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Walk in the Light and Twenty-Three Tales

leo tolstoy

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Uncluttered by the complexities of plot and character that daunt so many readers of the longer Russian masterpieces, Tolstoy's tales illumine eternal truths with the forceful brevity. While inspired by the sense of spiritual certainty, their narrative quality, subtle humor, and visionary power lift them far above the common run of "religious" literature.

351 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1999

This edition

Format
351 pages, Paperback
Published
November 20, 2003 by Orbis Books
ISBN
9781570754609
ASIN
1570754608
Language
English

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About the author

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leo tolstoy

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Lev 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.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.2 / 5.0, 51 votes)
5 stars
21(41%)
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17(33%)
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51 reviews All reviews
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woundedbird
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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I became muslim after reading this book. It reminded me of what is just and unjust, what is true and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil. All the stories were delighting. All were written by a genius.
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SmoothCoffee
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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مجموعات قصصية قصيرة و طويلة و متوسطة الطول .مأخوذة من الكتاب المقدس ..ممتعة و مؤثرة بحق ..
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ReinaHimeka
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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This is a book of many fine short stories from Tolstoy. They are Tolstoy's attempts to exhibit the qualities that he thought made for good, authentic art: they transmit feelings that either serve to unite people under what Tolstoy thought of as the religious consciousness of our age (the brotherhood of man and sonship to God) or unite people in universal, everyday ways. They stand in sharp contrast to Tolstoy's well-known novels (which he later repudiated--along with the vast majority of what has been considered great art--as being either counterfeit or bad). Some readers may find some of the stories to be didactic, even preachy. I generally find the more preachy stories to be the more edifying, although some of the less preachy stories are also excellent. There are a few that stand out as clearly inferior to the others. The stories are simple and their messages are clear. The best among them have the same effect as parables from the Gospels. They make a simple but powerful point or promote compassion and fellow-feeling. Very good stuff.
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Ginpachi_1234
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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I have somewhat mixed feelings about these stories. On the one hand, I often find the naive and overdone. But on the other hand, after reading them for a while, I start to see why they're so good; they remind me, in my sleepy intellectual world, what life is really about.
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p5ych0vampire
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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These stories were hit or miss, but those that hit, hit hard. The best from this collection are:

-A Talk Among Leisured People
-God Sees the Truth, but Waits
-What Men Live By
-A Spark Neglected Burns the House
-Two Old Men
-Where Love Is, God Is

My favorite was Where Love Is, God Is. It's a Christmas tale, very touching and a great message.
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