Product Description

Leo Tolstoys short works, like his novels, show readers his narrative genius, keen observation, and historical acumenalbeit on a smaller scale. This Norton Critical Edition presents twelve of Tolstoys best-known stories, based on the Louise and Aylmer Maude translations (except Alyosha Gorshok), which have been revised by the editor for enhanced comprehension and annotated for student readers. The Second Edition newly includes A Prisoner in the Caucasus, Father Sergius, and After the Ball, in addition to Michael Katzs new translation of Alyosha Gorshok. Together these stories represent the best of the authors short fiction before and after . Backgrounds and Sources includes two Tolstoy memoirs, (1851) and (1884), as well as entriesexpanded in the Second Editionfrom Tolstoys Diary for 1855 and selected letters (185895) that shed light on the authors creative process.Criticism collects twenty-three essays by Russian and western scholars, six of which are new to this Second Edition. Interpretations focus both on Tolstoys language and art and on specific themes and motifs in individual stories. Contributors include John M. Kopper, Gary Saul Morson, N. G. Chernyshevsky, Mikhail Bakhtin, Harsha Ram, John Bayley, Vladimir Nabokov, Ruth Rischin, Margaret Ziolkowski, and Donald Barthelme.A Chronology of Tolstoys life and work and an updated Selected Bibliography are also included.