Works by Leo Tolstoy: list

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

As Pushkin in poetry, so Tolstoy in prose - our everything! And this is despite the fact that Lev Nikolayevich has only five full-fledged novels, only a few dozen stories and one trilogy - “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth . Stories, fairy tales, fables, poems, translations, dramatic works - few know them, which these works do not deserve at all. Perhaps, remembering them more often, many would discover a new Tolstoy.

The originality of the writer's prose, his literary style

What distinguishes the work of Leo Tolstoy is the reflection in it of the originality of the author himself: the coexistence in a single whole of a “spontaneous artist” and a “rational thinker”. This is exactly what researchers of the writer's work have been trying to decompose into atoms for many years. The works of L. N. Tolstoy are a storehouse for their delights. The artistic and philosophical beginning, complete immersion in these two polar styles cause the reader to delight when reading, writers, critics, public figures - an incomprehensible thirstresearch, reasoning and debate.

Some of them suggest the existence of the author in two hypostases, radically opposite and fighting with each other. Already in his first work - "Childhood and Adolescence" - the philosophy of images in its best manifestation reveals to readers the amazing beauty of the prose of such a brilliant writer as Leo Tolstoy. The author's stories and all his other works are created in a unique style that gave him the fame of the greatest Russian writer.

Top 5 works by Leo Tolstoy

Our modernity is moving away from the definition of "The best something" (in our case, "The best books of the writer"), replacing it with the Top 10, Top 100. Let's try to create the Top 10 most read works by Lev Nikolayevich.

Two novels deservedly claim the first place - "Anna Karenina" and "War and Peace". Each of us has our own arguments in favor of one of them, whom we would put on the top line. Bringing them is superfluous, and the dispute can drag on. In our Top Parade, we give the first place to the two of them, and move on to the second.

The novel "Sunday", the trilogy "Childhood. Adolescence. Youth”, the stories “The Kreutzer Sonata”, “Notes of a Madman”, “Morning of the Landowner” – all of them are readable, loved and still in demand by filmmakers and theater directors around the world. If it would be wiser to place the story on the third place, and leave the novel and the trilogy on the second place, then the prize three already has seven of Tolstoy's best works. For the remaining three places in our Top 10, we adequately enter the cycle"Sevastopol Tales", the story "Hadji Murat" and the dramatic work "The Power of Darkness, or the Claw is stuck, the whole bird is abyss."

Of course, our top ten, in which we mentioned the best works of Leo Tolstoy, are just reflections on the topic, but it is also likely that it coincides with the opinion of many readers.

"War and Peace" - who and what about

A rare reader did not wonder, but what, in fact, is the novel about? About the war with Napoleon and the heroism of the Russian army, about the stoic courage and courage of our soldiers, about the honor and dignity of the nobility, or is it about human relations that are tested against the backdrop of difficult events for the state?

Brilliant work, where as the author Leo Tolstoy is inimitable - "War and Peace"! The author seems to invite each reader to find the answer to the question himself: who is interested in the war - the presentation of the main battles contains almost completely reliable historical accuracy, who wants to plunge into the beautiful description of the feelings experienced by the heroes - will definitely find what he is looking for in the novel.

In a work unique in its scale, style, language of presentation, which is the novel "War and Peace", each line is saturated with the main thing - the happiness of ordinary life, in sorrow, in joy. In it, both go in parallel, step by step, hand in hand through all the trials and obstacles. Good, of course, wins, and evil dies defeated.

Did her creator sympathize with Anna Karenina

As in"War and Peace", in "Anna Karenina" there are two polar loves: sublime, pure, sinless, and its antipode - lowly vicious, almost dirty. Tolstoy provokes the reader by interpreting the relationship between Anna and Vronsky in the mouth of "light", allowing him to decide for himself the degree of sublimity or baseness of their feelings. The author tries not to build concrete walls between these definitions, the transition from one state to another is imperceptible: on one line we meet the complete justification of this love, on the other - its general condemnation. And as if shaky, but frequent bridges between these lines - the torment of the main characters, their doubts and the final choice, no matter what.

So what is the author's assessment of his character? Justifies it, sympathizes, regrets, supports? Tolstoy here acts as an irreconcilable moralist - in all his works, criminal love is doomed to a tragic end. The author created his heroine in order to demonstratively kill her as a warning to others. An image that evokes sympathy does not cause so much pain.

"Childhood" as one of the main works of Tolstoy

This story occupies a prominent place in the creative heritage of the writer. Almost the first work, where Leo Tolstoy declared himself as a great author - "Childhood". Not because the reader is exposed to the problems of a little man, inaccessible to the understanding of adults, who sees the world in which he lives in an adult way, feels its unveiled good and evil, sincerity and falsehood. The reader follows Nikolenka through his schoolgrowing up, analyzes him and other people's actions, learns to accept the world as he sees it.

The boy's ability to keenly feel cunning, cunning, his worries about the fact that he sees these unsightly qualities in himself, make the reader look back at his childhood and rethink his actions. You can learn from Nikolenka to love people, not only those with whom he lives, but also those who are friends with him or somehow impressed his childish heart. And the story also teaches how not to destroy this love. The ability to read between the lines will give a lot to those who try to understand this work, as well as the short prose that Leo Tolstoy wrote - stories.

Themes of Lev Nikolayevich's stories

About wildlife and defenseless animals, about smart children and wise adults. He does not have many stories, this list contains only four dozen works, most of which, as already mentioned, are unfamiliar to a wide range of readers. Slightly more fortunate were such types of short fiction from Tolstoy's legacy as "After the Ball", "Jump", "False Coupon", "The Power of Childhood", "Conversation with a Passerby", and, of course, the Sevastopol Tales cycle.

A noticeable intensity in writing stories is observed from 1905 to 1909 - the last years in the life of Lev Nikolaevich, he died, as you know, in 1910. A huge period of his life was devoted to other genres of literature, in which there was simply no place for stories. Stories for children, which are worth talking about separately, since the world of these works is striking in its depths, subtlethe transfer of the child's impressions of the problems of life, explain the formation of his personality. This theme is also reflected in such a genre as the fables of Leo Tolstoy.

Stories about and for children

Prose for children and about themselves takes a prominent place in the writer's work. Trilogy Childhood. Adolescence. Youth”Tolstoy did not limit attempts to know in what ways a person’s personality is formed from birth to his entry into adulthood. The stories “Three Bears”, “How Uncle Semyon told about what happened to him in the forest” and “Cow”, included in the collection “New ABC”, are imbued with love for children and compassion for their little problems. The works of Leo Tolstoy are rich in reflections on children.

The story "Philippok" was born after the writer's careful observation of peasant children and ingenuous communication with them. Lev Nikolaevich always found time for the peasants, he even opened a school for their children on his estate. And one of the first stories that can be attributed to children's is a small work about the dog Bulka, her aching devotion to the only close creature - her master. Until his death, Leo Tolstoy recalled his own childhood and how he wanted to find a “green stick” that would help him make everyone on earth happy.

The place of fables and fairy tales in Tolstoy's work

As well as the prose of Ivan Andreevich Krylov, we remember from childhood and lessons in native speech, so do the moralizing fables of Leo Tolstoy, saturated with subtle morality.

• Wolf andold man.”
• "The lion and the dog".
• "Crane and stork".
• "The head and tail of the snake."
• "Ferret".
• "The dog and its shadow."
• "Monkey and peas".
• "Squirrel and Wolf".
• "Lion, donkey and fox".
• "Lion and Mouse".

This is only a small fraction of the famous fables that fill up the great works of Leo Tolstoy, which we love. Through fables, he ridiculed what he could hardly explain in people, and what was unacceptable for himself: deceit and cunning, malice and hatred, meanness and betrayal. The opposite features were shown in his prose at times unprotected, open to attack, and therefore even more endearing. Tolstoy seemed to believe that in works for children, and he wrote his fables more for them, there is no place to justify vile deeds, it is necessary to explain in an accessible and simple way what is “good” and what is “bad”. And he always believed that children are quite smart and understand subtle morality much closer to the truth than adults.

The confrontation between love and duty is a distinctive feature of Tolstoy's characters

The genius that Leo Tolstoy created in his life - "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", his stories, fables, fairy tales and stories, reflected primarily his own morality. He transferred to paper his religious dogmas, his spiritual throwing and doubts, his convictions and endowed them with the characters he sympathized with. In some of his works there was not even light humor, and each phrase in them was strictlyverified, thoroughly thought out. He often rewrote what had already been published in magazines, deducing the ideal character, in his opinion.

The image of Konstantin Levin in Anna Karenina, with his painful love for Kitty and a sense of duty towards his convictions, stands before us as a bright personality. Inimitable and majestic is Pierre Bezukhov from War and Peace, Nikolai Rostov, who assumed the debts of his father and did not take a penny from the dowry of his wife, Princess Bolkonskaya, to pay them off. Many of his characters go through the torment of desires and real deeds. The author passes them through psychological tests and brings them out even stronger and worthy of respect. Such was the writer's own world, and Leo Tolstoy left it to us. Works for children - stories, fairy tales, fables, for adults - novels, stories, dramaturgy. With them, he is so close and dear to us.