Leo Tolstoy

First published in 1914 after Leo Tolstoy's death, "Hadji Murad" was the author's last novel. Drawing upon his own experiences fighting for the Russian army, historical archives, and the true story of the real-life Hadji Murad, the story is a narrative based on actual events that occurred during the Russian war with the Chechens during the 1850's. "Hadji Murad" focuses on the life and struggles of its central character, a Chechen soldier who breaks...

War and Peace, Volume 2 (Maude Translation) (book 5) as you haven't seen it before -- in a remarkable illustrated edition. As Russia braces for the next wave of Napoleons war, destinies are forged in the fires of battle and the quiet shadows of aristocratic halls. In War and Peace, Book 5, Leo Tolstoy masterfully unveils a world where ambition clashes with fate, love teeters on the edge of despair, and war seeps into every corner of life. Prince...

The Kreutzer Sonata, one of the most controversial novels written by Leo Tolstoy. It was named after Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata and attracted immediate attention of censors on both sides of the Atlantic when it first appeared. The narrative follows the main character, Pozdnyshev who relates the events leading up to his killing his wife.

In the world of shadows, one man stands above the rest: Nolan, known only as Agent Shadow. A maestro of death, wrapped in mystery and clad in a black and white suit, Nolan has retired to a secluded life on a private island. Yet, the past never truly fades away. A mysterious call lures him back into the dark world of assassination, igniting a high-stakes mission that takes him from the bustling streets of Brazil to the cultivated landscapes of France....

The story begins with the childhood and exceptional and accomplished youth of Prince Stepan Kasatsky. The young man is destined for great things. He discovers on the eve of his wedding that his fiancée Countess Mary Korotkova has had an affair with his beloved Tsar Nicholas I. The blow to his pride is massive, and he retreats to the arms of Russian Orthodoxy and becomes a monk. Many years of humility and doubt follow. He is ordered to become a hermit....

Around the age of fifty, Tolstoy began to experience profound moments of confusion, as if he no longer knew how to go on living or what his purpose was. Things that had always seemed self-evidently meaningful now appeared hollow. The questions "Why?" and "What next?" began to haunt him with increasing frequency. A Confession is Tolstoy's deeply personal story of the his struggle with this midlife existential crisis. Written after the peak of his literary...

"The Imp and the Crust" is a short story by Russian author Leo Tolstoy first published in 1886. It is a cautionary tale against the dangers of alcohol. The story opens with a peasant preparing to plow a field. Having gone without breakfast, he is careful to hide his dinner, a small crust of bread, under his coat. After plowing the field the peasant is hungry and ready for his dinner, but when he picks up his coat he sees that the bread is gone. It...

"Ivan The Fool" is a short story by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1886. Its plot is about the struggles of three brothers and a sister with the Old Devil. The name "Ivan The Fool" hints to a popular hero of Russian folklore. Although the story is usually considered a children's fairy tale, it is also used as an indication of Tolstoy's political leanings in support of Christian anarchism.

The story of 'Polikushka' is a very graphic description of the life led by a servant of the court household of a certain nobleman, in which the author portrays the different conditions and surroundings enjoyed by these servants from those of the ordinary or common peasants. It is a true and powerful reproduction of an element in Russian life but little written about heretofore. Like the other stories of this great writer, 'Polikushka' has a moral...