consider Leo Tolstoy one of the greatest writers of all time, Although I'm familiar with his novels, this is the first time I've read his short stories, And they were superb. With a simple writing style, interesting characters, daunting adventures, humor, all with a depth to them that cover so many human emotions and layers of meaning.
There's something so authentic, so unpretentious about Tolstoy's writing it certainly makes for captivating reading,
"How Much Land Does A Man Need" addresses greed and what is enough, "Ivan the Fool" and the "Prisoner of the Caucasus," "The Imp and The Crust" were all page turners,
My favorite story by far was "A Spark Neglected Burns Down the House, " Here we have two neighbors feuding and taking revenge on one another, the anger worsening daily, The grandfather calls his son in and says, "Malice blinds you, Others' sins are before your eyes, but your own are behind your back, "
How true. Thus, are Tolstoy's folk tales, fables and stories, like parables, show the power of forgiveness, harmony, love for your neighbors, friends, honesty, and living a simple life close to the earth, while staying close to God who is never far away.
I plan on reading many more of the short works of Tolstoy! Highly recommended! Back in bed with Tolstoy, Once a year with Tolstoy has become a sort of bad habit for me,
He wrote a lot, He wrote a lot of great stories and some lousy stories in between, I love his writing, but I wont say this book is the greatest as it says, Its a compilation ofshort stories but I would say, I liked only a few,to be exact, The rest sounded much like religious propaganda,
All the stories had that unique Tolstoysh flow in them and thats one thing I like about his writing, It has a very captivating effect, Even when he was ranting about god the whole time, it felt bearable, One story that really caught me is Kholstomir, Absolutely beautiful. So as Master and Man, I guess they really are masterpieces,
I took time to read this book in between books, I dont think its a book to be read on one go, but should be read nevertheless, at least theorstories that doesnt sound like Bible stories
Bookof.
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: : worth a read but some stories are way out of their timeline First readings of Tolstoy,
Very religious, sometimes even preachy, But I do believe he has the right idea about religion, It's all about love. God is found in the act of love, If I ever became religious again I would probably need to keep that in mind, . .
At his best he lives up to his legendary fame, "How Much Land Does a Man Need" and "What Men Live By" are easily some of the most beautiful short fiction I've read in a while.
At his worst he's still quite entertaining, and rich in both style and substance, but I rather not come back to the exception that is, hollow enjoyment, or "hollow amazement".
I did not always feel enriched in the reading,
btw, I haven't read all of these short stories, I don't know which ones were and weren't included in my edition that did appear here, but you get the idea, I read some of his stories, Awesome, "what men live by" is best short story I
have ever read Majority of the stories compiled in this edition have a distinctively Christian theme with the glorification of the simplest life often at the verge of poverty and lionization of hard manual labour.
'The meek shall inherit the earth' reverberates throughout these tales in numerous instances of industrious simpletons overcoming wily schemers through their ridiculously guileless grit, But despite the content being inspired heavily from theology, the book is quite readable and even enjoyable in parts,
Gandhi was a great admirer of Leo Tolstoy and his philosophy is immensely reflective of this, Upon reading this book I could join the dots for myself and identify which of Gandhi's political thoughts are directly influenced by Tolstoy, Interestingly the public at large is unaware of this fact and mistakenly believes Gandhi's ideology to be derived from Bhagavad Gita or Hinduism in general.
As it turns out it is more Christian than Hindu,
Intriguingly there is no mention of Jesus Christ in any of the stories, There are lots of saintly men at various stages of piousness, references to angels aplenty and multiple appearances of Satan himself, Even God features in a short but disguised part, But no Jesus. There are direct quotations from the Bible but not even the slightest mention even in passing of the son of God, Given that all Christian activity where I am from is accompanied by frequent evocations of his name, I was surprised to find Jesus missing in these pages.
The Greatest Short Stories Of Leo Tolstoy is a compilation of seven enthralling stories by Leo Tolstoy, and it was published in the year, The book contains wellknown works by the author, including the book that is considered by many as his best, War and Peace, Some of his other stories that are covered in this book include Ivan the Fool, How Much Land Does A Man Need, A Prisoner in the Caucasus, and God Sees The Truth, But Waits.
His story, War and Peace, focuses on the French Invasion of Russia, Napoleon Bonaparte, and the revolution, narrated from the point of view of the Tsars.
While Ivan the Fool is a parable, How Much Land Does A Man Need focuses on a greedy peasant, Tolstoys stories are very humorous, with an underlying political or philosophical message,
Leo Tolstoy was born in the yearand died in the year, at the age of, A writer from Russia, he mainly wrote short stories and novels, He also wrote essays and plays later in life, His most popular novels are Anna Karenina and War and Peace, and these are regarded as some of the best novels in the field of literature.
He is often honored as one of the best novelists of all time, His book on the nonviolent form of resistance, The Kingdom of God is Within You, inspired great reformers like Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi.
He is also well known for his criticism of William Shakespeare, From Flipkart. com A decent collection of short stories, easy read, Really Profound!! I think the stories will be relevant even after a century,
Worth a reread!
Prescribe these stories to school literature, but please dear teachers, do not bore us with an overanalysis of everything! As relevant today as when it was written.
I read Tolstoy a few decades ago, Rereading the stories made me realize how much I learned from Tolstoy, His clean clear prose makes the characters come to life, The lessons he taught are still relevant in our busy lives, I bought this book at special price from here:
sitelink amazon. com/GreatestStori
A good collection of stories teaching good values for life,
Collection of stories written by leo Tolstoy,
It has some really good stories which teaches life lessons, The collection has different segments such as folk tales,fairy tale, short stories etc, It's a good book if u r looking for some nice stories, Not even once I got bored reading this book, Felt very positive and it increased my faith in god and humanity, Stories are not very lengthy and I can literally picture the era when author wrote these stories, I wish to read more of Leo Tolstoy! Ivan the Fool is my favourite from this book,
The thing I love about Tolstoy's writing is a simple amp effective way to communicate a strong message, Every short story resonates with a core message and way one should lead their life, I will not spill the beans but yes one story a day will keep you refreshed and will continue to ignite a spark for learning something curious each day.
Probably the greatest life messages/lessons by a human
Every story got it's own zeal , just read it without a second thought.
If one consider to know how to live a life to be, then this is for you, I had read A SWIM IN A POND IN THE RAIN by George Saunders a few months ago, George Saunders' book introduced me to a couple of Tolstoy works and it inspired me to buy this book, I like short stories and I liked the ability to have this as a standby book to read over a few months for when I was in the mood for a short story.
Tolstoy stories can be a tad sad but also quite profound, No one really writes like Tolstoy anymore, so it is thought provoking for me, Tolstoy writes by giving one profound lessons on how to live a better life, My personal favorite story by Tolstoy in this book was WHAT MEN LIVE BY,
Here are some of the lines that captured me from some of the stories in this classic book of short stories:
THE WOODCUTTING EXPEDITION
I threw myself without undressing, down on my bed.
. . I rolled myself up and fell into that peculiarly deep and heavy sleep which one obtains at the moment of tumult and disquietude on the eve of a great peril.
In RUSSIA there are three predominating types of soldiers:
The obedient
The domineering or dictatorial and
The desperate.
The type more frequently encountered than the rest is that of the obedient, The pathetic obedient is a certain invincible indifference and disdain of all the turns of fortune which may overtake him, The drunken obedient is a mild poetical tendency and sensitiveness, The energetic obedient is his limitation in intellectual faculties, united with an endless assiduity and fervor,
I was already beginning to dream of the cabbagesoup,
“If there were only some possibilities of exchanging this life for any sort of lie, no matter how tame and mean, but free from dancer and service, I would not hesitate a minute.
”
And so, what is there for me in Russia Its all the same, youll get shot here sooner or later,
THE SNOWSTORM
“Why are you going round and round like a fool Go by the snow take the lee of it, and youll come out all right!”
“Go on as long as the horses can drag us! Never fear we shant freeze to death! Go on, I say!”
Recollections and ideas alternated with the most strenuous rapidity in my imagination.
WHERE LOVE IS, THERE GOD IS ALSO
At times he would become so absorbed in reading that all the kerosene in the lamp would burn out, and still, he could not tear himself away.
A SPARK NEGLECTED BURNS THE HOUSE
If you get a hard word from any one, keep silent, and his own conscience will accuse him.
“Hide another mans sin, and God will forgive two of yours!”
WHAT MEN LIVE BY Based on the Christian commandment of LOVING ALL PEOPLE EQUALLYSt.
Michael The Archange
“Dont wag your tongue without reason, ”
“We give, but why does nobody give us anything”
“Men who want to learn can learn anything, ”
“Living as he does, how should he not grow strong Death itself cant touch such a rock as that, ”
“Tell me, Michael, why does your face shine so, and why did you smile those three times”
Learn what dwells in man, What is not given to man, and What men live by.
in Man dwells LOVE!
It is not given to man to know his own needs,
“All men live not by care for themselves but by love, ”
All men live not by the thought they spend on their own welfare, but because love exists in man,
“It seems to men that they live by care for themselves, in truth it is love alone by which they live, ”
TWO OLD MEN
“Somehow when one begins a thing one likes to see it done, ”
“What right have I to judge a man”
Much water flows away in a year, the proverb says, It takes a lifetime to build up a homestead, but not long to ruin it,
Show love and do good to others,
ILYAS
“Fortune turns like a wheel, One man it lifts, another it sets down!”
“For half a century we sought for happiness, and as long as we were rich, we never found it.
Now that we have nothing left, and have taken services as laborers, we have found such happiness that we want nothing better, ”
IVAN THE FOOL
“Where the needles goes there goes the thread also, ”
KHOLSTOMIR
Nothing seemed sweet to me I became selfabsorbed, and began to be pensive, At first, I felt indifferent to everything, I ceased even to eat, to drink, and to run and all thought of sprightly sport was gone, Then it nevermore came into mind to kick up my heels, to roll over, to whinny, without bringing up the terrible questionWhy For what purpose And my vigor died away.
My horse, his horse, . . At that time I could not understand at all that it meant that hey considered ME the property of a man, To say MY HORSE in reference to me, a live horse, seemed to me as strange as to say, my earth, my atmosphere, my water.
Men rule in life, not by deeds, but by words, They love not so much the possibility of doing or not doing anything, as the possibility of talking about different objects in words agreed upon between them.
Such words, considered very important among them, are the words, MY, MINE, OURS, which they employ for various things, beings, and objects even for the earth, people, and horses.
MY HOUSE, MY SHOP, . . ” There are people who call LAND theirs, . . ”
Men struggle in life not to do what they consider good, but to be possessors of what they call their own,
Everything breathed of newness, luxury, and rareness, Everything was extremely good but it all bore a peculiar impress of profusion, wealth, and an absence of intellectual interests,
HOW MUCH LAND DOES A MAN NEED
The sun waits for no man, and it was sinking lower and lower,
THE YOUNG TSAR
It has been proved conclusively that alcohol does no good in any case, but invariably does harm, and it has been demonstrated to be an absolute poison.
Then, ninetynine percent of the crimes in the world are committed thorough its influence,
FATHER SERGIUS
Apart from his main vocation, . . he always set himself some particular aim, and however unimportant it was, devoted himself completely to it and lived for it until it was accomplished.
And as soon as it was attained another aim would immediately present itself, replacing its predecessor, This passion for accomplishing something in order to distinguish himself, filled his life,
ESARHADDON, KIND OF ASSYRIA
By doing evil to others you have done it to yourself also, You can improve life in yourself by destroying the barriers that divide your life from that of others, and by considering others as yourself, and loving them.
THREE QUESTIONS
Remember, . . there is only one time that is important: NOW! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power.
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