Aylmer Maude

Eschewing the "great man" theory of history, Tolstoy shows how events are determined by large numbers of people whose actions coalesce at any moment in history to determine the course of events. Arguing that the closer people are to a situation the more they believe they have exercised free will, and the farther away people are from that situation the more they realize that their actions were already determined by past events, Tolstoy demonstrates...

Written over a period of more than half a century, these stories reflect every aspect of Tolstoy's art and personality. They cover his experiences as a solder in the Caucasus, his married life, his passionate interest in the peasantry, his cult of truth and simplicity, and, above all, his growing preoccupation with religion. Ranging in scope from mini-novels like The Kreutzer Sonata and Hadji Murad to tiny folktales a few pages long, they provide...