Most of the 16 stories collected herein appear for the first time in English. They were written late in Tolstoy's life, as part of The Sunday Reading Stories accompanying A Calendar of Wisdom, the great novelist's anthology of the thoughts and sayings of other eminent writers and philosophers. This isn't the Tolstoy of War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Virtually all the pieces are heavily moralistic, many (like “The Repentant Sinner” and “The Requirements of Love”) cast in the form of parables—whose almost uniform message seems to be “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” Yet Tolstoy's matchless gifts for clarity of expression and narrative economy are vividly displayed in the several stories that do create specific situations and credible characters—notably “The Berries,” “Why Did It Happen?,” the long title story, and the moving “Kornei Vasiliev.” Not essential Tolstoy, but in general a welcome English-language addition to one of the world's most remarkable bodies of literary work.
Pub Date: May 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-310-22367-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Zondervan
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2000
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
This first novel, ostensibly about the friendship between two boys, Reuven and Danny, from the time when they are fourteen on opposing yeshiva ball clubs, is actually a gently didactic differentiation between two aspects of the Jewish faith, the Hasidic and the Orthodox. Primarily the Hasidic, the little known mystics with their beards, earlocks and stringently reclusive way of life. According to Reuven's father who is a Zionist, an activist, they are fanatics; according to Danny's, other Jews are apostates and Zionists "goyim." The schisms here are reflected through discussions, between fathers and sons, and through the separation imposed on the two boys for two years which still does not affect their lasting friendship or enduring hopes: Danny goes on to become a psychiatrist refusing his inherited position of "tzaddik"; Reuven a rabbi.... The explanation, in fact exegesis, of Jewish culture and learning, of the special dedication of the Hasidic with its emphasis on mind and soul, is done in sufficiently facile form to engage one's interest and sentiment. The publishers however see a much wider audience for The Chosen. If they "rub their tzitzis for good luck,"—perhaps—although we doubt it.
Pub Date: April 28, 1967
ISBN: 0449911543
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1967
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