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Thread: Tolstoy short story recommendations?

  1. #1
    dreamer genoveva's Avatar
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    Tolstoy short story recommendations?

    Looking for some recommendations of Leo Tolstoy's short stories. Which ones do you highly recommend? Thanks for your suggestions.
    "I have so often dreamed of you that you become unreal." ~ Robert Desnos

  2. #2
    What's in a name......
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    No story by him will ever disappoint you.
    I very highly recommend ' God Sees The Truth.... But Waits' whosse alternative title is 'The Long Exile'. I really love it.

    If you like it ,you can also go for ' Where Love Is , God Is'.
    I confess both the stories made me cry, specially the first one which is my favorite story by Tolstoy.

    Do tell me how much you like them?
    Existence is not only temporary, it is pointless.

  3. #3
    Two Gun Kid Idril's Avatar
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    Like littlelit said, you really can't go wrong with Tolstoy, just grab a short story collection of his and start reading. However, a few of my favorites are, Kreutzer Sonata, The Devil and Lucerne.
    the luminous grass of the prairie hides
    feet lovely and still as sleeping doves,
    porcelain bones strong enough to carry a life,
    but weighty and unmovable
    As black Dakota hills.
    ~ Riesa

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    If you like it ,you can also go for ' Where Love Is , God Is'.
    I confess both the stories made me cry...


    Me, too. And it made me think about Tolstoy's life-long search for truth and his wrestle with Christianity.

  5. #5
    Kafkaesque johann cruyff's Avatar
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    How Much Land Does a Man need? is great.
    Noću, u intimnom, poluglasnom razgovoru sa samim sobom, nikako ne mogu zapravo logički opravdati zašto se u posljednje vrijeme toliko uzrujavam zbog ljudske gluposti.

    Miroslav Krleža

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    King of Dreams MorpheusSandman's Avatar
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    I have one book of Tolstoy's short stories that's excellent: This is the one. I fell so in love with The Death and Ivan Ilyich and Hadji Murad that I decided to buy the 2-volume Everyman Library version of his Collected Short Fiction which supposedly contains all of his short stories (but I haven't read them yet).

    I'd recommend starting with The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Hadji Murad as well. Another Tolstoy short work that I think is sadly underrated (I never see it mentioned) is The Forged Coupon. Tolstoy follows a wealth of incredibly diverse characters across a narrative all linked by the forging of a coupon. It will take a couple of reads so as to acclimate oneself to the characters, but I think it's one of his best.

    I think you can safely avoid his earlier short works if you really just want to read the best. Of his early stuff I've read The Raid and The Woodfelling and found neither all that interesting - perhaps only from the POV of watching him develop his style.
    "As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being." --Carl Gustav Jung

    "To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists; and may each and every one of us always give the devil his due." --Neil Gaiman; The Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists

    "I'm on my way, from misery to happiness today. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh" --The Proclaimers

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    Registered User Parvez Ahmed's Avatar
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    "Alyosha the Pot" is excellent. It is not so lengthy. Tears are guaranteed.
    ‘Tis nothing in this mundane illusion you dementedly seek,
    Also after death, there’s neither Gehenna nor any golden peak.
    - Parvez Ahmed

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    If you're looking for a terrific message I would recommend "Where love is, God is" and "How much land does a man need?"

    This thread is so old I bet you've read them by now however...

  9. #9
    Registered User horizonrusted's Avatar
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    I agree with all the above and would emphasize the Death of Ivan Ilych, which chilled me to my bones. Family Happiness is an often frustrating (because of its honesty) analysis of relationships.

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    Registered User wordeater's Avatar
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    Novellas:
    The Kreutzer Sonata
    The Death of Ivan Ilyitch

    Short stories:
    How Much Land Does a Man Need?
    Alyosha the Pot
    Ivan the Fool
    The Devil

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