There are books that have influenced their readers for hundreds of years and have guided human behavior for generations. Undoubtedly, one of the most well-known of them is “What Men Live By” It is the book of the famous writer Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy.
Lev Nikolayevich (1828-1910) Tolstoy is a writer who has built great works for Russian Literature with his books such as War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Resurrection.
The sincerity, simplicity, and striking storytelling of the love of humanity, belief and inner world he deals with prompted the readers to think inwardly.
When I started reading the book, there was only a shadow of having read it as a child years ago, what this mature man would see between the lines.
First story: Semyon, the shoemaker who was broken by poverty and not doing well.
It starts with helping the naked young man, who has obviously had a problem, on his way back home without being able to ask for money from the people he owes him, to dress him and give him food.
A great story, a great test of humanity, people keep asking themselves what would you do if it were you.
While the finale ends with a surprise, three words of God remain in our minds:
What is in a human?
What has not been given to man?
What does man live with?
The second story, He Who Doesn’t Extinguish the Spark Can’t Contain the Fire
It tells the series of events that started with the lack of tolerance of two families who were neighbors in village life and reached a frightening pace day by day.
Again, the lessons to be learned are clear and very convincing.
The experience of age is something to be listened to, for thousands of years the elders of every society represented wisdom. Maybe this is not the case for the first time in the age of instagram and botox, the intergenerational information perspective has opened up a lot as scissors.
The name of the third story is Candle
This story is about how a landlord’s overseer had his landlords tormented.
Despite the past centuries, it is possible to adapt this story to the present day with minor changes, there is still long working hours, fear of mobbing, insufficient wages and unemployment. The power of the story’s karma to reflect on the person who does whatever is done is told in an impressive sequence of events.
The fourth story, Does Man Need a Lot of Land?
A story that is mentioned and referred to a lot in literature is human nature’s greed and inexhaustible passion for possession. Everything starts with a claim, Poham, a simple villager, defies the devil, Our only problem is little land! If I had as much land as I wanted, I would not be afraid of anyone, not even the devil!”
Fifth story Elijah
It tells the story of a well-established family that made its fortune by working hard with his wife, and treated the guests well, that I personally lived most of my life from this point of view.
The Autobiographical Trilogy
- Childhood (Детство [Detstvo], 1852)
- Boyhood (Отрочество [Otrochestvo], 1854)
- Youth (Юность [Yunost’], 1856)
War and Peace
- War and Peace (Война и мир [Voyna i mir], 1869)
- The Decembrists (Декабристы, abandoned 1863. planned but abandoned sequel to War and Peace) – 3 chapters
Novels
Novellas
Short stories
- A History of Yesterday (“История вчерашнего дня”) (1851)
- “The Raid” (“Набег” [“Nabeg”], 1852)
- “The Cutting of the Forest” (1855)
- “Sevastopol Sketches” (“Севастопольские рассказы” [“Sevastopolskie rasskazy”], 1855–1856)
- “Sevastopol in December 1854” (1855)
- “Sevastopol in May 1855” (1855)
- “Sevastopol in August 1855” (1856)
- “Recollections of a Billiard-marker” (“Записки маркера” [“Zapiski markera”], 1855)
- “The Snowstorm” (“Метель” [“Metel”], 1856)
- “Two Hussars” (“Два гусара” [“Dva gusara”], 1856)
- “A Morning of a Landed Proprietor” (“Утро помещика”, 1856)
- “Lucerne” (“Люцерн” [“Lyutsern”], 1857)
- “Albert” (“Альберт” [“Al’bert”], 1858)
- “Three Deaths” (“Три смерти” [“Tri smerti”], 1859)
- “The Porcelain Doll” (1863, a letter written with his wife to his wife’s younger sister that is treated by critics as a short story)
- “Polikúshka” (“Поликушка” [“Polikushka”], 1862)
- “God Sees the Truth, But Waits” (“Бог правду видит, да не скоро скажет” [“Bog pravdu vidit, da ne skoro skazhet”], 1872)
- “The Prisoner in the Caucasus” (“Кавказский пленник” [“Kavkazskii plennik”], 1872)
- “The Bear Hunt” (1872)
- “Memoirs of a Madman” (1884)
- “Croesus and Fate” (1886)
- “An Old Acquaintance” (1887)
- “Kholstomer” or “Strider” (“Холстомер”, 1888)
- “A Lost Opportunity” (1889)
- “ Françoise” (“Франсуаза”, 1891, alteration of Guy de Maupassant’s “Port”)
- “A Dialogue Among Clever People” (1892)
- “Walk in the Light While There is Light” (1893)
- “The Coffee-House of Surat” (“Суратская кофейная”, 1893)
- “The Young Tsar” (1894)
- “Master and Man” (“Хозяин и работник” [“Khozyain and rabotnik”], 1895)
- “Too Dear!” (“Дорого стоит” [“Dorogo stoit”], 1897)
- “Father Sergius” (“Отец Сергий” [“Otetz Sergij”], 1898)
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- “Work, Death, and Sickness” (1903)
- “Three Questions” (“Три вопроса” [“Tri voprosa”], 1903)
- “After the Ball” (“После бала” [“Posle bala”], (1903)
- “Posthumous Notes of the Hermit Fëdor Kuzmich” (“Посмертные записки старца Федора Кузьмича”) (Unfinished, 1905, published in 1912)
- “Alyosha the Pot” (“Алёша Горшок” [“Alyosha Gorshok”], 1905)
- “There Are No Guilty People” (1909)
- “Three Days in the Village” (“Три дня в деревне”, non-fictional sketch, 1910)
- “Singing In The Village” (“Песни на деревне”, 1910, written 1909)
- “A Talk With A Wayfarer” (“Разговор с прохожим”, 1910, written 1909)[1]
- “Traveller and Peasant” (“Проезжий и крестьянин”, 1917, written 1909)[2]
- “Khodynka: An Incident of the Coronation of Nicholas II” (“Ходынка”, written 1898, published 1912)
- “My Dream” (“Что я видел во сне”, 1911)
- “Poor People” (“Бедные люди”) (1905)
- Stories that have not been freely (i.e. public domain) translated into English:
- “Divine and Human” (“Божеское и человеческое”, 1906)
- “What For?” (“За что?”, 1906)
- Stories that have not been translated into English:
- “Разжалованный” (1856)
- “Прыжок” (1880)
- “Рассказ Аэронавта” (1880)
- “Корней Васильев” (1906)
- “Ягоды” (1906)
- “Благодарная почва” (1910)
- “Идиллия” (1911, written 1861-62)
- “Кто прав?” (1911, written 1891—1893)
- “Отец Василий” (1911, written 1906)
- “Сон молодого царя” (1912, written 1894)
- “Сила детства” (1912, written 1908)
- “Святочная ночь” (1928, written 1853)
- “Как умирают русские солдаты” (1928, written 1854)
- “Отрывки рассказов из деревенской жизни” (1932, written 1860—1862)
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Fables and parables
- “The Two Horses” (“Две лошади”, 1880) [3]
- “What Men Live By” (“Чем люди живы” [“Chem lyudi zhivy”], 1881)
- “Karma” (“Карма”, 1894)[4]
- “The Two Brothers and the Gold” (Два брата и золото) (1886, written 1885)
- “Ilyás” (“Ильяс”, 1885)
- “Where Love Is, God Is” (“Где любовь, там и бог”, 1885)
- “Evil Allures, But Good Endures” (“Вражье лепко, а божье крепко”, 1885)
- “Wisdom of Children” (“Девчонки умнее стариков”, 1885)
- “Quench the Spark” (“Упустишь огонь, не потушишь” [“Upustish ogon’, ne potushish”], 1885)
- “Two Old Men” (“Два старика”, 1885)
- “The Candle” (“Свечка”, 1886)
- “Ivan the Fool” (“Сказка об дураке”, 1885)
- “The Three Hermits” (“Три Старца”, 1886)
- “Promoting a Devil” (“Как чертёнок краюшку выкупал”, 1886)
- “Repentance” (“Кающийся грешник”, 1886)
- “The Grain” (“Зерно с куриное яйцо”, 1886)
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- “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” (“Много ли человеку земли нужно”, 1886)
- “The Godson” (“Крестник”, 1886)
- “Three Sons” (“Три сына”, 1889, written 1887)[5]
- “The Empty Drum” (“Работник Емельян и пустой барабан”, 1891)
- “Three Parables” (Три притчи) (1895) [6]
- “The Restoration of Hell” (“Разрушение ада и восстановление его”, 1903, written 1902)
- “Esarhaddon, King of Assyria” (“Ассирийский царь Асархадон”, 1903)
- Fables that have not been translated into English:
- “Две различные версии истории улья с лубочной крышкой” (1912, written 1900)
- “Волк” (1909, written 1908)
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Collections
Unfinished
- Prince Fyodor Shchetinin
- [A novel about the time of Peter I] (published 1936)
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