The most famous books of Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy - Russian writer and thinker, count. His homeland is his mother's estate Yasnaya Polyana in the Tula province.
The writer was the fourth child in a noble family. His mother died when he was one year old. Lev Nikolaevich's father was remembered by him for his good-natured character, affection for hunting and books; he also died very early. A distant relative, Ergolskaya, who had a great influence on Tolstoy, took charge of raising the children of the Tolstoy family. As the writer said, she taught him the spiritual pleasure of a great feeling - love. Memories famous writer about childhood were always joyful. And the first impressions of noble life were reflected in the autobiographical story “Childhood”.
In 1844, Leo Tolstoy began his studies at Kazan University: first at the Faculty of Philosophy of Oriental Languages, then at the Department of Law. He studied for 2 years in each of these areas and submitted his resignation from the university due to poor health and family circumstances. Tolstoy did not like this kind of study, his dreams were of a career in painting and music. Then the writer returned to his native estate.
The summer spent in the village disappointed Tolstoy with failures in farming on updated terms that were beneficial only for serfs. Afterwards, based on this experience, the story “The Morning of the Landowner” was written. In the fall of 1847, the writer went to St. Petersburg with the goal of passing candidate exams. At that time, his lifestyle was very variable: he could spend days preparing for exams, or he could devote himself entirely only to music; his ascetic religious moods alternated with revelry and cards. It was during this period that Tolstoy realized his destiny: he had an irresistible desire to write.
Since 1855, the writer was a member of the Sovremennik circle, which included Nekrasov, Turgenev, Goncharov, Ostrovsky and other famous personalities. He took part in dinners and readings, was involved in conflicts between writers, but feeling like a stranger here, he left this society, as his “Confession” tells.
Tolstoy traveled a lot, he was in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland. Impressions from the trip to the latter country became the basis for writing the story “Lucerne”. Then the writer returned to Moscow, and then to Yasnaya Polyana. Thanks to him, more than 20 schools were established in the vicinity of his native estate and one school was opened for peasant children.
The most famous works- these are the novels "War and Peace", "Resurrection", "Anna Karenina", the trilogy-autobiography "Childhood" - "Adolescence" - "Youth", the dramas "The Power of Darkness" and "The Living Corpse", the stories "Cossacks" and " Hadji Murat" and many others.
The writer died at the age of 82 in 1910. His funeral became an event on a nationwide scale.
This is a large-scale work that tells about the life of Russian noble society during the years Patriotic War, includes many storylines. Here you can find love stories, battle scenes, morally difficult situations, and several human types of that time. The work is very multifaceted, it contains several ideas characteristic of Tolstoy, and all are written out with amazing accuracy.It is known that work on the work lasted about 6 years, and its original volume was not 4, but 6 volumes. Leo Tolstoy used a huge number of sources to make the events look authentic. He read the works of Russian and French historians, privately for the period from 1805 to 1812. However, Tolstoy himself regarded his work with a certain degree of skepticism. So, he wrote in his diary: “People love me for those trifles - “War and Peace”, etc., which seem very important to them.”
Researchers counted 559 heroes in the novel “War and Peace”.
"Anna Karenina" - a tragic love story
Not everyone has read this famous novel, but everyone knows its tragic ending. The name Anna Karenina has already become a household name in conversations about unhappy love. Meanwhile, Tolstoy shows in the novel not so much the tragedy of events, as, for example, in Shakespeare, but rather a psychological tragedy. This novel is dedicated not to pure and sublime love, which does not care about all conventions, but to the breaking psyche of a secular woman who suddenly finds herself abandoned by everyone because of an “indecent” relationship.Tolstoy's work is popular because it is relevant at any time. Instead of the discussions of earlier authors about enthusiastic and bright feelings, it shows the underside of blinding love and the consequences of relationships that are dictated by passion rather than reason.
One of the heroes of the novel Anna Karenina, Konstantin Levin, is an autobiographical character. Tolstoy put his thoughts and ideas into his mouth.
"Childhood. Adolescence. Youth" - autobiographical trilogy
Three stories, united by one hero, are partly based on the memoirs of Tolstoy himself. These works are a kind of diary of a growing boy. Despite a good upbringing and care from his elders, the hero faces problems characteristic of his age.As a child, he experiences his first love, prepares for confession with fear, and encounters injustice for the first time. The teenage hero, growing up, learns what betrayal is, and also finds new friends and experiences the breakdown of old stereotypes. In the story “Youth,” the hero faces social problems, acquires his first mature judgments, enters university and thinks about his future fate.
Biography.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy - Collection of 279 works
For lovers of Leo Tolstoy’s work, 2010 is a landmark year. We celebrated the 100th anniversary of his death on September 9.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. Biography with photographs
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in the Yasnaya Polyana estate. Among the writer’s paternal ancestors is an associate of Peter I, P. A. Tolstoy, one of the first in Russia to receive the title of count. A participant in the Patriotic War of 1812 was the father of the writer, Count. N.I. Tolstoy. On his mother's side, Tolstoy belonged to the family of the Bolkonsky princes, related by kinship to the Trubetskoy, Golitsyn, Odoevsky, Lykov and other noble families. On his mother's side, Tolstoy was a relative of A.S. Pushkin.
When Tolstoy was in his ninth year, his father took him to Moscow for the first time, the impressions of his meeting with which were vividly conveyed by the future writer in his children's essay "The Kremlin." The first period of young Tolstoy's Moscow life lasted less than four years. He was orphaned early, losing first his mother and then his father. With his sister and three brothers, young Tolstoy moved to Kazan. One of my father’s sisters lived here and became their guardian.
Living in Kazan, Tolstoy spent two and a half years preparing to enter the university, where he studied from 1844, first at the Oriental Faculty and then at the Faculty of Law. He studied Turkish and Tatar languages from the famous Turkologist Professor Kazembek.
Classes on government programs and textbooks weighed heavily on Tolstoy the student. He got carried away independent work above historical theme and, leaving the university, left Kazan for Yasnaya Polyana, which he received through the division of his father’s inheritance. Then he went to Moscow, where at the end of 1850 his writing activity began: an unfinished story from gypsy life (the manuscript has not survived) and a description of one day he lived (“The History of Yesterday”). At the same time, the story “Childhood” was begun. Soon Tolstoy decided to go to the Caucasus, where his older brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, an artillery officer, served in the active army. Having entered the army as a cadet, he later passed the exam for junior officer rank. The writer's impressions of the Caucasian War were reflected in the stories "Raid" (1853), "Cutting Wood" (1855), "Demoted" (1856), and in the story "Cossacks" (1852-1863). In the Caucasus, the story “Childhood” was completed, published in 1852 in the magazine “Sovremennik”.
When the Crimean War began, Tolstoy was transferred from the Caucasus to the Danube Army, which was operating against the Turks, and then to Sevastopol, which was besieged by the combined forces of England, France and Turkey.
In the fall of 1856, he retired and soon went on a six-month trip abroad, visiting France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. In 1859, Tolstoy opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana, and then helped open more than 20 schools in the surrounding villages.
Some of the writer's first works were the stories "Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth", "Youth" (which, however, was not written). According to the author's plan, they were supposed to compose the novel "Four Epochs of Development."
In the early 1860s. For decades, the order of Tolstoy’s life, his way of life, is established. In 1862, he married the daughter of a Moscow doctor, Sofya Andreevna Bers.
The writer is working on the novel "War and Peace" (1863-1869). Having completed War and Peace, Tolstoy spent several years studying materials about Peter I and his time. However, after writing several chapters of Peter’s novel, Tolstoy abandoned his plan.
In the spring of 1873, Tolstoy began and four years later completed work on a great novel about modernity, calling it by name main character- "Anna Karenina".
At the beginning of the 1880s. Tolstoy moved with his family from Yasnaya Polyana to Moscow, caring about providing an education to his growing children. In 1882, a census of the Moscow population took place, in which the writer took part. He saw closely the inhabitants of the city slums and described them terrible life in the article on the census and in the treatise "So What Should We Do?" (1882-1886).
Tolstoy’s story “The Master and the Worker” (1895), stylistically related to his cycle, is based on social and psychological contrast. folk stories, written in the 80s.
All of the writer’s works are united by the idea of the inevitable and imminent “denouement” of social contradictions, of the replacement of an obsolete social “order.” “I don’t know what the outcome will be,” Tolstoy wrote in 1892, “but that things are approaching it and that life cannot continue like this, in such forms, I am sure.” This idea inspired the largest work of all the creativity of the “late” Tolstoy - the novel “Resurrection” (1889-1899).
In the last decade of his life, the writer worked on the story “Hadji Murat” (1896-1904), in which he sought to compare “the two poles of imperious absolutism” - the European, personified by Nicholas I, and the Asian, personified by Shamil. The poem written in 1908 sounded poignant. article “I Can’t Be Silent,” in which he protested against the repression of participants in the events of 1905-1907. The writer’s stories “After the Ball”, “For What?” belong to the same period.
Weighed down by the way of life in Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy more than once contemplated and for a long time did not dare to leave it. But he could no longer live according to the principle of “together and apart,” and on the night of October 28 (November 10) he secretly left Yasnaya Polyana. On the way, he fell ill with pneumonia and was forced to stop at the small station of Astapovo (now Leo Tolstoy), where he died. On November 10 (23), 1910, the writer was buried in Yasnaya Polyana, in the forest, on the edge of a ravine, where as a child he and his brother were looking for the “green stick” that held the “secret” of how to make all people happy.
source: Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography - http://www.rosculture.ru/
Name: Collection of works by L.N. Tolstoy
L.N. Tolstoy
Genre: Drama, tragedy, comedy, journalism, prose
Language: Russian
Format: FB2
Quality: excellent
Number of works: 279
Size: 20.08 Mb
List of works:
1. War and peace. Volume 1
2. War and peace. Volume 2
3. War and peace. Volume 3
4. War and peace. Volume 4
Childhood. Adolescence. Youth
1. Childhood
2. Adolescence
3. Youth
Confession
1. Confession
2. To the Tsar and his assistants
3. I can’t be silent
Stories
From the notes of Prince D. Nekhlyudov (Lucerne)
Polikushka
Morning of the landowner
Fake coupon
Canvas meter
Plays
The power of darkness, or “The claw is stuck, the whole bird is lost”
And the light shines in the darkness
All the qualities come from her
The first distiller, or How the little devil earned the edge
The fruits of enlightenment
Stories
Albert
Assyrian king Esarhadon
Poor people
Grateful soil
Divine and human
Wolf
The enemy is molded, but God's is strong
Where there is love, there is God
Two brothers and gold
Two old men
Girls are smarter than old men
Expensive
For what?
Marker Notes
Diary of a Madman
Grain with a chicken egg
From Caucasian memories. Demoted
Ilyas
How the little devil bought the edge
Karma
Penitent
Korney Vasiliev
Godson
Blizzard
How much land does a person need?
Unfinished. Sketches
Songs in the village
After the ball
Traveler and peasant
Worker Emelyan and an empty drum
Conversation with a passerby
Destroying Hell and Rebuilding It
Wood cutting. Junker's story
Candle
The power of childhood
The Young King's Dream
Surat coffee shop
Three days in the village
Three parables
Three elders
Three sons
If you let the fire go, you won't be able to put it out
Francoise
Khodynka
Owner and worker
How people live
What I saw in my dream...
Berries
Collected works in twenty-two volumes
1. Volume 1. Childhood, Adolescence, Youth
2. Volume 2. Works of 1852-1856
3. Volume 3. Works of 1857-1863
4. Volume 4. War and Peace
5. Volume 5. War and Peace
6. Volume 6. War and Peace
7. Volume 7. War and Peace
8. Volume 8. Anna Karenina
9. Volume 9. Anna Karenina
10. Volume 10. Works of 1872-1886
11. Volume 11. Dramatic works of 1864-1910
12. Volume 12. Works of 1885-1902
13. Volume 13. Resurrection
14. Volume 14. Works of 1903-1910
15. Volume 15. Articles about literature and art
16. Volume 16. Selected journalistic articles
17. Volume 17. Selected journalistic articles
18. Volume 18. Selected letters 1842-1881
19. Volume 19. Selected letters 1882-1899
20. Volume 20. Selected letters 1900-1910
21. Volume 21. Selected diaries 1847-1894
22. Volume 22. Selected diaries 1895-1910
Outside series:
Russian classical prose
Carthago Delenda Est (Carthage must be destroyed)
Shark
Alyosha Pot
Apostle John and the Thief
Archangel Gabriel
Squirrel and wolf
Meaningless dreams
The Good of Love
God or mammon
Ursa Major (Bucket)
Big stove
Bulka (Officer's Stories)
What is my faith
Variant of the ending of the story "The Devil"
Believe yourself
Appeal
War and Peace. Book 1
War and Peace. Book 2
Volga and Vazuza
Wolf and mare
Sparrow
son of a thief
Resurrection
Upbringing and education
Memories of the trial of a soldier
The time has come
Second Russian book to read
Main Law
Stupid man
Hunger or not hunger
Greek teacher Socrates
Two hussars
Two letters to M Gandhi
Two different versions of the history of the beehive with a popular cover
The girl and the robbers
Decembrists
Diaries and Notebooks (1909)
The Fool and the Knife
Devil
Uncle Zhdanov and gentleman Chernov
Hedgehog and hare
The Life and Suffering of the Martyr Justin the Philosopher
Crane and stork
Hares and frogs
The law of violence and the law of love
Notes of a Christian
From the will of the Mexican king
Hut and palace
Study of a Dogmatic Theologian
To the Clergy
Prisoner of the Caucasus
Cossacks
How Uncle Semyon talked about what happened to him in the forest
How Russian soldiers die
How to read the gospel and what is its essence
Stones
To the Chinese people from a Christian
Who should learn to write from whom, the peasant children from us or us from the peasant children
Horse and mare
Cow
Kreutzer Sonata
Kreutzer Sonata (Collection)
Who is right
Bat
Fox and crane
Love each other
Mother
Prayer
Wise girl
Mice
Field mouse and city mouse
Raid (volunteer's story)
Reward
Don't play with fire - you'll get burned (Idyll)
I Can't Be Silent (1st edition)
Thou shalt not kill
Don't kill anyone
Unbelieving
Not doing
Accidentally
Nikolay Palkin
About madness
About religious tolerance
About Gogol
About hunger
About life
About people big and small
About literacy teaching methods
About public education
About science (Answer to the peasant)
About the census in Moscow
On the accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria
About the Samara famine
About Shakespeare and drama
About art
The end of the Little Russian legend “Forty Years”, published by Kostomarov in 1881
It makes good money, and that’s why it’s a sin (Idyll)
Definition of the Holy Synod of February 20-22, 1901
Response to the resolution of the Synod of February 20-22 and to the letters I received on this occasion
Father and sons
Father Sergius
Father Sergius (variants)
Excerpts from the article "The Inevitable Coup"
Excerpts from the article “The Kingdom of God is within you”
Excerpts from stories from village life
Hunting is worse than bondage (A Hunter's Tale)
The first Russian book to read
First stage
Correspondence
Song about the battle on the Chernaya River
Letter to a revolutionary
Regarding the conclusion of V. A. Molochnikov
About the peace congress
It's time to come to your senses!
Afterword to the book by E. I. Popov “The Life and Death of Evdokim Nikitich Drozhzhin, 1866-1894”
Afterword to Chekhov's story "Darling"
Why are Christian peoples in general, and especially the Russian people, now in dire straits?
Preface to "Peasant Stories" by S T Semenov
Preface to the works of Guy De Maupassant
Preface to Edward Carpenter's article "Modern Science"
The end is approaching
Progress and definition of education
Bounce
Path of life
Bees and drones
Slavery of our time
Talk about science
Stories from the “New ABC”
Religion and Morality
Speech in a society of lovers of Russian literature
Equal inheritance
Sevastopol in August 1855 (Sevastopol stories - 2)
Sevastopol in December (Sevastopol stories - 1)
Sevastopol in May (Sevastopol stories - 3)
Sevastopol stories
Family happiness
The tale of Ivan the Fool and his two brothers...
Fairy tales
Death of Ivan Ilyich
The dog and its shadow
Student movement of 1899
Ashamed
So what should we do
Calf on ice
Black grouse and fox
Water flow
Tikhon and Malanya
The third Russian book to read
Three questions
Three thieves
Three Bears
Three deaths
Labor, death and illness
Amazing creatures
Stubborn horse
The Teachings of Christ Explained to Children
Fedotka
Filipok
Hadji Murat
Walk in the light while there is light
Holstmere (Horse History)
Christian teaching
Christianity and Patriotism
Watchmaker
The fourth Russian book to read
What is art
What is religion and what is its essence?
Jackals and elephant
Shat and Don
It's you
Hawk and doves
Fairy tale
Three Bears
Children's prose
Two brothers
Bone
Fire dogs
— Guys about animals: Stories of Russian writers
Dramaturgy
Living Dead
Infected family
Biographies and Memoirs
Memories
Diaries
Journalism
Decembrists (From the Unfinished)
Diaries and journal entries (1881-1887)
Report prepared for the Peace Congress in Stockholm
Interviews and conversations with Leo Tolstoy
Is this really necessary?
Journalism
Superstition of the State
Religion
Connection and translation of the four Gospels
- The Kingdom of God is within you...
This writer and philosopher is certainly one of the key figures of pre-revolutionary Russian literature. What did Leo Tolstoy write? He left behind a diverse artistic heritage in the form of novels and stories, short stories and journalism. Also, a special place in his work is occupied by philosophical reflections expressed in letters and articles, and the writer’s diary.
Novels
Most famous to a wide circle readers in our country and abroad, the writer’s works include such novels as “War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina”, “Decembrists”, “Resurrection”, the trilogy “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth". These works have been translated into many languages of the world, are deeply revered by literary scholars in many countries, and are used in university and school curriculum. The epic "War and Peace", written over the course of a decade (1863 -1873), is a kind of cross-section of Russian society of the 19th century. In terms of its globality, it occupies one of the first places in Russian literature.
Novels and stories
Among the most famous stories are “The Morning of a Landowner” (a film was even made based on the work), “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, “The Kreutzer Sonata”, “Notes of a Madman”, “Hadji Murat”. Tolstoy also wrote shorter forms - stories. The most famous are the cycle “Sevastopol Stories”, “Stories from Village Life” and others, depicting the life of the Russian hinterland and the characters of the peasants. The most famous drama work is “The Living Corpse”.
For children
Leo Tolstoy also wrote for younger children. The stories “Filippok”, “Three Bears”, “ABC” for children are included in the treasury of children's literature and are studied in elementary grades.
Fables and parables, diaries and articles
The writer was translating Aesop's fables into Russian, giving traditional characters a unique flavor: “The Wolf and the Lamb,” “The Wolf and the Fox,” “Dragonfly and Ants,” “Fox and Grapes.” And in philosophical parables (“How people live,” “Three Elders,” “Wolf,” for example) he expressed his philosophical views. In his articles he expressed his socio-political preferences (“I Can’t Be Silent”, “On Socialism”), and in his diaries he openly described his creative and life quests.
Like Pushkin in poetry, so Tolstoy in prose - our everything! And this despite the fact that Lev Nikolaevich has only five full-fledged novels, only several dozen stories and one trilogy - “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth". Stories, fairy tales, fables, poems, translations, dramatic works - few know them, which these works do not deserve at all. Perhaps, remembering them more often, many would discover a new Tolstoy.
The originality of the writer’s prose, his literary style
What distinguishes the work of Leo Tolstoy is the reflection in it of the originality of the author himself: the coexistence in a single whole of a “spontaneous artist” and a “rational thinker.” This is exactly what researchers of the writer’s work have been trying to decompose into atoms for many years. The works of L.N. Tolstoy are a treasure trove for their delights. The artistic and philosophical principles, complete immersion in these two polar styles evoke delight in the reader when reading, and in writers, critics, public figures - an incomprehensible thirst for research, reasoning and debate.
Some of them suggest the existence of the author in two forms, radically opposed and fighting with each other. Already in his first work - “Childhood and Adolescence” - the philosophy of images in its best manifestation reveals to readers the amazingly beautiful prose of such a brilliant writer as Leo Tolstoy. The author's stories and all his other works are created in a unique style, which gave him the fame of the greatest Russian writer.
Top 5 works by Leo Tolstoy
Our modernity is moving away from the definition of “The best something” (in our case, “ Best books writer"), replacing it with Top 10, Top 100. Let's try to create a Top 10 most readable works Lev Nikolaevich.
Two novels deservedly claim first place - “Anna Karenina” and “War and Peace”. Each of us has our own arguments in favor of one of them, whom we would elevate to the top line. Bringing them is unnecessary, and the dispute may drag on. In our Top Parade we give first place to the two of them, and move on to second.
The novel “Sunday”, the trilogy “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth”, the stories “The Kreutzer Sonata”, “Notes of a Madman”, “The Morning of a Landowner” - all of them are read, loved and are still in demand by filmmakers and theater directors around the world. If it makes more sense to rank the stories as third, and leave the novel and trilogy at second, then the top three already includes seven of Tolstoy’s best works. For the remaining three places in our Top 10, we adequately include the cycle “Sevastopol Stories”, the story “Hadji Murat” and dramatic work“The power of darkness, or the Claw is stuck, the whole bird is lost.”
Of course, our top ten in which we mentioned best works L.N. Tolstoy is just reflections on the topic, but it is quite likely that it coincides with the opinion of many readers.
“War and Peace” - about whom and what
Rarely a reader has not wondered what the novel is actually about? About the heroism of the Russian army, about the stoic courage and bravery of our soldiers, about the honor and dignity of the nobility, or is it about human relationships that are tested against the backdrop of difficult events for the state?
A brilliant work, where Leo Tolstoy is the inimitable author - “War and Peace”! The author seems to invite each reader to find the answer to the question: who is interested in war - the presentation of the main battles contains almost completely reliable historical accuracy, who wants to plunge into a wonderful description of the feelings experienced by the heroes - will definitely find what they are looking for in the novel.
In a work unique in its scale, style, and language of presentation, such as the novel “War and Peace,” every line is imbued with the main thing - happiness ordinary life, both in sorrow and in joy. In it, both go in parallel, step by step, hand in hand through all trials and obstacles. Good, naturally, wins, and evil dies defeated.
Did Anna Karenina's creator sympathize with her?
As in “War and Peace,” in “Anna Karenina” there are two polar loves: sublime, pure, sinless, and its antipode - basely vicious, almost dirty. Tolstoy provokes the reader with an interpretation of the relationship between Anna and Vronsky in the mouth of the “society,” allowing him to decide for himself the degree of sublimity or baseness of their feelings. The author tries not to build concrete walls between these definitions; the transition from one state to another is imperceptible: on one line we meet a complete justification of this love, on the other - its universal condemnation. And like shaky but frequent bridges between these lines - the torment of the main characters, their doubts and the final choice, no matter what.
So what assessment does the author himself give to his character? Does he justify her, sympathize with her, feel sorry for her, support her? Tolstoy here acts as an irreconcilable moralist - in all his works, criminal love is doomed to a tragic end. The author created his heroine in order to kill her demonstrably as an edification to others. An image that evokes sympathy does not cause so much suffering.
“Childhood” as one of Tolstoy’s main works
This story occupies a prominent place in the writer’s creative heritage. Perhaps the first work in which Leo Tolstoy declared himself to be a great author was “Childhood.” Not because the reader is exposed to the problems of a little man, inaccessible to the understanding of adults, who sees the world in which he lives like an adult, feels its unveiled good and evil, sincerity and falsehood. The reader, following Nikolenka, goes through the school of his growing up, analyzes his and other people’s actions, learns to accept the world as he sees it.
The boy’s ability to acutely sense cunning, cunning, his worries about the fact that he sees these unsightly qualities in himself, force the reader to look back at his childhood and rethink his actions. One can learn from Nikolenka to love people, not only those with whom he lives, but also those who are friends with him or have somehow impressed his childish heart. And the story also teaches how not to destroy this love. The ability to read between the lines will give a lot to those who try to understand this work, just like the short prose that Leo Tolstoy wrote - stories.
Themes of Lev Nikolaevich's stories
About wildlife and defenseless animals, about smart children and wise adults. He doesn’t have many stories; there are only four dozen works on this list, most of which, as already mentioned, are unfamiliar to a wide range of readers. A little more fortunate were such types of short prose from Tolstoy’s legacy as “After the Ball”, “The Jump”, “False Coupon”, “The Power of Childhood”, “Conversation with a Passerby”, and, of course, the cycle “Sevastopol Stories”.
A noticeable intensity in writing stories was observed from 1905 to 1909 - the last years in the life of Lev Nikolaevich; he died, as is known, in 1910. A huge period of his life was devoted to other genres of literature in which there was simply no place for stories. Stories for children, which are worth talking about separately, since the world of these works amazes with its depth, the subtle transmission of a child’s impressions about the problems of life, and explain the formation of his personality. This theme is also reflected in such a genre as the fables of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
Stories about children and for children
Prose for children and about themselves occupies a prominent place in the writer’s work. Trilogy “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth" Tolstoy did not limit his attempts to understand in what ways a person’s personality is formed from birth to his entry into life. adult life. The stories “Three Bears”, “How Uncle Semyon told about what happened to him in the forest” and “Cow”, included in the collection “New ABC”, are imbued with love for children and compassion for their little problems. The works of L. N. Tolstoy are rich in thoughts about children.
The story “Philippok” was born after the writer’s careful observation of peasant children and ingenuous communication with them. Lev Nikolaevich always found time for the peasants; he even opened a school for their children on his estate. And one of the first stories that can be classified as children's is a small work about the dog Bulka, her aching devotion to the only close creature - her owner. Until his death, Leo Tolstoy recalled his own childhood and how he wanted to find a “green stick” that would help him make everyone on earth happy.
The place of fables and fairy tales in Tolstoy’s works
Just as we remember the prose of Ivan Andreevich Krylov from childhood and lessons in our native speech, so do the moralizing fables of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, imbued with subtle morality.
- "The Wolf and the Old Man."
- "The Lion and the Dog"
- "The Crane and the Stork."
- "The head and tail of a snake."
- "Ferret".
- "The Dog and Its Shadow."
- "The Monkey and the Pea."
- "The Squirrel and the Wolf."
- "The Lion, the Donkey and the Fox."
- "The Lion and the Mouse."
This is only a small fraction of the famous fables that complement the great works of Leo Tolstoy that we love. Through fables, he ridiculed what he could hardly explain in people, and what was unacceptable to him: deception and cunning, anger and hatred, meanness and betrayal. The opposite traits were shown in his prose as sometimes unprotected, open to attack, and this made them even more endearing. Tolstoy seemed to believe that in works for children, and he wrote his fables more for them, there is no room for justifying base actions, it is necessary to explain in an accessible and simple way what is “good” and what is “bad.” I also always believed that children are quite smart and understand subtle morals much closer to the truth than adults.
The confrontation between love and duty is a distinctive feature of the characters of Tolstoy
The genius that Leo Tolstoy created during his life - “War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina”, his stories, fables, fairy tales and stories, reflected primarily his own morality. He transferred his religious dogmas, his mental turmoil and doubts, his beliefs onto paper and endowed them with the characters he sympathized with. Some of his works lacked even light humor, and every phrase in them was strictly verified and thoroughly thought out. He often rewrote what had already been published in magazines, creating what he thought was the ideal character.
The image of Konstantin Levin in Anna Karenina with his painful love for Kitty and a sense of duty towards his convictions appears before us as a bright personality. Inimitable and majestic are Pierre Bezukhov from War and Peace, Nikolai Rostov, who assumed his father’s debts and did not take a penny from the dowry of his wife, Princess Bolkonskaya, to pay them off. Many of his characters go through the torment of desires and real actions. The author puts them through psychological tests and emerges even stronger and stronger. worthy of respect. This was the writer’s own world, and it was left to us by L.N. Tolstoy. Works for children - stories, fairy tales, fables, for adults - novels, novellas, drama. They make him so near and dear to us.