‘How truth thickens and deepens when it migrates from didactic fable to the raw experience of a visceral awakening is one of the thrills of Tolstoy’s stories’

Sharon Cameron in her preface to The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories

Tolstoy wrote in many genres for different audiences. In this, the first of three volumes of his shorter fiction chosen and introduced by the critic Sharon Cameron, we see works originally written for children, like ‘God Sees the Truth But Waits’, and ‘A Prisoner in the Caucasus’. They stand alongside others which show his range and accomplishment, including an early story based on his experiences in the Crimean war, ‘Sevastopol in May’, and the visceral intensity of one of his greatest works, ‘The Death of Ivan Ilych’.

This riverrun edition reissues the translation of Louise and Aylmer Maude, whose influential versions of Tolstoy first brought his work to a wide readership in English.