Master and Man

by Leo Tolstoy, Walter Zimmerman (Read by), Louise Maude (Translator), Aylmer Maude (Translator)

Overview

Tolstoy is known primarily for his epic novels like War and Peace and Anna Karenina, but he also wrote a number of excellent short pieces that carry the same kind of themes on a much smaller scale. Two of the best are "Master and Man" and "The Death of Ivan Ilych." In "Master and Man," a land owner named Vasili Andreevich Brekhunov takes along one of his peasants, Nikita, for a short journey to the house of the owner of a forest. He is impatient and wishes to get to the town more quickly to purchase the forest before other contenders can get there. They find themselves in the middle of a blizzard, but the master in his avarice wishes to press on. They eventually get lost off the road and they try to camp. The master's peasant soon finds himself suffering from hypothermia. The master attains a spiritual and moral revelation, and Tolstoy once again repeats one of his famous themes: that the only true happiness in life is found by living for others as the master acts in a way he never thought was possible. The book was translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469259833
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	12/18/2012
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 5.50(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy; 9 September [O.S. 28 August] 1828 - 20 November 1910), usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. He received multiple nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906, and nominations for Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902 and 1910, and the fact that he never won is a major Nobel prize controversy.

Born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828, he is best known for the novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877), often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction. He first achieved literary acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852-1856), and Sevastopol Sketches (1855), based upon his experiences in the Crimean War. Tolstoy's fiction includes dozens of short stories and several novellas such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886), Family Happiness (1859), and Hadji Murad (1912). He also wrote plays and numerous philosophical essays.

In the 1870s Tolstoy experienced a profound moral crisis, followed by what he regarded as an equally profound spiritual awakening, as outlined in his non-fiction work A Confession (1882). His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him to become a fervent Christian anarchist and pacifist. Tolstoy's ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1894), had a profound impact on such pivotal 20th-century figures as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Tolstoy also became a dedicated advocate of Georgism, the economic philosophy of Henry George, which he incorporated into his writing, particularly Resurrection (1899).

Date of Birth:

September 9, 1828

Date of Death:

November 20, 1910

Place of Birth:

Tula Province, Russia

Place of Death:

Astapovo, Russia

Education:

Privately educated by French and German tutors; attended the University of Kazan, 1844-47

Table of Contents

Preface; Introduction; Master and Man; Abbreviations; Notes; Vocabulary.