Collected Shorter Fiction of Leo Tolstoy, Volume II Introduction by John Bayley

The only comprehensive hardcover edition of Tolstoy's shorter fiction--57 stories and novellas, including two that have never before appeared in English. In these two handsome volumes, every aspect of Tolstoy's art and personality is reflected: his experiences as a soldier in the Caucasus, his married life, his passionate interest in the peasantry, his belief in truth and simplicity, and above all, his growing preoccupation with religion. Ranging in scope from the short novels Hadj Murad and The Kreutzer Sonata to folktales only a few pages long, they bring us intimately into the world of the great Russian novelist.

<br><b>John Bayley</b>, author of the Introduction to the collection, is former Thomas Warton Professor of English Literature at Oxford University and the author of books on Tolstoy, Hardy, and Housman. He has also written several novels and a memoir, <i>Elegy for Iris</i>.<br><br>The translators:<br><br><b>Aylmer Maude</b> spent much of his life in Russia and was a personal friend of Tolstoy's.<br><br><b>Nigel J. Cooper</b> recently retired from Middlesex University, where he was a principal lecturer in modern languages (Russian and French).