After the spiritual crisis described in Confession, Tolstoy went on to research the answers to the questions that had brought him to the brink of suicide. He continued his search over the next thirty years of his life and summarized the answers in his book "Path of Life," written the year he died (1910). He also wrote a couple pamphlets ("About Immortality" and "About Death") summarizing his views on "death and the meaning of life."

I first read, A Confession, more than 15 years ago, when as a confused teenager, I was looking for some meaning to my life. Who hasn't gone through this? Through reading a biography of Tolstoy, I found out about, A Confession. Immediately after reading this book, I felt a sense of relief that someone had put into words that which is always in the back of all our minds: The question of, What is the Meaning of Life? A Confession is a simple, straightforward account of Tolstoy's religious and spiritual crisis at the age of 50, when his family, fame, wealth, etc., lost meaning for him. The two-year period, on which A Confession is based, details in depth his struggles, and eventual salvation. This memoir gives great comfort, and peace to anyone who asks, "is this all there is." The book also shows the brilliance of the one of the world's great authors in communicating across the ages to humanity at all levels. Mike Gosling (mgosling@bna.com

When reading A Confession I felt as if I were listening to a wise, animated friend. This book spoke to me. Tolstoy convincingly details the reasons not to live only to conclude that the best thing to do is to continue living. Since it is not a particularly well-known Tolstoy work, I thought it deserved some promotion here. It really is wonderful.

I highly recommend this book for a successful affluent professional who was once blessed with a nice education, nice position, nice family, nice home, nice car, blah, blah, blah, but was suddenly robbed of them all due to being stricken by an unexpected and a terminal illness. This book gives a powerful account of Ivan Ilyich and the things that go through his mind as he, towards the end of his life, has not only to give up his extremely prestigious position due to a terminal illness, but to also watch life "pass him by" by observing people around him live their lives as they always had.

...so I could read this story in the original. This novella is an absolute masterpiece. It made me think about things my jaded self had long since given up on, like God, purpose of life, death, fear. Tolstoy has an absolute deadpan sense of humor, which was so subtle it took me a while to catch on (for example, Ivan's fatal injury occurs while he is hanging expensive drapery out to impress his friends--what a beautifully ironic, even funny way to point out the meaninglessness of his life?).

If you're like me, and don't have the time to slog through "War and Peace" but are interested in Tolstoy, try this book. It's outstanding.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich was a wonderful book that dove deep in to the realities of the death of Ivan. The character in the book named Ivan faces the fact that his life is going to be cut short, and he realizes that he never had the good life he wanted. I thought that this book gave a good realization on what death could be like, and what a person could truly go through. This book had a wonderful plot hat really left a person thinking, and wondering what would be in store for them. The book gave the reader a good sense of what Ivan was going through. Through out the book Ivan was denying the fact that he was going to die, and was in a sense going insane form all of his thoughts. In the end of the book, the author showed us how Ivan got over that insanity and how he accepted his fate.

I've just started War and Peace.....and already it promises to be as satisfying as Anna Karenina, so I can't wait to really get 'stuck in'. It is incredibly readable, lovely to get lost in, time flies by while you're reading it. His characters are so richly drawn, his ancedotes about each one are filling and often funny. I only wish that a translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky were available as they bring a fresh modern voice to translation (I can't wait to read their translation of Anna K. and 'The Idiot' by Dostoevsky).

So why am I writing a review of W&P if I've just started it? Well, first to share the fun I'm having and encourage others to give this great book a try.....and to invite others who have read the book or are reading it to write to me and share your comments. One of the best things about writing reviews on Amazon.com is that I occasionally hear from other reviewers or readers with comments on my reviews or recommendations of their own.....and I love it.

And I love Tolstoy! I think he's the best writer in the world. Although....quite honestly, the most memorable literary passage I've ever read was found in Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment". But you'll have to write to me to find out which one I'm referring to!

Happy reading!

War and Peace had stared at me from my bookshelf for over a year before I had the courage to begin. A present from a friend, War and Peace seemed more like a challenge than a gift: a challenge that could develop into a war of attrition between my completism and my boredom.

Nevertheless, one chilly December day, I took the plunge into nineteenth century Russian life, into the lives of a circle of aristocrats, and into the Napoleonic wars. I was immediately struck by Tolstoy's flowing prose, his humour both gentle and ascerbic, and his skill in creating and developing characters of real depth. War and Peace was a suprisingly easy read. Each short chapter containing interesting incident. It is also a book of great variety. It vividly depicts the sufferings of war, the opulence of the Russian aristocracy, and the joys and woes of family life. It touches phychological, social, political, historical, and religious themes all intertwined in a charming story.

However, its outstanding feature is its characterisation. One cannot help but feel intimately connected to the Rostov family, the well-meaning but flawed Pierre, the self-sacrificing Princess Mary, and the tragically disillusioned Prince Andrew. As I became increasingly involved in the book I looked forward with real anticipation to reading my nightly chapter. I did not want the story to end.

The only disappointing feature was Tolstoy's insistence on including chapters devoted to elaborating his historical philosophy. To my mind, his philosophy simply marred the gently unfolding story, was repetitive and boring, and seemed irrelevant. Fortunately the strength of the rest of the novel outweighs this Achilles Heel.

I have read "War & Peace" twice. I was thirteen the first time I read it, sixteen the second time. I don't say this to brag; rather, I want to encourage more people to read this astounding book. I think people are afraid of it because of its size. But if I can read it, you can! Russia comes alive through Tolstoy's pen in the most amazing way. He paints the vast landscapes, the passionate Russian people, the historical events of the times (the early 1800s) like a master painter. "War & Peace" is, in effect, art, a massive collage of images, textures, and colors. It is soap operatic in that it has several threads woven together within the narrative. Occasionally, it is difficult to keep them apart, but does get better if you just stick with it. I understand that there are some parts many people find boring, such as Tolstoy's philosophizing and his lengthy descriptions. Yet those, to me, make this novel even more vivid, the characters and Tolstoy himself more alive. Tolstoy has a gift with characters; you feel transported back to the nineteenth century drawing rooms of wealthy Russia, with the silken swish of ladies' skirts and the haze of cigar smoke. "War & Peace" is not for everyone. Yet those who make their way through it will be rewarded many times over.

When H Bloom named this his favorite novel, self-styled serious readers found old copies at the Strand until Amazon stocked the book. H Murad is both complex and well-paced, but it is not nearly as strong as Anna Karenin or W&P. Bloom overstated his case.

This is the partially fictionalized account of the last days of Hadji Murad, a renowned and feared Chechen -more precisely, Avar- warrior in 1851-52. Feared by the ruthless Imam Shamil, ruler of Chechens and other Caucasians, Murad is forced to defect yet again to the Russians, who recieve him warmly but suspiciously (he has switched sides before). Murad keeps telling the Russians he won't be of much help unless they support him in getting his family safe and back from the cruel Shamil. Some of them incline to do so, but others fear he might be just spying on them. The action drags on, with no resolution arrived at, until Murad makes his final dash.

As literature, the story is incredibly well written; as background information on the origins of the still-going-on Chechen war, it is priceless. Tolstoi show here his very literary genius: in only 125 pages, he conveys a portrait of many characters, each and every one with his/her own full personality. It is marvelous how Tolstoi can give a whole personality to even the minor characters in a short work.

The depictions of landscapes and circumstances are also masterful, and you can really feel the cold wind and see the wooded mountains of that magnetic and troublesome corner, neither fully European nor Asian.

It is, then, the story of a real man who got caught between the despised Russians and the murderous Chechen leader, really a tragic figure in the sense that he has to make decisiones in front of certain death for him and for his family, whom he deeply loves. Great literature tends to be that which posts credible and appealing characters in limit-situations, and this is clearly one of the best. Refreshing to read an action-packed, well-written, historically interesting story with compelling characters.

Like most everyone who's read his terrific book The Western Canon, it was Harold Bloom who sent
me scurrying to find Hadji Murad. We, all of us, take a stab at War and Peace and Anna Karenina,
and many schools assign the shorter Death of Ivan Ilych as required reading. But not many of us
venture beyond these narrowly circumscribed borders. Heck, the thousands of pages required just to
finish his major works seems like all we should be required to stand. But then came Bloom's soaring
endorsement of this minor work, and suddenly it was back into the breech.

Now, I confess, though I did like the novella and found it much easier reading, perhaps only because
shorter, than his other books. But I can't fathom Bloom's statement that :

It is my personal touchstone for the sublime of prose fiction, to me the best story in the world, or
at least the best that I have ever read.

Bloom seems particularly taken by the character of Hadji Murad, his heroic qualities, and by the
"growth" he displays over the course of the tale. Indeed, he is likable in a roguish way, but he's also
utterly unreliable and ultimately foolish. These are not heroic qualities in my book.

He's unreliable in the sense that his allegiances switch back and forth between the Russians and the
Chechens whenever changing circumstances make the one side or the other more personally
convenient. Absent is the kind of consistent political philosophy or moral matrix that makes for a
great hero. And he's foolish in that he rides off to near certain death in a futile effort to rescue his
family. Though appealingly sentimental, this is the suicidal gesture of an unserious person. What
good does adding his death to theirs do anyone?

Tolstoy does an impressive job of detailing many of the layers of the society of the time and of
presenting both sides in the conflict. He is generous with the Chechens, whom, as a Russian, he might
be expected to treat ill, and ungentle with the Tsar, who he might be expected to spare. Hadji Murad,
even if he does not rise to the level of archetypal hero, is nonetheless someone we root for and who we
are genuinely sorry to see meet tragedy. All of this is more than enough to recommend the book,
without being enough to call it the greatest piece of prose in the history of man.

GRADE : A-

Leo Tolstoy is brilliant at expressing and delving to the core of human emotions, his insight into both males and females emotions is exceptional. The different stages of love and the beauty of death. Written in the 1800's and still prevalent today.

I found the stories to linger too long on emotions as the pace grew slower and slower, almost to an irritating halt.

An interesting read, although for the reader with a bit of patience.

This story begins with the death of Ivan Ilych, a well-respected member of the Court of Justice in the late 1800s. The story follows this event by going into flashback, and exposing the significant events that lead up to his death. Ivan Ilych's unsatisfying life primarily consisted of drowning himself into his work, putting up with married life, hosting social dinners, and playing bridge with his friends and colleagues. One of the most crucial events pertains to Ivan Ilych being diagnosed with an illness. This forces him to analyze his way lof living. I really appreciated this specific short story, because it expressed how much a society's views and beliefs can effect an individual's way of life. I highly reccommend this book to everyone.

This is my first Tolstoy book. Excellent, breathtaking, and strinkingly similiar to some people. I read this book as a final assignment in my Medical Ethics class-the reading is short but full of mind tickling content. If you brain is hungry, read this. I now look forward to other Tolstoy greats.

After two months, I have finished the great novel ANNA KARENINA by Leo Tolstoy that was given to me by Jenny and Gerry (thank you!). I was nervous to take it on, this edition has 924 pages, but I am so, so, so glad that I did. I enjoyed almost every bit of the book, and feel I have from reading it a new understanding of writing and of literature.

This edition from Modern Library Classics was translated from the Russian by Constance Garnett with a revision by Leonard Kent and Nina Berberova. The prose reads very easily, in clear, accessible English for today. (But don't worry: It's not "The Good News Bible does Tolstoy.") While the book is long, and by looking at a calendar and my new paperback's rumpled cover and scuffed binding, I could tell I'd been reading it a long time, it felt as if it were passing quickly. Tolstoy's narrative moves easily from stage to stage -- there's no feeling of contrived suspense or narrative manipulation. The lives of the characters progress naturally, and what Tolstoy tells the reader, the reader believes and doesn't question (this reader didn't.)

The story focuses on just a few main characters, Anna Arkadyevna Karenina (and her husband Aleksey Alexandrovich Karenin), Count Aleksey Kirilich Vronksy, Konstantin Dmitrich Levin and Kitty Scherbatskaya. These individuals propel the story, and it is their lives and relationships that we follow most closely. Supporting characters include Prince Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky, his wife Darya Alexandrovna Oblonskaya and Levin's brothers, a small cast for a grand Russian novel.

On the back cover, a quote about the novel, attributed to Matthew Arnold, says that we are "not to take ANNA KARENINA as a work of art; we are to take it as a slice of life." I think it is really both.

The theme of the novel centers on relationships, and those relationships in 19th Century Russian artistocratic society of St. Petersburg and Moscow. Anna Karenina is an elite, beautiful woman married to a powerful government official, Aleksey Karenin, with whom she has a son, Seryozha. She falls in love with and has an extended affair with the rich, dapper Count Aleksey Vronksy, and has a child with him, a daughter. Their story follows her inability to ask for or later receive a divorce from her husband, and her increasing unhappiness in the relationship with Vronsky, as she is bannished by society and resents the freedom he has as a man to move in his old circles. Her jealousy and insecurity grow throughout the course of the novel, rendering her nearly mad.

The other relationship, which serves as a contrast and foil for Karenina and Vronsky, is that of Levin and Kitty Scherbatskaya. Levin is a somewhat older man than the young and beautiful Kitty, daughter of one of Moscow's many princes. He is an aristocratic farmer and cares for his family's vast agrarian holdings in the country thoughtfully and meticulously. At the beginning of the novel, he has been courting Kitty, but had returned to the country for awhile. When he returns to ask her to marry him, he sees that she is infatuated with Vronksy, whom he doesn't trust. Vronsky meets Anna Karenina at a ball and stops calling on Kitty, breaking her heart. After a long separation, Kitty and Levin meet again and she agrees to marry him, happily. Their storyline follows their marriage and the birth of their son, Dimitry.

It is definitely true that this novel is most definitely a slice out of life. The characters are incredibly realistic as is the pace and plot of the novel. But the artistry lies in Tolstoy's effective setting of one relationship against another. It's not as black and white as it might be in a lesser writer's hands. The "good couple" Levin and Kitty have difficulties in adjusting to each other and in their relationship. Levin, like Anna, is jealous, but unlike Vronsky and Anna, he is motivated by love and generosity to overcome his angry feelings for the benefit of a harmonious home. Other aspects of the two different relationships are set off by one another. A very compelling character is made of Aleksey Alexandrovich Karenin, whom Anna despises, but who undergoes a convincing and sad degeneration of self as Anna leaves him and he maintains custody of the son that she loves. (He gets caught up with a society woman who has converted to a fundamentalist, ecstatic Christianity and gives him advice, ultimately leading him to allow a French faux-mystic to decide the fate of his marriage to Anna.)

The novel has a well-known climax, which I won't reveal if you don't know it, but it has beautifully written and rich "falling action" which allows the reader to come through the shock and pain to what Levin discovers beyond the love of the family life he craved.

This is definitely a masterwork, completely readable and worth the time spent on every page.

I read Anna Karenina for the hype - so many people talk of it being one of the best books ever written. I was also interested in Tolstoy, who is a fascinating character.

At time of reading, I found the novel okay. The characters came alive on the page, and many of the scenes in the novel were beautifully delineated. But I found the pace too slow, and was bored by all Levin's socio-political musings on Russia at that time.

Months later, and I find that the book still resonantes in my mind. I find myself still thinking about Anna and her fate; about that excruciating moment where Karenin approaches total forgiveness and then veers away; about Dolly, Kitty and Oblonsky. About how different the world of Anna Karenina is from my own, in some ways, but still so relevant. And the differences are illuminating.

In this novel, Tolstoy manages to weave together a whole world of stories and people and events. I can't really describe it other than saying that it is a very very human story. Greater than the sum of its parts.

Don't read this book if you think you might become impatient 'getting through' it. It deserves better that that. But if you're reading these reviews wondering whether it's worth taking all that time to read one of the world's reputed classics, then my anonymous 25-year-old word, for what it's worth, is that yes, it definitely is.

In my sophomore year of college, I was assigned ANNA KARENINA to be read in one week. ONE WEEK! Somehow I did it and it changed my life. I came back to the Tolstoy novel in the summer between my sophomore and junior years and then again in grad school. I just finished reading it for the fourth time.

Everything you've heard and read about ANNA KARENINA is true. It is one of the finest, subtlest, most exciting, most romantic, truest, most daring, charming, witty and altogether moving experiences anyone can have. And you don't have to slog through pages and chapters to find the truth and beauty. It's right there from the first, famous sentence: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

This new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is wonderful and deserves your attention even if you already have a favorite version of the book. Pevear and Volokhonsky are considered "the premiere translators of Russian literature into English of our day." Working, as I do, in the Theatre, I hope they take on some of Turgenev's plays.

Anyone who believes in the power of Art, especially Literature, must buy and read this book. I promise it can change your life. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Thank you Leo Tolstoy for giving the world such a profound gift. This book was banned in Tolstoy's homeland, Russia, because it was considered revolutionary, it inspired Mohandas Ghandi to align his life with the Truth at any cost, and with the insanely universal dependence by nation states upon the military option, this book remains as relevant as it was on the day it was published in 1894.

Admittedly, this is not a quick read. At times, one can feel bogged down in Tolstoy's meticulous arguments. But taken as a whole, it is an inspired and inspiring work which will without fail prod the attentive reader to scrutinize one's life -- beliefs AND actions.

I believe this book will resurface time and again in the non-violent mass movements of the coming century. Read it. Absorb it. Assimilate it. The truth as revealed in this book will indeed set us all free!

Once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down. Tolstoy argues, very persuasively, that the core teachings of Jesus have been lost to the modern Christian (as of the 1890's, and still true today). His insight into the nature of man is nothing short of brilliant. Man is too comfortable with the way things are to really adopt Jesus approach to life, one of the core underpinnings being non resistance to evil by violence.

Another reviewer said that following Tolstoy's advice, we (the US, I guess) should have never opposed Hitler. We shouldn't have -- Hitler would have been out of power in short order; he was no threat to us. Forgive this brief aside.

Most of what passes for Christianity today is nothing of the sort. A great deal of it is self-serving. Jesus said salvation is personal -- you don't need a "church" to be saved. As Tolstoy explains, church's are largely the invention of men, who crave a hierarchy and order.

This book is a revelation. Christians take note: you may feel rebuked (convicted?) by the words written here.

This is the book which sparked the spiritual revolution in Ghandi, and helped make him the unbelieveable man he was. Ghandi raved about this book in his autobiography, and I couldn't agree more. This could quite possibly be the best book I have ever read. However, two years ago I wouldn't have gotten all that I have out of it. It came in the perfect time of my spiritual awakening. By the very Truth of you reading what I am saying I would suggest you get this book RIGHT NOW! You are ready to hear what he has to say, and it will make you a better person and thus making our world better. Tolstoy is a remarkable spiritual revolutionist, and he will open your eyes to the works of others that have been suppressed throughout time. Good luck to you and take care out there!

This is a very interesting book. Penned by one of the greatest writers in history, "A Confession..." by Leo Tolstoy provided me with great insight into his life, work, and relationships. I read this for a religion class in college and ended up keeping it. It is rather short and easy to read. Of interest to those who are seeking truth and those who have found it. It is fascinating to follow him thru his early religious experience, falling away from the church, and coming back to a unique faith in the end. Recommended.

Tolstoy was a tremondous writer and intense human being. I approached this work expecting a great deal, and while it was certainly very much worth the effort, it was not as good as I hoped it would be.

After acheiving fame, fortune, artistic achievement, family and everything else that most people long for, Tolstoy had a philosophical crisis in which he searched for the meaning of life. This is his chronicle of his despair and search, which ultimately ended in his acceptance of a unique brand of Christian socialism (not to mention ascetisim, vegetarianism, pacifism, etc.,). However, I thought much of the book, especially its sections on philosophy, to be rather poor in quality: either too simplisitc or complex but very poorly worded and expressed. While this book is ok, if anyone wanted to know Tolstoy's later philosophy of life I would recommend his later short works of fiction such as The Devil, the Kreutzer Sonata, and the Forged Coupon. They are masterpeices, while this work is simply interesting.

Let me caveat this review: I only have read the title story, and my review is based entirely on that.

This story was truly awful. It is an overlong, relentlessly endless, uber-puritanical tirade. Tolstoy was, at least at this point in his life, an unbelievable prude, and this is a master treatise on prudery. If you think that sex is evil, always, every time, even within the bounds of marriage, this story is for you. Otherwise, there's not much here. The 'story' such as it is, is paper thin, despite the awfully large number of words it takes him to tell it.

Finally, if you are a Beethoven fan, and were interested in this story because of the piece in the title (as I was), forget it. The sonata itself gets only scant mention in one place, and was hardly worth titling the story after.

It's unforgiveable that Penguin gives away the climax of "Kreutzer Sonata" on the back cover of the book. Also, who wants to read an inept critique, such as the one on the back cover, in advance of reading the story. The stories themselves are not Tolstoy at his best. Much better spending one's time reading "Anna Karenina" or "War and Peace" in the Maude translations. These late period stories are like bad Dostoyevski, the author well past his prime.

The stories contained in this volume ('The Kreutzer Sonata', 'The Devil', 'The Forged Coupon' and 'After the Ball') are from Tolstoy's late period and are markedly different in tone from the great works of his early period, 'The Cossacks' and 'War and Peace'. Those early works are characterised by Tolstoy's enormous compassion and lust for life, while even the more troubled 'Anna Karenina' is infused with the author's magnanimous wisdom, despite the grave self-doubts that were plaguing him at the time of writing. 'The Kreutzer Sonata' marks a sea-change in mood for this greatest of all novelists. All of the stories here are stained with the cynicism that overtook Tolstoy in his advancing years, and the almost overwhelming sense of guilt at what he saw as the dissolute and wasted life he had led, and the hollowness of relations between men and women. The sheer joie de vivre of Natasha Rostov in 'War and Peace' contrasts severely with the nihilism of Pozdnyshev in 'The Kreutzer Sonata', while the misfortunes of almost every character in 'The Forged Coupon' do not point to a happy or optimistic author. These are interesting stories however, which at times equal Tolstoy at his most illuminating - though even Tolstoy some way off his best is more than a match for most. Highly recommended.