In bite-sized chunks, the nine novellas in this book are a great way to gain an appreciation of Tolstoy's style, ideas, and ability to hone in on our human strengths and frailties. Innovative and controversial in his day, Tolstoy's themes still resonate well over a hundred years later. Hadji Murád is a message that is as important now as it was in the late 19th century. The Death of Ivan Ilych explores a live spent according to expected convention, only to ask, and answer the question—in the endwhat is the meaning of life? Each story is beautifully told and thought provoking. His characters are vivid and alive—archetypes of human kind.
My only criticism of this volume is that it could stand some good copy editing, but for the price, that is a small complaint.

Oh, Ewington. How I loved thee, let me not count the ways!

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I don't think I like Tolstoy. This is my first work of his, but it was unimpressive, aside from Hadji Murad and bits and pieces of The Kreutzer Sonata. When he is didactic it is annoying, but when he puts meaning within his images he's great. Just not great most of the time.

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!

Tolstoy is such a great writer it’s almost depressing. Like ok everyone stop writing, someone said what you’re trying to say more artfully, profoundly and honestly like 170 years ago.

Reading how familiar his characters’ experiences and inner conflicts are to us in the 21st century manifests the reality that there are fundamentally human experiences that cross time, geography and culture. It humanizes history in a way that I think reading non fiction is unable to.

It can also feel exhausting. Like jeez, humans are incorrigible! We just keep doing the same stupid stuff!

Also some parts of our life today are just not as “modern” or unique as we imagine. Just because we’re experiencing something for the first time doesn’t mean there isn’t hundreds of years of meditations on that experience.

Between work and writing, I haven't had as much time to read as I would like, but I knew I had to wrestle with a little Tolstoy. His stories collected are some of his best known (Death of Ivan Ilych, Kreutzer Sonata, Master and Man, etc.) as well as his least read (Hadji Murat, according to Harold Bloom, is one of Tolstoy's best stories--I agree; it was insightful but not my personal favorite).

What typifies Tolstoy is his moral courage. How does one live a life of full integrity in the face of death and moral degradation? Being Christian, he would say God. But that is just the starting point. Faith is more than just a belief. It's a way of life. It is wrestling with the demons of desire, lust, rage and hate, as well as domesticity--bad marriages and middle-class/bourgeois comforts are treated as a disease slowly but surely eating away at your soul like a cancer of the stomach (that would be Ivan Ilych, my personal favorite).

But I ponder. What if you're not so sure of God's existence? What if the love of God is just not enough to reassure a restless spirit? The answer can only come through contemplation (here, I am mentioning his other great text, Confessions). Yes, a belief is necessary, but it's less important that you believe in God than that you at the least understand your mortality needn't be without meaning or moral purpose. A fulfilled life is one that centers others in your considerations. Of contemplation and thought. Acquiring lots and lots of stuff is just feeding your ego, but leaving your soul starving. Is this really how one should live? Count Leo says no way!

I could go on, but I would say what is most satisfying about these stories is that they are simple and elegant, even if some are better than others. Master and Man is my second favorite, but I will be the first to admit it may not be to everyone's tastes.

So do your soul a favor, and read this book. It is an excellent intro into his larger oeuvre.

*The Cossacks*: a historic clash between Russian troops and indigenous rebels in Chechnya--hmm, sounds familiar.

To many Tolstoy's name brings to mind the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, masterpieces both, but both quite formidable reads. I expect many readers shy away from these works because they are daunting. But Tolstoy was a prolific writer in genres other than the long novel. His writing evolved over the course of his long career from action-oriented to philosophic. This collection of shorter pieces by Tolstoy spans 45 years. It includes nine short- and long-stories that are a joy to read. Without a doubt Tolstoy is a master of character, plot, and atmosphere. There is a richness, complexity, and depth here that is uncommon in modern fiction. I particularly recommend three stories: The Death of Ivan Ilych, Father Sergius, Madji Murad.

Many of these short stories are worthy of any and all accolades one could bestow. Superb, excellent writing all around.

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 while some readers of this fine writer may enjoy encountering an evolution of style in prose, i found it most dissatisfying. second, 'hadji murad' and 'father sergius' both contain french dialogue, but neither story has endnotes with a clarified translation for readers who do not speak french. hadji murad's own language, tartar, is somewhat explained after the conclusion of the story, but i am almost lead to believe that was tolstoy's inclusion. third, the print is not so great, which can only be understood under close examination. fourth, one thing that caused me a little discomfort was the page after the bibliography, which is titled, "About the Author" and it says: "Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828. He died in 1910, having written some of the most timeless works in all of literature, including War and Peace and Anna Karenina". I can't think of how that two sentence addendum could have possibly glorified tolstoy. it wasted a page, that otherwise would have been better had it just been a blank white page added to the book, because let's face it, if you've read the short stories you already know what his two major works are, and something so brief could have easily been added to the introduction or whatever the editor might want, but this short page in the back, just makes me cringe. all that said, i love his stories.

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 isn't quite it's all cracked up to be. The Mountain Goats song by the same name took its title from the Tolstoy story and mentions Tolstoy in the song as well. (In case anyone else is nerdy about music and literary references like I am.)

Cattiness! (Page 67):

I recognized the voices: the speakers were the Italian marquis and a French friend of his whom I knew also. They were talking of me and of Lady S., and the Frenchman was comparing us as rival beauties... I was already a mother, while Lady S. was only nineteen; though I had the advantage in hair, my rival had a better figure.

The Cossacks (1852-1862): Mr. Richy-pants, Dmitri Olenin, joins the Russian army in hopes to have some adventure because that's what Richy-pant types of people tend to do to give their life some meaning. In the middle of nowhere in the Caucasus he realizes that his previous standing means zippola - hello, wake-up call. Still, he falls in love with a Cossack girl despite the glaring differences in their social standing, but he has to contend with her fiance.

What I learned: I wasn't familiar with the term n  abreksn and had to look it up. In simple terms it seems they were your run-of-the-mill mountain bandits. In El-terms I like to think of them as Russian ninjas.

The Death of Ivan Ilych (1886): To summarize: A high-court judge (Ivan Ilych) hangs some curtains one day, falls and hurts himself, and soon thereafter believes he is dying. The moral of the story: Go with Venetian blinds. Forget the curtains.

If you think that's seriously the moral of the story you probably shouldn't be reading this review. In a nutshell, it's awesome. Please read it. All of you. It affected me in the same way reading Franny and Zooey affected me, for sort of the same reason. Which is funny because I'm not religious. At all.

(Listed on the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Kick the Bucket list.)


The Devil (1889): You know a story is going to be good when it starts out with a lengthy quote from the Bible. This story is about sex and eeeeviiiiil. Basically.

More cattiness! (Page 306):

It is generally supposed that Conservatives are usually old people, and that those in favour of change are the young. That is not quite correct. Usually Conservatives are young people: those who want to live but who do not think about how to live, and have not time to think, and therefore take as a model for themselves a way of life that they have seen.

The Kreutzer Sonata (1889): Girls, if you're cheating on your boyfriend/husband and you think your boyfriend/husband has an inkling as to what is happening behind his back, do not gift him a copy of The Kreutzer Sonata for Christmas.

Also, thanks to my buddy Alex for the reminder - it's extra great to read the latter portion while listening to the music.

(Listed on the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Kick the Bucket list.)


Master and Man (1895): A fantastic survival-in-the-snowy-Russian-woods kind of story and not at all about this even though they both feature the name Nikita.

Father Sergius (1898): What do you do when you find out the day before your wedding that your fiancee is sleeping with the Tsar? You run off and become a monk, of course! But there's that whole temptation and doubt thing to contend with, yada yada yada. The story itself reminds me of one of the stories out of The Decameron actually, and I wonder if Tolstoy was paying homage.


(From the film based on the story, 1918.)

Hadji Murad (1904): Possibly one of the most intense stories I've ever read. It's like The Iliad but, y'know, Russian. Dude's cheek hangs off his face at one point, and he holds it in place with his hand while fighting with his other hand. Wicked crazy. I'm actually sort of speechless about this one. For some reason going into it I didn't think I'd enjoy it at all. Glad I didn't skip it. (Yeah, like I'm capable of doing that anyway.)

Alyosha the Pot (1905): I can't believe I've never read this story before considering how short and sweet it is. (Okay, not exactly sweet.) Find it online and read it. Seriously, it's short and awesome.


As a whole this collection rocked my face. I don't think there was a single story I didn't care for - even the ones I cared about less than the others are better than some other writers' entire oeuvre. What's nice about this collection is the stories/novellas are in order of publication date so you see the kind of writer Tolstoy was at the beginning and how his interests had changed over the years - particularly after his moral crisis and "conversion" in 1878.

The Chronology in the back points out the years 1908-1909 as being especially important: "Quarrels of Tolstoy with his wife. Tolstoy keeps Secret Diary." Secret Diary? I'm there! Must. Find.

I know I was pretty excited about Chekhov after reading The Portable Chekhov and all, but Tolstoy just kicked his ass.