"After the Ball" by Leo Tolstoy (1903, translated by Richard Peaver and Larissa Volokhonsky, 2009)

My Posts on Tolstoy

Over the last five years I have posted on several short stories and the major novels of Leo Tolstoy (1828 to 1910).  This morning I was looking for a "change of pace" short story and I looked over a collection of recently translated Tolstoy short works, Ivan Ilyich and other Stories and decided to read one of the briefer works in the collection, "After the Ball".  Like a lot of older short stories it is structured as one man telling a story about his life to another person or group.  The story is at the heart  about the dual nature of people.

The story begins with a man in his fifties telling a story about a day when his views of people and his life totally changed forever.  It was thirty years ago, he was a handsome young army officer.  He meets a beautiful young woman at a ball, very well described, falls in love with her and at once wants to marry her.  He meets her father, a kindly old man who he likes at once and who takes to him.  (Spoiler alert)

The next day he sees a Tarter "running the gauntlet" for having tried to escape military service.  He is being dragged through a double sided line of members of his regiment each of whom beats him on his bare back with a whip as he passes.  The young man is horrified to see the man who he thought would be his future father-in-law leading the punishment drill, actually hitting a soldier in the face with a whip for not striking the man hard enough.  The older man, a colonel in the Russian army, sees in the shock on his possible son-in-law's face less of a man than he wants for his daughter and other man sees brutality and cruelty in a man he was ready to call his father.  The marriage never happens.  

"After the Ball" is very much worth reading.  I guess it should not be surprising that the one world's greatest novelists could write wonderful short stories.

Mel u

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 1869

My Posts on Tolstoy

Yesterday I completed my third read of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.  I first read it about forty years ago, and prior to yesterday I completed it on February 25, 2009.   As I finished it yesterday I wondered if I will complete it for a forth time.  

War and Peace is the consensus choice among list makers as the best novel ever written.  Adding my voice to this, I would only say if it is not then there is nothing that clearly deserves that title. It is not a difficult or obscure work,  the only obstacle it presents to some potential readers is the length.  I would suggest you try to read it through in a week or so if possible.  Many say that Tolstoy gets better as you get older.  My experience confirms this.  

I decided not to recast any of the plot,the themes etc.  if you need this information for school to avoid reading the book, check Wikipedia.  

"Alyosha the Pot" by Leo Tolstoy (1905, TRANSLATED BY RICHARD PEVEAR AND LARISSA VOLOKHONSKY)

In his very interesting introduction to The Death of Ivan Illyich and other Stories by Leo Tolstoy, Richard Pevear says that there might be a typical Chekhov or O. Henry Store (fill in your own authors) but there is no way a typical Tolstoy short story.  It is not hard to guess that the author of the cosensus world's greatest novel could write a wonderful shorter work.  The stories in The Death of Ivan Illyich and other Stories by Leo Tolstoy are very different from each other.   Some are highly sophisticated technically innovative works and some, like "Alyosa the Pot"  are near folk tales in their feel. 

The figure of the "holy fool" is important in Russian literature and culture.   Pevear  says this story is based on what we would now see as a mentally challenged serf who was part of Tolstoy's estate.  The father of Alyosa beeches the master to take on Alyosa as house servant, saying he will do all work without complaint.  He says if he ever causes any problems he will personally beat him into total submission.  Alyosa turns out to be a perfect servant.  Serfs were close to slaves.  He loves his master and lives to do any job he is given.  He is an adult and he begins to have a purely chaste romance with a serving woman.  He approaches his master with a request to marry.   The master calls in Alyosa's father and tells him to tell his son to forget the girl and tell him he is forbidden to marry.  Alyosa accepts this directive and tells the woman that their master knows best and looks out for them and goes on being the perfect house serf until he falls of the roof and dies.  

The story is small work of perfect marriage of form and content.  It carries a deep message about the meaning of being a serf, about slave societies.  I will read, I hope, by year end 2014, all the eleven works in the collection.  

 

Two Short Stories in Honor of Christmas in The Russian Orthodox Church

"A Russian Christmas Party" by Leo Tolstoy (1880, 12 pages)
"At Christmas Time" by Anton Chekhov  (1904, 5 pages)

In Honor of Eastern Orthodox Christmas Observations

Christmas Stories  by Two Russian Masters

My guess is that if you did a survey as to why the birth of Jesus is observed on December 25 most would give the obvious answer that it was because that is the day on which he was born.  In historical fact it is celebrated on that day because in the fourth century church leaders picked that date because it is nine months after the Roman winter solstice.   I wondered why Christmas was observed by Ethiopian, Latvian, and Russian Orthodox Churches on January 6 or 7th rather than December 25.  A bit of research found the answer for me.  In 45 BC the Roman Empire adopted the Julian Calender and until 1582 when a degree by Pope Gregory VIII adopted a new calender it set the date for Christmas as Jan 6 or 7.   It appears the Julian Calender was 11 minutes off in the times from one vernal equinox to the next.  Easter was set in conjunction with the vernal equinox so this was causing instability in the liturgical calender.    By 1758 the Julian Calender set Easter 10 days ahead based on synchronizing it with the vernal equinox.  So it was mandated that the Calender be moved back by ten days. Eastern Orthodox churches  which had early split from the Catholic Church did not adopt the Gregorian calender for liturgical purposes (though everyone uses it for practical reasons) so Christmas kept as  was Jan 6 to the 7th in the mind of believers in the various Eastern Orthodox churches.   This was and still is a matter of great importance to strict followers of the doctrines of the Eastern Orthodox Christian faiths.  And this is why lots of people celebrate Christmas (Christ's Mass) on Jan 6 or 7th.  

Anton Chekhov (1860 to 1904) has the undisputed title of World's Greatest Short Story Writer, with about 600 in his oeuvre.   "At Christmas Time" is not one of his more famous story but it is very much a typical Chekhov short story and is a wonderful work of art.    It is set in a small village.  An older married couple are talking about their only child, a daughter.  She married a soldier and he took her away and they have not heard anything about or from her for many years.  They do not even know if they have grandchildren or not. This very moving story is about what happens when they hire the village scribe to send a series of ten letters to her daughter and her husband, they do know where she lives at least.  The story shows the consequences for the parents as well as for the daughter and son-in-law.  In just a very few pages Chekhov compresses many years.  

Leo Tolstoy (1828 to 1910) is universally considered the greatest novelist of all times.  He also wrote a lot of  very good short stories.    "A Russian Christmas Party" is about just like what it sounds like it would be.  It is a realistic slice of life showing the events, people and activities at a country Christmas party among what seem to be lower gentry provincial Russia.  I left this story feeling like I had been to the party.  Sometimes I think the only reason Tolstoy's work is not listed in greatest of all short story lists is that people are overpowered by the reading of his great novels and do not proceed on to his shorter works.

You can read the Chekhov story here

You can read Tolstoy's story here

This month on The Short Story Initiative hosted by Nancy C of A Simple Clockwork the theme is Russian short stories.  This post is part of that event.  

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

YES!!!

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1877, 817 pages, trans. by Richard Peaver and Larissa Volokhonsky)

NO!!!

To me doing a blog post in which I would praise Anna Karenina as a great novel is pretty much like doing a travel post on India in which you say the Taj Mahal is a pretty building.  I first read AK about forty years ago.    I read it a second time this week.   I think my memories of the novel comes at least as much from having seen the Greta Garbo, 1935, movie several times.  

Perfect!

I think the only reason that AK is not included in ten best  novels in the world lists more often is that it does not seem fair to list makers (or interesting to their audience) that the same author should have two books in the list.   (It has been four years since I read War and Peace and I hope to reread it soon.)  

Disco Fever?  

I think the best way, if you have the time, is to read one or two of the eight sections every day, saving the short last section to be read last on a separate day.   There are only about ten really central characters so you can keep them straight and the translators have a cast list in front.   I knew the basic plot action of  the book but still I was in great suspense while reading.    I found the scene where Anna and Vronsky first consummated their relationship incredibly shocking and powerful, much more erotic than the most graphic best seller.

This is just, to me, a perfect work of art.   I would say that I think Tolstoy gets better the older one gets.  If you are or were ever married, I think you will find yourself evaluating your marriage.

"I could play  Anna"
Carmilla

Please share your experience with the book or the movies with us.

Mel u

"God Sees the Truth But Waits" by Leo Tolstoy

"God Sees the Truth But Waits" by Leo Tolstoy (1889, 10 pages, translated by Constance Garnett)

Since my blog began in July 2009 I have read and posted on four minor works by Leo Tolstoy (1828 to 1910-Russia).    Tolstoy is the world's greatest novelist.   This is the value judgement of the literary world.    In addition to his huge novels he also wrote a number of parable like short stories such as "Ivan the Fool" and "Papa Panov's Special Christmas"    You are depriving your self of a real pleasure and passing up on some strong does of sublime wisdom if you never read the short stories of Tolstoy.


How can one really not be drawn to read a short story titled "God Sees The Truth But Waits"?    Admittedly this is not the title a writer with a weak ego gives to one of his works but this reads like something out of the wisdom books of the one the world's great religions.


The plot is simple.   It shows Tolstoy had a deep empathy for the huge masses of poor in late Czarist Russia and a fervent desire for social justice.   The central character in the story is a simple working man (maybe Tolstoy does romanticise the peasants and Maxim Gorky is your corrective force here) with a wife and children.    He is framed for a robbery and murder.   A bloody knife is planted on him and his hands are smeared in blood when he is found by the police.   He even has a small bit of money from the wallet of the victim in his pocket.   To compress a bit,  the story skips 25 years ahead  to a Siberian prison camp where the man is now aged way beyond his years.    A new set of prisoners arrives and one of them is from home town.   He asks the man of news of his family.   It turns out they have prospered and he is not even remembered by his children.   To tell the story a bit, it turns out the man is the one who really was the murderer and who framed him years ago.   He tells this story in a boasting way to other prisoners when they give their histories.   He has no idea that his victim is there.    


The action of the story moves forward rapidly from this point and I will leave it untold.  


You can read the story online here if you like.


Mel u

"Papa Panov's Special Christmas" by Leo Tolstoy

"Papa Panov's Special Christmas" by Leo Tolstoy  (1890?, 16 pages)

In observation of Christmas, I want to post on  , Leo Tolstoy's retelling of a French Christmas fable, "Papa Panov's Special Christmas".   The origins of this story are a little vague to me.  I have not so far been able to find when it was first published (I am assuming about is in his latter years from the style and subject matter so I guess 1890.  If you know, please leave a comment or e mail me.)   It seems like it was either originally written by a French evangelical Christian, Ruben Saillens (1855 to 1942) or he recording a folk tale.   Tolstoy translated the story from French to Russian and reshaped it considerably.    It reads much more like "Ivan the Fool" than War and Peace.   


"Papa Panov's Special Christmas"  is the perfect "meaning of Christmas story".   It is not especially original (it is a retelling of a folk story one way or another) and the point it makes has been made many places but I think no one has made it more movingly and the fact that the world's greatest novelist wrote it simply adds to its power, like it or not.  I will supply a link where you can read it in just a few minutes if you like so I will just give the outlines of "Papa Panov's Special Christmas" .

Papa Panov is a widower.   He has grown children who live far away and he rarely sees them.   He is doing OK with his shoe business, making and repairing them for local people.   He is not miserable or suffering but somehow the spirit went out of his life when he lost his wife.   It is Christmas day.   He steps outside his house into the village street.   He hears happy children laughing and smells Christmas meals being prepared and he feels sad and lonely and wished for the old days when he had a happy family.   Papa Panov goes back inside and sits in his easy chair.   He does not read very much today he takes out the family bible.   He reads the story of Joseph and Mary when they could find no room at the Inn.   He says he wishes he could have been there to give them shelter.    He wonders what gift he could have given the new born Jesus to compete with the gifts of the three wise men.   Then he recalls he still has the best pair of shoes he ever made, baby shoes his daughter had worn.   He says he would give Jesus the shoes.  

Even in translation these lines are very moving.

"Suddenly he heard a voice in the room. He sat up startled but could not see who was there. "Papa Panov" said the voice "You wished that I should visit you and that you could give me a gift. Look out for me in the street tomorrow and I will come."  

Papa Panov rubbed his eyes, the fire had burned low and bells were ringing to say that Christmas had come. "It was him" said Papa Panov "or perhaps it was a dream, no matter, I will watch for him, but I don't know how I will recognise him."

He did not go to bed that night but made up the fire and sat waiting for the dawn so he would not miss anyone. At last he saw a figure in the distance, he was very excited, perhaps this was Jesus coming to see him. Then he stepped back disappointed, it was the road sweeper, he had better things to do than watch the road sweeper. He looked again and saw the road sweeper rubbing his hands together and stamping his feet. Papa Panov felt sorry, the road sweeper did look cold and imagine having to work on Christmas Day. Papa Panov went to his door and called him. "Come and have a cup of coffee and warm yourself by the fire", the road sweeper gratefully accepted. As he drank s his coffee Papa Panov told the road sweeper how he was waiting for Jesus to visit, the road sweeper wished him the best of luck, thanked him for the coffee and went on his way."

He goes back to waiting for Jesus to appear.   He begins to think maybe it was just a wishful dream of a lonely old man.   Then he sees two women travelling alone with a babies, looking very poor and distraught.

"He watched carefully as he saw two people approach. Then he saw they were two young ladies, each with a small baby, both babies were crying. Papa Panov remembered when his children had been babies and asked the ladies if he could help them, the mothers explained how they had to travel to see their family, but one baby was hungry and the other had lost her shoes and they still had such a long way to go. Papa Panov invited them in to rest. As he warmed some milk on his stove for the babies he told the mothers about his dream, if it was a dream. Then he had a thought, he tried to ignore it but it kept coming back, so he lifted the special pair of shoes from the box and tried them on the baby, they fitted perfectly. "I hope your dream does come true" said one of the mothers as they left "You deserve it for being so kind"


I will let you read the rest of the story.   The ending is not hard to predict but if you open yourself up I think you might be very moved by this simple story of deep wisdom and compassion.

This story is sentimental and some may say it is almost schmaltzy and that it more a fable than a short story to which I can only say yes there is truth in this.   But it seems a deeply felt very wise story to me.   If you have never any Tolstoy, read this and now you have!

You can read the story HERE.
Mel u

Hadji Murat by Leo Tolstoy

Hadji Murat by Leo Tolstoy (1912, 212 pages, with introduction)

Leo Tolstoy's Last Work

Hadji Murat was Leo Tolstoy's (1828 to 1910-Russian) last work.   It was published posthumously.   Since I began my blog in July 2009, I have posted on two of his shorter works of fiction, "How Much Land Does a Man Need" and "Ivan the Fool".   (There is some background information on Tolstoy in my prior posts on him.)

I think it is hard to read the secondary fiction of Tolstoy without having in your mind his big books, War and Peace and Anna Karenina.   To those new to Tolstoy, I would say go for it and first read War and Peace and then Anna Karenina.   (I just saw a commercial for the Greta Garbo Anna Karenina movie.  It is a great movie but try to read the book before you see it as Garbo is so great as Anna you will not be able to see Anna any other way.)

As the translators of this work (Kyril Zinovieff and Jenny Hughes) say in their very well done introduction the basic story line sounds like something we might hear on CNN.   Political leaders in the Georgia area rebel against Russian overlords.    The plot is about the life and leadership of one of the Caucasian  leaders, Hadji Murat.

I found the plot really interesting and there are lot of great details that bring the story to life for us.   Murat is forced to side with the Russians when they take his family hostage.   I will leave the plot unspoiled but there is a good retelling of it here for those needing homework help .  

I was sent a complementary copy of this very well produced book by the publisher, One World Classics.   I extend to them by thanks for this.   

I think this book would be good background reading for anyone interested in the history of the region.  


The introduction does a good job of explaining the political history of the region.   There is also about a twenty page article on the life and work of Tolstoy at the end of the book.  The publisher and translators have done a good job with the extra materials.   


Mel u

"Ivan the Fool" by Leo Tolstoy

"Ivan the Fool" by Leo Tolstoy  (1886, 35 pages)

A Comic Parable 

My Posts on Russian Literature

"Ivan the Fool" by Leo Tolstoy is the final story in One World Classics Why the Two Ivans Quarrelled by Nikolai Gogol and other Comics Russian Stories.  So far I have posted on stories by Ivan Krylov and Mikhal Saltykov.   I enjoyed both of these writers and reading them helped expand my understanding of 19th century Russian literature.   (I will soon post on the lead story in the collection.)

Leo Tolstoy (1828 to 1910-Russia) in addition to War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877)  wrote a number of parable and fairy tale like short stories expressing his religious faith and his social beliefs.     The two most famous of these stories are "Ivan the Fool" and "How Much Land Does a Man Need" (my review of this story can be found here).

"Ivan the Fool" expresses Tolstoy's disdain for the Russian social system and his belief in the intrinsic goodness of the Russian peasant and the sanctity of manual labor.    It is also an expression of his understanding of the duties of a Christian toward others.   It is also a use of the "holy fool" tradition that was a strong part of  Russian culture.

The plot is simple.   An old devil sees three brothers who get along well and have divided up the estate of their father without quarrelling.     One brother is a soldier, one a business man, and the third is a simple man that works the fields with his own hands.   They have a deaf mute sister but she does not play a large part in the story.    (Maybe her being a deaf mute is somehow a symbolic representation of the weak state of women in Russian society but I will let that question go.)

The old devil decided to see if he can ruin the lives of the three brothers.  He sends three imps after each of the brothers.   Two of the brothers are easy prey because of their greed and vanity.   Ivan the fool with his simplicity, honesty, and directness gets the better of his imp.   The great fun of this story is seeing how the imps do get the better of two of the brothers but defeat by Ivan.   I will leave the rest of  the plot untold.

"Ivan the Fool" is pushing a social agenda and Tolstoy had by now come to not belief in art for its own sake.   In essence it is telling us that all of the real work of Russia is done by her peasants who carry on their backs a giant superstructure of parasites.

I think even if Tolstoy wrote only his parables and short stories he would still have readers.   In talking about the merits and the worth reading index of works like "Ivan the Fool" and "How Much Land Does a Man Need" one has to fight the impulse just to say "Hey look the world's greatest novelist wrote these stories so go read them already".

I really liked "Ivan the Fool".   It would not be a bad introduction to Tolstoy for those who have not read him yet.

Guy Daniels translated this story.   It is very well written and a very enjoyable read.

In the interest of full disclosure, I was sent  by the publisher a free copy of this and other books.     I have begun to read his Hadji Murat and hopefully will post on that soon.

What is your experience with the lesser known works of Tolstoy?

Mel u

"How Much Land Does A Man Need" by Leo Tolstoy Debut Publication of Calypso Editions

"How Much Land Does a Man Need" by Leo Tolstoy (1886, translated by Boris Dralyuk, 2010, Calypso Editions)

Tolstoy at 20

Not long ago Calypso Publishing  invited me to a reception to celebrate the publication of their first book, How Much Land Does A Man Need, a translation of  the Tolstoy (1828 to 1910) story by Boris Dralyuk.


When I read the mission statement of Calypso Publishing I was reminded somehow of Virginia and Leonard Woolf working at Hogarth Press, producing books notable not only for their content but books that are works of art themselves.  


Calypso Editions is an artist-run, cooperative press dedicated to publishing quality literary books of poetry and fiction with a global perspective. We believe that literature is essential to building an international community of readers and writers and that books can serve as a physical artifact of beauty and wonder in a world of digital saturation.


When I advised them I could not come they kindly  offered to send me an e-book.     The translator, Boris Dralyuk studies Russian Language and literature at UCLA.     In his well written very informative introduction to the work Brian Evenson places the story in the context of the work and life of Tolstoy and in the tradition of  folk tales and fables.    "How Much Land Does A Man Need" was written seventeen  years after War and Peace and nine years after Anna Karenina.      I do not have the ability to say if this is a good translation or not but I did read in addition to this translation an old now in the public domain translation and Dralyuk's version was much better written and more direct.     There is also a Russian text of the work and that makes the book a great class room or language learning tool.


Fables go way back to the very start of literature.    Much of the wisdom of world has been transmitted down the ages in fables and fairy tales.    Speaking in a purely secular fashion, the great religious texts of the world can be seen a collections of fables.    In a fable the characters represent types or are used to teach a moral lesson.    This is what Tolstoy does in "How Much Land Does a Man Need" but he brings the characters to life.   I felt I was walking the land and enjoying the company of  tribal peoples while feeling concern for what was going to happen to our lead character.    Unlike in a simple Fable, the characters are real people with great details that make us feel we know them.   James Joyce  said it was "the greatest story that the literature of the world knows".   I really felt like I was there.    As we are meant to, I wondered what I would do were I the main character of this story.    


"How Much Land Does a Man Need" has the power to make us rethink our values and our lives.   I commend Calypso Editions for this great first publication and expect great things from them.


Their webpage is here

Mel u