaï! ↩
Priskashchik. ↩
Khozhyáïn. ↩
Barski dom. ↩
Incrusté. ↩
Khozyáïn and khozyáïka. ↩
Frantsuzhenka. ↩
Akh, brat, brother. ↩
Kholstomír means a cloth measurer: suggesting the greatest distance from linger to linger of the outstretched arms, and
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