The Short Fiction of Leo Tolstoy

This collection gathers the shorter fiction of one of Russia’s greatest novelists, ranging from early sketches of country life to the spare moral tales of his later years. Many of the stories turn on the gulf between landowners and the peasants who work their fields, and on Tolstoy’s lifelong questions about justice, faith, and how a person ought to live. A young proprietor tries and fails to help the peasants he governs; other tales test greed, forgiveness, and the fear of death. Written with the same clear eye that shaped his great novels, these pieces show Tolstoy working in miniature, and losing none of his moral force. A free PDF and EPUB edition are available here.