Tolstoy's Short Fiction

The ten short stories included in this volume, written between 1855 and 1905, represent the best of Tolstoy’s shorter works both before War and Peace and after Anna Karenina.
　　The Louise and Aylmer Maude translations of Tolstoy’s short fiction have been revised by Michael R. Katz for increased accessibility. Each story has been fully annotated for student readers.
　　Backgrounds and Sources includes two Tolstoy memoirs, A History of Yesterday (1851) and The Memoirs of a Madman (1884), as well as excerpts from Tolstoy’s diaries and letters that shed light on his ethos.
　　Criticism is comprised of nineteen wide-ranging analyses by both Russian and Western scholars.
　　Included are essays by Gary Saul Morson, Caryl Emerson, N. G. Chernyshevsky, Mikhail Bakhtin, John Bayley, Vladimir Nabokov, N. K. Mikhailovsky, and Donald Barthelme, among others.

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy (born Sept. 9, 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, Russian Empire-died Nov. 20, 1910, Astapovo, Ryazan province) Russian writer.

Considered one of the world's greatest novelists, Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy is famous for works that include the 19th century classics War and Peace (1865-69) and Anna Karenina (1877-78). Although he was born into nobility, Tolstoy spent much of his life as a champion of Russia's peasant class, notably in the field of education. He began his literary career in the 1850s, publishing a trilogy about his own life: Childhood (Detstvo, 1852), Boyhood ( Otrochestvo, 1854) and Youth (Yunost', 1857). Tolstoy served in the Russian army during the Crimean War, and his book Sevastopol Sketches (Sevastopol'skie Rasskazy, 1855-56) was well-received in literary circles and praised for its realistic depiction of war. After travelling throughout Europe, Tolstoy returned to the family estate and devoted himself to raising a family and writing his great psychological novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina. From the 1880s until his death, he devoted himself to more spiritual and philosophical matters, writing several essays on ethics and morals and coming to terms with his own Christian conversion (described in 1879's Confessions). His other works include the novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1884) and the novel Resurrection (1899-1900).

Book Description
The Louise and Aylmer Maude translations of Tolstoy's short fiction, revised by the editor for enhanced comprehension, and annotated for student readers, comprise our text. The ten short stories inclued, written between 1855 and 1905, have been carefully chosen by the editor as representing the best of Tolstoy's shorter work both before War and Peace and after Anna Karenina.

"Backgrounds and Sources" includes two Tolstoy memoirs, A History of Yesterday (1851) and The Memoirs of a Madman (1884), as well as excerpts from Tolstoy's diaries and letters that shed light on his ethos.

"Criticism" contains nineteen wide-ranging essays by both Russian and Western scholars. Inclued are essays by Gary Saul Morson, N.G. Chernyshevsky, Mikhail Bakhtin, John Bayley, Vladimir Nabokov, Dorothy Green, N.K. Mikhailovsky and Donald Barthelme, among others.

A Chronology and Selected Biblography are also included.

Book Dimension
Height (mm) 211 　　　　　　　　　　　 Width (mm) 131

Preface
The Text of Tolstoy’s Short Fiction
　Sevastopol in December
　Sevastopol in May
　Three Deaths
　Family Happiness
　God Sees the Truth, But Waits
　The Death of Ivan Ilych
　The Three Hermits
　The Kreutzer Sonata
　Master and Man
　Aloysha the Pot
Backgrounds and Sources
　Leo Tolstoy • A History of Yesterday
　Leo Tolstoy • The Memoirs of a Madman
　Leo Tolstoy • Diary for 1855
　Leo Tolstoy • Selected Letters, 1858–95
Criticism
　Henry Gifford • On Translating Tolstoy
　Gary Saul Morson • Tolstoy’s Absolute Language
　Caryl Emerson • The Tolstoy Connection in Bakhtin
　N. G. Chernyshevsky • [Tolstoy’s Military Tales]
　Boris Eikhenbaum • [Sevastopol Stories]
　Gary Saul Morson • The Reader as Voyeur: Tolstoi and the
　Poetics of Didactic Fiction
　Mikhail Bakhtin • [Tolstoy’s Three Deaths]
　Renato Poggiolo • Tolstoy’s Domestic Happiness: Beyond Pastoral Love
　Kathleen Parthé • Tolstoy and the Geometry of Fear
　John Bayley • [Ivan Ilych]
　Y. J. Dayananda • The Death of Ivan Ilych: A Psychological Study On Death and 　Dying
　Vladimir Nabokov • [Ivan Ilych’s Life]
　Dorothy Green • The Kreutzer’s Sonata: A Tolstoian Approach
　N. K. Mikhaylovsky • Master and Man and The Death of Ivan Ilych
　Richard Gustafson • [On Ivan Ilych and Master and Man]
　Elizabeth Trahan • L. N. Tolstoj’s Master and Man—A Symbolic Narrative
　Gary R. Jahn • A Note on Miracle Motifs in the Later Works of Lev Tolstoj
　Donald Barthelme • At the Tolstoy Museum
A Chronology of Tolstoy’s Life and Work
Selected Bibliography