Audiobook · read by volunteers
What Men Live By and Other Tales
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910)
Read by David Barnes, Alan Davis Drake (1945-2010) · 4 chapters · 2 h 01
About the book
What do people live by? Leo Tolstoy asks this question in a story about an angel who is sent to earth as a punishment and learns three truths about human life from a poor shoemaker and his wife. The other tales in this volume, among them Three Questions and The Coffee-House of Surat, share the same simple form and the same searching spirit. They were written in Tolstoy's later years, after a religious awakening that changed his life and his writing. Plain in language and deep in meaning, they have been loved by readers across the world. This recording uses the English translation by Aylmer and Louise Maude, read by David Barnes and Alan Davis Drake in about two hours.
Introduction
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian writer and one of the giants of world literature, author of the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Born into the landowning aristocracy, he was wealthy and famous when, in the late 1870s, he went through a spiritual crisis. His experience led him to a radical form of Christianity, a rejection of violence and a new simplicity in his way of life and in his art.
What Men Live By and Other Tales collects short stories from this later period. They are written in a plain, folk-tale style and are intended to be understood by ordinary readers. Their subjects are kindness, humility, forgiveness and the need to live for others. His views on faith and nonviolence reached well beyond any one church, and they influenced Mohandas Gandhi, who corresponded with him in the last years of his life.
The English translation used here is by Aylmer Maude (1858-1938) and Louise Maude (1855-1939), who knew Tolstoy personally and were among his main translators. The recording has four stories and lasts about two hours. It is read by two LibriVox volunteers, David Barnes and Alan Davis Drake. These are brief, accessible tales, ideal for those who know Tolstoy only for his enormous novels, and they show that his gift for story did not lose its force when he turned to moral questions. They are among the most approachable works of one of the greatest authors in any language, and each can be heard in a single sitting.
Public domain
Leo Tolstoy died in 1910: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text