Showing results by author "Leo Tolstoy" in All Categories

As this stranger comes to live and work with the cobbler and his family, he learns the foundations of humanity and love. As a witness to several different encounters with this family, he begins to understand that man’s very existence and continued survival depends on love. Tolstoy brings the beauty of Christ’s wisdom and love to this simple story of generosity and good will. This work inspires true reflection into love’s role in life and even more so into God’s role in the lives of all men.

In the story, 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.

La novela se desarrolla en la Rusia de los Zares, donde Ana Karenina, una hermosa mujer casada con un poderoso ministro del gobierno ruso, se enamora de un apuesto y rico oficial del ejército, el Conde Vronsky. Buscando la felicidad y desafiando las reglas y normas de la sociedad rusa, Ana Karenina, abandona su esposo e hijo para vivir con su amante, con devastadores resultados.

The Gospel in Brief is a 1902 synthesis of the four gospels of the New Testament into one narrative of the life of Jesus by Russian author Leo Tolstoy. The work focuses on Jesus's teachings to his followers, presumably those which Tolstoy found most compelling. The Gospel in Brief is thought by some to be deeply reflective of Tolstoy's own interpretation of Christianity. The account presented in Tolstoy's gospel is also notable in its sharp contrast with the contemporaneous views of the Russian Orthodox Church. 

本有声书取材于真实事件，描写男主人公聂赫留朵夫引诱姑妈家女仆玛丝洛娃，使她怀孕并被赶出家门。后来，她沦为妓女，因被指控谋财害命而受审判…… 本有聲書取材於真實事件，描寫男主人公聶赫留朵夫引誘姑媽家女僕瑪絲洛娃，使她懷孕並被趕出家門。後來，她淪為妓女，因被指控謀財害命而受審判……

Master and Man, one of Tolstoy’s greatest short stories, explores the topics of sacrifice, selfish ambition, and human mortality. This novella follows the journey of a merchant named Brekhunov who sets out to purchase a new piece of property, spurred on by a fear that someone else will buy the land before he arrives. Tolstoy masterfully calls attention to the importance of putting others first and focusing on eternity, rather than pursuing temporary and selfish objectives.

In the town of Surat, in India, was a coffeehouse where many travellers and foreigners from all parts of the world met and conversed. One day a learned Persian theologian visited this coffeehouse. He was a man who had spent his life studying the nature of the deity and reading and writing books upon the subject. He had thought, read, and written so much about God that eventually he lost his wits, became quite confused and ceased even to believe in the existence of a god. Read in English, unabridged.

Krieg und Frieden - Zweites Buch. 1806-1811. Pierre schließt sich der Loge der Freimaurer an. Andrej verliert seine junge Frau bei der Geburt des Sohnes. Er schöpft neuen Lebensmut, als er auf die bezaubernde Natascha Rostowa trifft, und verlobt sich mit ihr. Doch Natascha bändelt mit dem Blender Anatol Kuragin an. Andrej kann ihr nicht verzeihen.

Dissolute, disenchanted Dmitri Olénin decides to join the army as a cadet and is despatched to the Caucasus. There, he is transformed by seeing how the indigenous people live in harmony with nature, how their lives have more meaning than those of the superficial social elite in Moscow, and he finds a new sense of self and purpose. But nothing is ever quite that simple.

Love and loyalty are tested to the very limits in this semi-autobiographical novella, which is one of Tolstoy’s best-loved works.

Una de las mas impresionantes caracteristicas de la obra de Tolstoy es su capacidad para hacer un profundo estudio psicologico de sus personajes. En Ana Karenina, que con Guerra y paz conforma el duo de monumentos que el gran escritor ruso lego a la literatura universal, Tolstoy no usa el horizonte epico sino situaciones domesticas para crear una novela que es casi un poema.

Leo Tolstoy began his trilogy Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth in his early twenties. Although he would in his old age famously dismiss it as an ‘awkward mixture of fact and fiction’, generations of readers and listeners have not agreed, finding the series to be a charming and insightful portrait of inner growth against the background of a world limned with extraordinary clarity, grace and color.

Where Love Is There God Is Also is a classic short story by Leo Tolstoy in the late 19th century. The title references the Catholic hymn Ubi Caritas.

A guard had stepped back into the path of a train and been crushed beneath the wheels. He had been killed instantly. When Anna Karenina arrives at the scene of the horrible accident, it is the beginning of a new and troubling time in her life. Will she ever find happiness with the man she loves? Anna's sister-in-law, Darya Oblonsky, is threatening to leave her selfish husband. Is Anna able to save their marriage?

Martin is an old cobbler with a good trade, but he has had a hard life. His soul is now embittered against God. When he hears a mysterious voice calling him in the middle of the night, his soul seems to lighten and awaken to answer the call.

Anna Karenina has been described as the perfect Russian novel. Trapped in a loveless marriage, Anna Karenina is defenseless against the power of her passions once they are unleashed by the adoration of Count Vronsky. Having defied the rules of 19th century Russian society, Anna is forced to pay a heavy price. Human nature, with all its failings, is the fabric of which this great and passionate work is composed.

For an atheist it’s a great deal, though it does suggest atheism may have a weak point. For those of faith it’s a matter of jam now and purgatory tomorrow. A bargain many artists feel is something they can live with. For agnostics it’s usually a question of can the afterlife really be that bad, would workplace regulations reach all parts of heaven and hell. However, in this volume the terms are agreed and the Devil pays his fees and the character his dues, each happy to wait a few decades for the eternal payback.

Part 7: While visiting Moscow for Kitty's confinement, Kostya quickly gets used to the city's fast-paced, expensive and frivolous society life. He accompanies Stiva to a gentleman's club, where the two meet Vronsky. Kostya and Stiva pay a visit to Anna, who is occupying her empty days by being a patroness to an orphaned English girl. Kostya is initially uneasy about the visit, but Anna easily puts him under her spell. When he admits to Kitty that he has visited Anna, she accuses him of falling in love with her.

Mental illness though can still carry a stigma. A case of ‘you’re not trying hard enough’, ‘or knuckling down and getting on with it’. But in more recent decades mental issues have come to be recognised as an illness, a disease rather than an affliction. We all remember horror stories of lobotomy’s and electric shock being used to ‘cure’ what society viewed as anti-social behaviour but illness, mental or physical is very real. Depression, schizophrenia, breakdown, psychosis are alarming events to have or to witness.

The heroine of Tolstoy's epic of love and self-destruction, Anna Karenina has beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son, but feels that her life is empty until she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky. Their subsequent affair scandalizes society and family alike, and brings jealousy and bitterness in its wake. Contrasting with this is the vividly observed story of Levin, a man striving to find contentment and a meaning to his life - and also a self-portrait of Tolstoy himself.

In 1851 Leo Tolstoy enlisted in the Russian army and was sent to the Caucasus to help defeat the Chechens. During this war a great Avar chieftain, Hadji Murád, broke with the Chechen leader Shamil and fled to the Russians for safety. Months later, while attempting to rescue his family from Shamil’s prison, Hadji Murád was pursued by those he had betrayed and, after fighting the most heroic battle of his life, was killed.