Tolstoy's Short Fiction (Norton Critical Editions) - Softcover

Leo Tolstoyâ s short works, like his novels, show readers his narrative genius, keen observation, and historical acumenâ albeit on a smaller scale.

This Norton Critical Edition presents twelve of Tolstoyâ s best-known stories, based on the Louise and Aylmer Maude translations (except â Alyosha Gorshokâ ), which have been revised by the editor for enhanced comprehension and annotated for student readers. The Second Edition newly includes â A Prisoner in the Caucasus,â â Father Sergius,â and â After the Ball,â in addition to Michael Katzâ s new translation of â Alyosha Gorshok.â Together these stories represent the best of the authorâ s short fiction before War and Peace and after Anna Karenina.

â Backgrounds and Sourcesâ includes two Tolstoy memoirs, A History of Yesterday (1851) and The Memoirs of a Madman (1884), as well as entriesâ expanded in the Second Editionâ from Tolstoyâ s â Diary for 1855â and selected letters (1858â 95) that shed light on the authorâ s creative process.

â Criticismâ collects twenty-three essays by Russian and western scholars, six of which are new to this Second Edition. Interpretations focus both on Tolstoyâ s 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 Tolstoyâ s life and work and an updated Selected Bibliography are also included.