The Short Stories of Leo Tolstoy
It has taken me some time to get to my next book “review”; for that, I apologize. I put review in quotes here because this post will not so much be a review as it will be my thoughts on a short story anthology of Leo Tolstoy. I’ll also apologize in advance if any of my thoughts come across as pretentious or naive, but when dealing with “classic” literature I’m not sure if anyone’s thoughts can be anything either than pretentious or naive.
To start, I’ll be specific: I read “The Greatest Short Stories of Leo Tolstoy” published by Fingerprint! as part of their “Class!cs” series (?). My copy was a 2024 reprint. It consisted of 35 short stories, totalling 620 pages.
I am not a historian, nor did I major in the arts in school. I am simply someone who likes to read, and so I will not be covering Tolstoy as a person; I do not care about his actions while he lived. I only wish to discuss the stories he wrote, how they made me see him as a person, and how they affected me (if at all).
This is a lot more pretense than I have previously given when reviewing books. The reason for this is that these stories, and the author, are not simply pleasure reading. It took me almost two months to get through and properly understand what I was reading; these are challenging reads for someone not accustomed to it. In addition, my loose understanding of Tolstoy is that he is a literary legend and deserves a bit of reverence for his work. The closest I have come to reading something like his before was Dostoevsky, and even then their outlooks on life differ quite a bit (or at least I thought so).
I think what struck out to me the most while reading Tolstoy’s work was the importance of Christianity to them. Many of the stories themselves read almost like bible stories, with the aim of “teaching” the reader the importance of Christian values. I think it’s important to note that by “Christian values” I don’t mean the xenophobic fear mongering many often think of in today’s political landscape. Tolstoy, I think, wanted to express what he thought were Christ’s most important teachings: namely, to love God with all your heart, mind, body and soul, and to do likewise to your neighbour. Because of this, almost all of the stories I read felt like Bible study and less like stories. Many of the tales bordered on being preachy, which, while not necessarily a bad thing, was not always that interesting. The stories within the Bible are already there for those to read and understand Christ’s teachings; why Tolstoy felt it necessary to create more, I do not know. Perhaps he felt it is duty to spread the good news of the Lord, or perhaps he was trying to absolve himself of any guilt he had in his life. Whatever the case, these stories were very hit or miss; some of them I enjoyed and took away some small teachings from Tolstoy, and others I felt had nothing new to say.
Tolstoy also paints a very bleak picture of the time in which he lived. The lives of many of the characters are, to put it bluntly, extremely depressing. Poverty is a major theme in almost all of them, which Tolstoy actively encourages readers in, as you will not find happiness in excess (again, according to Christ). While there might be truth to this, and it is certainly wise, I think many of the characters would be far better off if they had better conditions of living, didn’t have to worry about food scarcity, and had the ability to contribute to society beyond being manual labourers. I want to highlight that there is nothing wrong with manual labour, and in fact some of my favourite characters were ones who enjoyed their work as manual labourers, but not having a choice in the matter is problematic. I think Tolstoy was trying to get across the message “be happy with what you have”, and again, there is value to that, but I don’t think wanting better is necessarily wrong either. Although perhaps I am biased owing to my 21st century upbringing.
Despite the mostly serious tones in the stories, there are little elements of humour that did make me laugh throughout. Tolstoy was very fond of making fun of the Devil, whom I’m sure would be very upset if he ever read this anthology. As well, Tolstoy writes very compelling characters when they are the stars of the stories. Even though all I read were short stories, it felt like the characters had lives beyond the pages, which I think is a testament to Tolstoy’s ability to write. I think it’s likely that Tolstoy also drew inspiration from the people around him (in some instances literally), making his characters all the more believable.
Despite all I said before, there is one exception to Tolstoy’s Christian tales of good virtue, and it is the last one. This covers more serious political issues of his time, discussing the injustice of the class system, political system, and racism. This is (of course) all done indirectly, and I have seen similar parallels in the current day, but what struck me about this tale the most is the last sentence of the story. It is as follows: “Why is this?”
I don’t know whether it is recency bias, or maybe the time I read the book or what, but this has stuck with me. In a world with plenty, why do some have few? In a world with power, why are some weak? In a world with justice, why do the wrong go unpunished, and, conversely, why are the innocent punished? In a world with love, why is there so much hate?
I did not agree with everything Tolstoy had to say. I did not enjoy everything I read. But I do think about that last sentence, and I do think about what he had to say. And hopefully with a little more thought, I might be able to come up with a half-decent answer. I might even improve as a person.
To you reading this, I wish to ask you a favour. The next time you see something that upsets you, ask yourself “Why is this?” And if you can’t answer that, then maybe it’s time to stop observing, and time to start acting.
Verdict: Why?