Louise Maude

Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy's epic masterpiece intertwines the lives of private and public individuals during the time of the Napoleonic wars and the French invasion of Russia. In this revised and updated version of the definitive and highly acclaimed Maude translation, Tolstoy's genius and the power of his prose are made newly available to the contemporary reader.

War and Peace

Originally published: London: Oxford University Press, 1918.

Anna Karenina

Aylmer Maude

Лев Толстой (граф)

Set in the years leading up to and culminating in Napoleon's disastrous Russian invasion, this novel focuses upon an entire society torn by conflict and change. Here is humanity in all its innocence and corruption, its wisdom and folly.

Long hailed one of the western world's greatest writers, Leo Tolstoy is best known for his novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Yet the undiminished popularity of his shorter works-including the two dozen collected here-attests to his equal prowess as a master of the story. Uncluttered by the complexities of plot and character that daunt so many readers of the longer Russian masterpieces, Tolstoy's tales illuminate eternal truths with forceful brevity. While inspired by a sense of spiritual certainty, their narrative quality, subtle humor, and visionary power lift them far above the common run of "religious" literature. Moralists purport to tell us what our lives should mean, and how we should live them. Tolstoy, on the other hand, has an uncanny gift for simply conveying what it means to be truly alive. From "Walk in the Light," a parable-like piece that reflects Tolstoy's fascination with the early Christians, to beloved tales such as "Ivan the Fool," "A Prisoner in the Caucasus," and "What Men Live By," the stories in this volume have stood the test of time for over a century. Together they form a treasure-trove you will want to return to often. Book jacket.

Walk in the Light and Twenty-three Tales

"I am acting badly," thought Yevgeny, "But what's one to do? Anyhow it is not for long." Leo Tolstoy is known for epic novels that brilliantly dissect society, but the novella The Devil may be the most personally revealing--and startling--fiction he ever wrote. He thought it so scandalous, in fact, that he hid the manuscript in the upholstery of a chair in his office so his wife wouldn't find it, and he would never allow it to be published in his lifetime. Perhaps that's because the gripping tale of an aristocratic landowner slowly overcome with unrelenting sexual desire for one of the peasants on his estate was strikingly similar to an affair Tolstoy himself had. Regardless, the tale--presented here with the two separate endings Tolstoy couldn't decide between--is a scintillating study of sexual attraction and human obsession. The Art of The Novella Series Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.

The Devil

How Much Land Does a Man Need?

The Snow Storm, and Other Stories

"What Men Live By" is a short story written by Russian author Leo Tolstoy in 1885. It is one of the short stories included in his collection What Men Live By, and Other Tales, published in 1885. The compilation also included the written pieces "The Three Questions," "The Coffee-House of Surat," and "How Much Land Does a Man Need?." A kind and humble shoemaker called Simon goes out one day to purchase sheep-skins in order to sew a winter coat for his wife and himself to share. Usually the little money which Simon earns would be spent to feed his wife and children. Simon decides that in order to afford the skins he must go on a collection to receive the five rubles and twenty kopeks owed to him by his customers. As he heads out to collect the money he also borrows a three-ruble note from his wife's money box. While going on his collection he only manages to receive twenty kopeks rather than the full amount. Feeling disheartened by this, Simon rashly spends the twenty kopeks on vodka and starts to head back home. On his way home he rants to himself about how little he can do with twenty kopeks besides spending it on alcohol and, feeling warmed after the drink, he says to himself that the winter cold is bearable without a sheep-skin coat. While approaching the chapel at the bend of the road, Simon stops and notices something pale-looking leaning against it. He peers harder and notices that it is a naked man who appears poor of health. At first he is suspicious and fears that the man may have no good intentions if he is in such a state. He proceeds to pass the man until he sees that the man has lifted his head and is looking towards him. Simon debates what to do in his mind and feels ashamed for his disregard and heads back to help the man. Simon takes off his cloth coat and wraps it around the stranger. He also gives him the extra pair of boots he was carrying. He aids him as they both walk toward Simon's home. Though they walk together side by side, the stranger barely speaks and when Simon asks how he was left in that situation the only answers the man would give are: "I cannot tell" and "God has punished me." Meanwhile, Simon's wife Matrena debates whether or not to bake more bread for the night's meal so that there is enough for the following morning's breakfast. She decides that the loaf of bread that they have left would be ample enough to last till the next morning. As she sees Simon approaching the door she is angered to see him with a strange man who is wrapped in Simon's clothing.

What Men Live by and Other Tales

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Father Sergius - A Story by Tolstoy

Del Prado (Firm)

Ivan Ilyich is a Russian judge and middle-class everyman. Struck down by disease at 45, Ivan discovers a horrifying truth: He has not lived a meaningful life.

The Death of Ivan Ilych

The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy. Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude. The Death of Ivan Ilyich first published in 1886, is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, one of the masterpieces of his late fiction, written shortly after his religious conversion of the late 1870s. The novella tells the story of the death, at age 45, of a high-court judge in 19th-century Russia. Living what seems to be a good life, his dreadful relationship with his wife notwithstanding, Ivan Ilyich Golovin injures his side while hanging up curtains in a new apartment intended to reflect his family's superior status in society. Within weeks, he has developed a strange taste in his mouth and a pain that will not go away. Several expensive doctors are consulted, but beyond muttering about blind gut and floating kidneys, they can neither explain nor treat his condition, and it soon becomes clear that Ivan Ilyich is dying. The second half of the narrative records his terror as he battles with the idea of his own death. "I have been here. Now I am going there. Where? ... No, I won't have it!" Oppressed by the length of the process, his wife, daughter, colleagues, and even the physicians, decide in the end not to speak of it, but advise him to stay calm and follow doctors' orders, leaving him to wrestle with how this terrible thing could befall a man who had lived so well. He spends his last three days screaming. He realizes he is "done for, there was no way back, the end was here, the absolute end ..." One hour before his death, in a moment of clarity, he sees that he has not, after all, lived well, but has lived only for himself. After months of dwelling on his own anguish, he suddenly feels pity for the people he's leaving behind, and hopes his death will set them free. With that thought, his pain disappears. He hears someone say, "He's gone." He whispers to himself, "Death has gone," and draws his last breath.

Collects Tolstoy's shorter fiction, offering insight into his life as a soldier, married life, interest in peasantry, belief in truth and simplicity, and interest in religion.

Collected Shorter Fiction

The Raid and Other Stories

Tolstoy's novel of spiritual regeneration recounts the sins of a young Russian nobleman and his attempts in later life to redress those transgressions. A panoramic view of Russian social life at the end of the 19th century, Resurrection pointedly articulates the author's contempt for the social injustices of the world in which he lived.

Resurrection

Leo Wiener

Leo Tolstoy's "Walk in the Light and Twenty-Three Tales" contains the religious parable "Walk in the Light While Ye Have Light", a story set in the ancient Roman Empire which tells the story of Pamphylius and his conversion to Christianity, as well as twenty-three other short stories by the author. Those twenty-three tales include the following: God Sees the Truth, but Waits; A Prisoner in the Caucasus; The Bear-Hunt; What Men Live By; A Spark Neglected Burns the House; Two Old Men; Where Love is, God is; The Story of Iván the Fool; Evil Allures, but Good Endures; Little Girls Wiser Than Men; Ilyás; The Three Hermits; The Imp and the Crust; How Much Land Does a Man Need?; A Grain as Big as a Hen's Egg; The Godson; The Repentant Sinner; The Empty Drum; The Coffee House of Surat; Too Dear; Esarhaddon, King of Assyria; Work, Death and Sickness; and Three questions.

Louise Maude

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