# The Complete Works of Lyof N. Tolstoï/Volume 8

Continues a republication of, The Long Exile and Other Children Stories; (Dole: 1888), Master and Man (Kenworthy and Rapoport: 1895), Kreutzer Sonata (Maude), Dramas (Dole), The Dekabrists
The Complete Works of
Lyof N. Tolstoï
The Long Exile
Master and Man
The Kreutzer Sonata
Dramas
THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS::NEW YORK
THE LONG EXILE
AND OTHER STORIES
INTRODUCTION
The contents of the present volume illustrate Count Tolstoï's versatility to a remarkable degree. His stories for children are marked by the simplicity and sincerity that children demand. What could be more fascinating to a boy than his description of his dogs? And is there anything in literature, anywhere, more perfect in its absolute symmetry, its inherent pathos, and its unobtrusive moral than the story called in the original "God sees the Truth"?
The author himself, while he regards with scant consideration his earlier works, such as "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina," places this story in the highest rank as complying with the canons of art.
The "Stories for Children," which comprise a few taken from the "Novaya Azbuka" or New Primer, and not found in Vol. IV of the Moscow edition, are followed by the entertaining and suggestive account of the school which Count Tolstoï established for the children of his peasants shortly after the emancipation. His theory of freedom in the school reminds one of that set forth by the American educator, A. Bronson Alcott, and to a certain extent employed by him under very different conditions. It has in it the incontrovertible truth that children study best that which interests them, and that they may be led more successfully than driven into the paths of learning.
​His arguments against examinations as tests of knowledge coincide with the experience of most teachers. They have their place, but altogether too much stress is laid on them in our schools and colleges, and as they are generally conducted they do more harm than good. They lead to cumulative cramming, and they are almost invariably unfair.
But interesting as the count's theories and results are, the personality of the man himself, the pictures that he draws of himself dealing with his peasant lads, and the unconscious methods of the born story-teller in presenting facts, give a peculiar charm to the whole account.
The enthusiastic naïveté of the plea that the cultured class should learn of the unspoiled peasant to write fiction has exactly the same charm as revealing the count's generous and lovable qualities. But that he has taken the lesson to heart by cultivating that simplicity and sincerity characteristic of a healthy child, a genuine boy, is shown by the tale—"Walk in the Light"—with which the volume ends, and which sums up and applies to practice under the guise of a story of antiquity Count Tolstoï's views of education and his ideas of a religious life. The "Dialogue between Clever People" may be regarded as an implicit introduction to this beautiful tale, and it is so printed in the Moscow edition.
Taken as a whole it is undoubtedly one of the most stimulating and suggestive volumes of the series.
CONTENTS
page
Master and Man.
Original Drawing by Charles Copeland.
MASTER AND MAN
THE KREUTZER SONATA
DRAMAS
Copyright, 1899, By THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.
INTRODUCTION
With the exception of the fragments of the unfinished novel, "The Dekabrists," which are really studies of character, sketches to serve, and therefore suitable to place anywhere, though the scheme of the story had it been finished would have put it immediately after "War and Peace," the contents of the present volume are in accordance with Count Tolstoï's latest teaching. "Master and Man" represents selfishness conquered by self-sacrifice, and thus bringing joy even in death. It may be questioned whether the master's fear lest, in case his man perished, he should be held responsible for him, does not throw a cynical tinge over the sudden resolve of the half-dazed, half-frozen speculator to protect his servant from the snow and frost. But the lesson is almost as vital. And with what vividness the horrors of a blizzard on the steppes are portrayed.
The "Kreutzer Sonata" has probably been more misunderstood than any other of Count Tolstoï's writings. The ravings of a man self-confessed insane have been taken as the personal views of the author of the monologue. The subject is not agreeable, the narration is exasperating, the whole thing is a study in morbidity. Yet underneath the murderer's confession, underneath the insane extravagance, is the Christian teaching in regard to sexual morality. Christ's teaching is either right or wrong. There is no mincing matters, and this Count Tolstoï shows in his postscript to the "Kreutzer Sonata," the translation of which is due to Mr. Aylmer Maude of England, whose long residence in Russia and friendship with Count Tolstoï make him an authority on his philosophy.
​In one of his educational articles Count Tolstoí speaks of a hitherto unrealized plan of writing a story or a play on some proverb, such as is to be found in Snegiref's Collection. He afterward carried out the idea in the play entitled "Vlast Tmui," the Power (or Dominion) of Darkness (or Evil), which has a proverb for its secondary title. This drama, written wholly in the crabbed staccato speech of the Tula peasant, has, nevertheless, an enormous tragic impulse, which places it on a level with the ancient Greek tragedies. There are certain scenes also, as that, for instance, where the reformed drunkard—the laborer, Mitritch—and the little girl, Anyutka, are talking, while the father and grandmother of the illegitimate baby are murdering it, which in their weird and gruesome suggestiveness remind one of the work of Maeterlinck or Ibsen. If this play could be translated into the Cornish or Dorset dialect, or even into the dialect of New England, it would gain immensely. But even then, while there would be increased and perhaps adequate quaintness, the conciseness of the peasant speech could not be given, and Akim's halting utterance, with its amusing repetition of 'tayo and znatchit, would fare but ill. Yet it is Akim, the God-fearing, simple-minded peasant, whom Tolstoï makes the moral figure of the play, and his principles triumph in the end.
In the comedy which follows and ends the volume Count Tolstoï holds up to ridicule the empirical weaknesses of medicine and such fads as hypnotism, spiritualism, and the like. As usual he contrasts the absurdities of a narrow and superficial culture with the sterling sense and unaffected reason of the man of the people living near to nature, and not worried over microbes and bacilli. The humor of the play is legitimate and characteristic; one can easily believe that it was effective when presented on the stage.
CONTENTS
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