How Much Land Does A Man Need

Written by Leo Tolstoy

Narrated by David Shaw-Parker and Ghizela Rowe

Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 in the Russian province of Tula to a wealthy noble family. As a child, he had private tutors but he showed little interest in any formal education. When he went to the University of Kazan in 1843 to study oriental languages and law, he left without completing his courses. Life now was relaxed and idle but with some writing also taking place. Gambling debts forced an abrupt change of path and he joined the army to fight in the Crimean War. He was commended for his bravery and promoted but was appalled at the brutality and loss of life. He recorded these and other earlier experiences in his diaries which formed the basis of several of his works.

In 1852 ‘Childhood’ was published to immediate success and was followed by ‘Boyhood’ and ‘Youth’.

His experience in the army and the horrors he witnessed resulted in ‘The Cossacks’ in 1862 and the trilogy ‘Sevastopol Tales’. After the war he travelled around Europe, visiting London and Paris and meeting such luminaries as Victor Hugo and Charles Darwin.

It was now that Tolstoy began his masterpiece, ‘War and Peace’. Published in 1869 it was an epic work that changed literature. He quickly followed this with ‘Anna Karenina’.

These successes made Tolstoy rich and helped him accomplish many of his dreams but also brought problems as he grappled with his faith and the lot of the oppressed poor. These revolutionary views became so popular that the authorities now kept him under surveillance.

He led a life of asceticism and vegetarianism and put his socialist ideals into practice by establishing numerous schools for the poor and food programmes. He also believed in giving away his wealth, which caused much discord with his wife.

His writing continued to bring forth classics such as ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich’ and many brilliant and incisive short stories such as ‘How Much Land Does A Man Need’.

In 1901 Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Church and controversially deselected for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Whilst undertaking a pilgrimage by train in October 1910 with his daughter Aleksandra he caught pneumonia in the nearby town of Astapovo. Leo Tolstoy died on November 9th, 1910, he was 82.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Copyright Group
• Release date: Feb 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781839678073

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 in Tula, near Moscow. His parents, who both died when he was young, belonged to the Russian nobility, and to the end of his life Tolstoy remained conscious of his aristocratic status. His novels, ‘War and Peace’ and ‘Anna Karenina’ are literary classics and he is revered as one of the greatest writers of the nineteenth century. He died in 1910 at the age of 82.

Reviews for How Much Land Does A Man Need

[Shaine Kennedy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I thought this book was very interesting and I liked it very much. It had a good moral but a very uneducated ending….. overall, good!?

[Ben9716 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wish I read this in college. Great opening and amazing ending. The middle is okay but I still give 5 stars given this is a short story. Highly recommended.

[dec813 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A cautionary tale. What does it profit a man to gain the world, and lose his soul? A critique of modern capitalism, that one must always have more, and more than his neighbors. A virus that destroys the mind and then the soul.