Tolstoy's Short Fiction: A Norton Critical Edition

By Leo Tolstoy

Book Overview

This Norton Critical Edition presents twelve of Tolstoy's best-known stories, based on the Louise and Aylmer Maude translations (except "Alyosha Gorshok"), which have been revised by the editor for enhanced comprehension and annotated for student readers. The Second Edition newly includes "A Prisoner in the Caucasus," "Father Sergius," and "After the Ball," in addition to Michael Katz's new translation of "Alyosha Gorshok." Together these stories represent the best of the author's short fiction 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 entries--expanded in the Second Edition--from Tolstoy's "Diary for 1855" and selected letters (1858-95) that shed light on the author's creative process.

"Criticism" collects twenty-three essays by Russian and western scholars, six of which are new to this Second Edition. Interpretations focus both on Tolstoy's language and art and on specific themes and motifs in individual stories. Contributors include John M. Kopper, Gary Saul Morson, N. G. Chernyshevsky, Mikhail Bakhtin, Harsha Ram, John Bayley, Vladimir Nabokov, Ruth Rischin, Margaret Ziolkowski, and Donald Barthelme.

A Chronology of Tolstoy's life and work and an updated Selected Bibliography are also included.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393931501
• ISBN13: 9780393931501
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.2" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Unexpectedly engaging & insightful

Tolstoy's genius, to me, lies in the ease with which he conveys complex human emotions and experience through hyperrealistic characters. This collection of short stories is no exception. While some stories leave the reader to do the legwork in terms of figuring out what he is trying to convey or what insight into Tolstoy's take on humanity the story contains, overall the works range from heavy war-involved stories to light "high tea with high society minutiae" stories. If you want an introduction to Leo without braving Anna Karenina or War & Peace, look no further. Also makes for amazing book club conversation.