What Men Live By and Other Tales
By Leo Tolstoi
()
About this ebook
A Unique Translation of the Collection of Inimitable Stories by Leo Tolstoy, One of the World's Most Renowned Authors.
"What Men Live By and Other Tales" compiles tales that handle intricate philosophical issues in a simple and engaging way to incite the mind. In "What Men Live By" you'll encounter a kind
Leo Tolstoi
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.
Read more from Leo Tolstoi
A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Following the Call: Living the Sermon on the Mount Together Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/550 Great Love Letters You Have To Read (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War and Peace Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Death of Ivan Ilyich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confession Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tolstoy's Stories for Children Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Christmas Library: 250+ Essential Christmas Novels, Poems, Carols, Short Stories...by 100+ Authors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wise Thoughts for Every Day: On God, Love, the Human Spirit, and Living a Good Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War and Peace : Complete and Unabridged Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5What is Art? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gospel in Brief: The Life of Jesus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Christmas Stories of All Time: Timeless Classics That Celebrate the Season Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings50 Beautiful Christmas Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBig Book of Christmas Tales: 250+ Short Stories, Fairytales and Holiday Myths & Legends Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaster and Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Death of Ivan Ilych (Complete Version, Best Navigation, Active TOC) (A to Z Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5BEST RUSSIAN SHORT STORIES Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confession and Other Religious Writings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thoughtful Wisdom for Every Day: 365 Days of Love, Kindness, Healing, Faith, and Peace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gospel in Tolstoy: Selections from His Short Stories, Spiritual Writings & Novels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to What Men Live By and Other Tales
Related ebooks
Why the Wilderness?: God Sends Angels <I>After</I> We Go Through! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Puritan Imagination: Bishop Joseph Hall’s Use of Meditation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOpposition Gives You an Opportunity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWords of Cheer for Daily Life: Messages to Encourage the Heart Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSuper-Abundant Grace: Reflections on Romans Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKnow Be Do: Turning the Christian Life Right Side Up Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChrist of the Creation Days: How the Creation Days Typologically Picture the Covenants Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpiritual Songs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhilosophy of the Plan of Salvation: A Book for the Times Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsComing Forth as Gold Trusting God Through the Process to Receive What He Promised Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCome Alive: Ecclesiastes: Conversations with Scripture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGetting Jesus Wrong: Giving Up Spiritual Vitamins and Checklist Christianity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMake It Last: Proven Principles for Effective Student Ministry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPearls of Wisdom: Stories Based on the Book of Proverbs from the Bible Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChristianity 101 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTen Questions God Asked Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPsalm 23 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Challenge of Preaching Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpiritual Gifts: An Adequate Equipping for Ministry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Bring People to Jesus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSermons on Biblical Characters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe World's Great Sermons: Volume IX—Cuyler to Van Dyke Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife in Christ Jesus is a Life of Faith Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCitizen of Hope: Walking in Faith Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSweet & Simple Moments with God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRobert Moffat: The Missionary Hero of Kuruman Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Local Church in the Local Jail: A Discipling Ministry from the Inside Out Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gospel of the Bleeding Woman: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey of Homer Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Jeremiah: Answering the Call Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Short Stories For You
Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Finn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Stories of Ray Bradbury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Years of the Best American Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Selected Short Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ficciones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Explicit Content: Red Hot Stories of Hardcore Erotica Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Skeleton Crew Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Five Tuesdays in Winter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two Scorched Men Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lovecraft Country: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Four Past Midnight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hot Blooded Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Tower: And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unfinished Tales Of Numenor And Middle-Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas: A Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for What Men Live By and Other Tales
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
What Men Live By and Other Tales - Leo Tolstoi
What Men Live By and Other Tales
What Men Live By and Other Tales
Leo Tolstoy
Olahauski Books
Contents
1 What Men Live By
2 The Coffee-House of Surat
3 Three Questions
4 How Much Land Does a Man Need?
Appendix: About Leo Tolstoy
Copyright © 2022 by Olahauski Books
This is an annotated edition.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
1
What Men Live By
A shoemaker named Simon, who had neither house nor land of his own, lived with his wife and children in a peasant's hut, and earned his living by his work. Work was cheap, but bread was dear, and what he earned he spent for food. The man and his wife had but one sheepskin coat between them for winter wear, and even that was torn to tatters, and this was the second year he had been wanting to buy sheep-skins for a new coat. Before winter Simon saved up a little money: a three-rouble note lay hidden in his wife's box, and five roubles and twenty kopeks were owed him by customers in the village.
So one morning he prepared to go to the village to buy the sheep-skins. He put on over his shirt his wife's wadded nankeen jacket, and over that he put his own cloth coat. He took the three-rouble note in his pocket, cut himself a stick to serve as a staff, and started off after breakfast. I'll collect the five roubles that are due to me,
thought he, add the three I have got, and that will be enough to buy sheep-skins for the winter coat.
He came to the village and called at a peasant's hut, but the man was not at home. The peasant's wife promised that the money should be paid next week, but she would not pay it herself. Then Simon called on another peasant, but this one swore he had no money, and would only pay twenty kopeks which he owed for a pair of boots Simon had mended. Simon then tried to buy the sheep-skins on credit, but the dealer would not trust him.
Bring your money,
said he, then you may have your pick of the skins. We know what debt-collecting is like.
So all the business the shoemaker did was to get the twenty kopeks for boots he had mended, and to take a pair of felt boots a peasant gave him to sole with leather.
Simon felt downhearted. He spent the twenty kopeks on vodka, and started homewards without having bought any skins. In the morning he had felt the frost; but now, after drinking the vodka, he felt warm, even without a sheep-skin coat. He trudged along, striking his stick on the frozen earth with one hand, swinging the felt boots with the other, and talking to himself.
1
I'm quite warm,
said he, though I have no sheep-skin coat. I've had a drop, and it runs through all my veins. I need no sheep-skins. I go along and don't worry about anything. That's the sort of man I am! What do I care? I can live without sheep-skins. I don't need them. My wife will fret, to be sure. And, true enough, it is a shame; one works all day long, and then does not get paid. Stop a bit! If you don't bring that money along, sure enough I'll skin you, blessed if I don't. How's that? He pays twenty kopeks at a time! What can I do with twenty kopeks? Drink it-that's all one can do! Hard up, he says he is! So he may be—but what about me? You have a house, and cattle, and everything; I've only what I stand up in! You have corn of your own growing; I have to buy every grain. Do what I will, I must spend three roubles every week for bread alone. I come home and find the bread all used up, and I have to fork out another rouble and a half. So just pay up what you owe, and no nonsense about it!
By this time he had nearly reached the shrine at the bend of the road. Looking up, he saw something whitish behind the shrine. The daylight was fading, and the shoemaker peered at the thing without being able to make out what it was. There was no white stone here before. Can it be an ox? It's not like an ox. It has a head like a man, but it's too white; and what could a man be doing there?
He came closer, so that it was clearly visible. To his surprise it really was a man, alive or dead, sitting naked, leaning motionless against the shrine. Terror seized the shoemaker, and he thought, Some one has killed him, stripped him, and left him there. If I meddle I shall surely get into trouble.
So the shoemaker went on. He passed in front of the shrine so that he could not see the man. When he had gone some way, he looked back, and saw that the man was no longer leaning against the shrine, but was moving as if looking towards him. The shoemaker felt more frightened than before, and thought, "Shall I go back to him, or shall I go on? If I go near him something dreadful may happen. Who knows who the fellow is? He has not come here for any good. If I go near him he may jump up and throttle me, and there will be no getting away. Or if not, he'd still be a burden on one's hands. What could I do with a naked man? I couldn't give him my last