Like Pushkin in poetry, so Tolstoy in prose is our everything! And this despite the fact that Lev Nikolaevich has only five full-fledged novels, only a few dozen stories and one trilogy - “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth". Stories, tales, fables, poems, translations, dramatic works - few know them, which these works absolutely do not deserve. Perhaps, recalling them more often, many would discover a new Tolstoy.
Originality of the prose of the writer, his literary style
What distinguishes the work of Leo Tolstoy is a reflection of the originality of the author himself: the coexistence 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 over the years. The works of L. N. Tolstoy - a storehouse for their delights. The artistic and philosophical beginning, the complete immersion in these two polar styles, arouse the reader's delight in reading, and the writers, critics, public figures - the incomprehensible thirst for research, reasoning and debate.
Some of them suggest the existence of the author in two forms, radically opposed and fighting among themselves. Already in his first work, “Childhood and Adolescence,” the philosophy of images at its best reveals to readers the amazingly beautiful prose of such a brilliant writer as Leo Tolstoy. The author’s stories and all his other works are created in a unique style, which gave him the glory of the greatest Russian writer.
Top 5 works of Leo Tolstoy
Our modernity departs from the definition of "The Best Something" (in our case, "The Best Books of a Writer"), replacing it with the Top 10, Top 100. Let's try to create the Top 10 most read works of Lev Nikolaevich.
Two novels deservedly claim first place - Anna Karenina and War and Peace. Each of us has its own arguments in favor of one of them, whom we would raise to the top line. Bringing them is superfluous, and the argument 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 novels“ The Kreutzer Sonata ”,“ Notes of a Crazy Man ”,“ Morning of the Landowner ”- they are all readable, loved and still in demand by filmmakers and theater directors all over the world. If it is more reasonable to determine the story in the third, and leave the novel and trilogy in the second, then the prize troika already includes the seven best works of Tolstoy. For the remaining three places in our Top-10, we worthily fit the cycle “Sevastopol Tales”, the story “Hadji Murat” and the dramatic work “The Power of Darkness, or Claw Cliffs, Bound to the Whole of a Bird”.
Of course, our ten, in which we mentioned the best works of L. N. Tolstoy, are just reflections on the topic, but it is also likely to coincide with the opinion of many readers.
“War and Peace” - about whom and about what
A rare reader did not wonder, but what, in fact, is the novel? 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 about human relations, which are checked against the background of events that are difficult for the state?
A brilliant work, where, as an author, Leo Tolstoy is inimitable - “War and Peace”! The author as if invites 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 surely find what he is looking for in the novel.
In a work unique in its scale, style, and language of presentation, such as the novel "War and Peace," each line is saturated with the main thing - the happiness of ordinary life, which is in sorrow and in joy. In it, both of them go in parallel, step by step, hand in hand through all the trials and obstacles. Good, of course, wins, and evil dies defeated.
Did Anna Karenina sympathize with her creator
As in War and Peace, in Anna Karenina there are two polar loves: sublime, pure, sinless, and her antipode - base-vicious, almost dirty. Tolstoy provokes the reader by interpreting the relationship of Anna and Vronsky in the mouth of the “light”, allowing him to decide for himself the degree of elevation or baseness of their feelings. The author tries not to build concrete walls between these definitions, the transition from one state to another is invisible: on one line we find a complete justification of this love, on the other - its universal censure. And as if shaky, but frequent bridges between these lines are the torments of the main characters, their doubts and the final choice, no matter what.
So what kind of assessment does the author give his character? Justifies her, sympathizes, regrets, supports? Tolstoy here plays the role of an implacable moralist - in all his works, criminal love is doomed to a tragic end. The author created his heroine in order to exponentially kill her as a warning to others. An image that evokes sympathy does not cause so much torment.
"Childhood" as one of the main works of Tolstoy
A prominent place in the creative heritage of the writer is this story. Perhaps the first work where he declared himself as the great author Leo Tolstoy - “Childhood”. Not because the reader is exposed to the inaccessible understanding of adults of the problems of a little man who sees the world in an adult way, in which he lives, does not feel veiled good and evil, sincerity and falsehood. The reader, following Nikolenka, goes through the school of his growing 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 feelings about the fact that he sees these unsightly qualities in himself, makes 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 have somehow impressed his children's heart. And the story 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 small prose that Leo Tolstoy wrote - stories.
Theme of the stories of Lev Nikolaevich
About wildlife and defenseless animals, about smart children and wise adults. He doesn’t have many stories, there are only four dozen works on this list, most of which, as already mentioned, are unfamiliar to a wide audience. A little more fortunate were such types of small prose from Tolstoy’s legacy as “After the Ball”, “Leap”, “Fake Coupon”, “The Power of Childhood”, “Conversation with a Passerby”, and, of course, the Sevastopol Stories cycle.
A noticeable intensity in writing stories is observed from 1905 to 1909 - the last in the life of Lev Nikolaevich, he died, as you know, in the 1910th. The 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 discussing separately, since the world of these works is striking in its depths, a subtle transmission of the child's impressions of the problems of life, explains the formation of his personality. This theme is reflected in such a genre as the fables of Leo Tolstoy.
Stories about children and for children
A prominent place in the writer's work is prose for children and about themselves. Trilogy “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth ”Tolstoy did not limit his attempts to know in what ways a person’s personality is formed from birth to his adulthood. The stories “Three Bears”, “How Uncle Semyon talked about what was with him in the forest” and “The Cow”, included in the collection “New Alphabet”, are saturated with love for children and compassion for their little problems. The works of L. N. Tolstoy are rich in thoughts about children.
The story of Filippok came to light after careful observation of the writer over peasant children and unsophisticated communication with them. Lev Nikolaevich always found time for peasants, even opened a school for their children on his estate. And one of the first stories that can be attributed to children's ones is a small work about the dog Bulka, her nagging devotion to her only close being - her master. Until his death, Leo Tolstoy recalled his own childhood and how he wanted to find a "green wand" that would help him make everyone on earth happy.
The place of fables and fairy tales in the work of Tolstoy
As we prose Ivan Andreevich Krylov's prose from childhood and lessons in native speech, so are the moralizing fables of Leo Tolstoy, saturated with subtle morality.
- "The Wolf and the Old Man."
- "Lion and the dog."
- "Crane and Stork."
- "The head and tail of a snake."
- "Ferret".
- "The dog and its shadow."
- "Monkey and peas."
- "The squirrel and the wolf."
- "Lion, donkey and fox."
- "Lion and mouse."
This is only a fraction of the famous fables that replenish the great works of Leo Tolstoy, which we love. Through fables, he ridiculed what he could hardly explain in people, and what was unacceptable to him: deceit and cunning, anger and hatred, meanness and betrayal. Opposite features were shown in his prose, sometimes unprotected, open to attack, and from this even more sweet. It was as if Tolstoy believed that in works for children, and he wrote his fables more for them, there is no place to justify base acts, it is necessary to explain easily and simply what is “good” and what is “bad”. And he always believed that children are pretty smart and understand subtle morality much closer to the truth than adults.
The confrontation of love and duty is a hallmark of the characters of Tolstoy
The ingenious that Leo Tolstoy created in his life - War and Peace, Anna Karenina, his novels, fables, tales and stories, reflected primarily his own morality. He transferred to paper his religious dogmas, his soul-throwing and doubts, his beliefs and endowed them with the characters he sympathized with. Some of his works lacked even slight humor, and each phrase in them was strictly verified, thoroughly considered. He often rewrote what had already been published in magazines, deriving the ideal, in his opinion, character.
A vivid personality confronts us with the image of Konstantin Lyovin in Anna Karenina, with his excruciating love for Kitty and a sense of duty in relation to his convictions. Inimitable and majestic is Pierre Bezukhov from War and Peace, Nikolai Rostov, who took over his father’s debts and didn’t take a penny from his wife’s dowry, Princess Bolkonskaya, to repay them. Many of his characters go through the torment of desires and real actions. The author passes them through psychological tests and displays them even more powerful and worthy of respect. Such was the writer's own world, and L.N. Tolstoy left it to us. Artworks for children - stories, tales, fables, adults - novels, novels, dramaturgy. They are so close and dear to us with them.