Leo Tolstoy's Fiction

Leo Tolstoy's fiction moves between large historical narratives and closely observed moments in which a person reconsiders how to live. War and Peace places family experience within the upheavals of war, while Anna Karenina examines affection, duty, and the judgments of society. In shorter works such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich, familiar measures of success become inadequate in the face of suffering. His detailed attention to gestures, conversation, work, and domestic routine gives these moral questions a concrete setting. Stories including What Men Live By express ethical concerns through simple encounters and acts of care.