Childhood
About this book
Childhood (1852) is a novel by Leo Tolstoy. Published at the beginning of his career as a leading Russian author of his generation, Childhood is the first in a trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels tracing Nikolenka's journey from innocence to experience. As a record of the past, a nostalgic reminder of a lost world, Childhood is one of Tolstoy's most personal works, and yet his prose shows signs of the universal religious and philosophical themes that would inspire such masterpieces as War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). A story of life and death, love and grief, Childhood is an invaluable treasure of Russian literature. "How beautiful Mamma's face was when she smiled! It made her so infinitely more charming, and everything around her seemed to grow brighter! If in the more painful moments of my life I could have seen that smile before my eyes, I should never have known what grief is." Devoted to his mother, Nikolenka is a young Russian boy born into prosperity. As his story unfolds, we see him experience love, grief, and anger for the first time in his life, returning us for a brief moment to our own childhoods, the bittersweet memories of good and bad things that can never return. Praised for its expressionistic style and meditative prose, Childhood won Tolstoy the attention of Russia's literary elite, launching his career as one of the nineteenth century's most influential artists. This edition of Leo Tolstoy's Childhood is a classic work of Russian literature reimagined for modern readers.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- I. The Tutor, Karl Ivanitch
- II. Mamma
- III. Papa
- IV. Lessons
- V. The Idiot
- VI. Preparations for the Chase
- VII. The Hunt
- VIII. We Play Games
- IX. A First Essay in Love
- X. The Sort of Man My Father Was
- XI. In the Drawing-Room and the Study
- XII. Grisha
- XIII. Natalia Savishna
- XIV. The Parting
- XV. Childhood
- XVI. Verse-Making
- XVII. The Princess Kornakoff
- XVIII. Prince Ivan Ivanovitch
- XIX. The Iwins
- XX. Preparations for the Party
- XXI. Before the Mazurka
- XXII. The Mazurka
- XXIII. After the Mazurka
- XXIV. In Bed
- XXV. The Letter
- XXVI. What Awaited Us at the Country-House
- XXVII. Grief
- XXVIII. Sad Recollections
- A Note About the Author
- A Note from the Publisher