Childhood, Boyhood and Youth

Begun in 1851, when Tolstoy was twenty-three and serving as a cadet in the Russian army, <i>Childhood</i>, the first part of Tolstoy’s first novel, won immediate praise from Turgenev and others, and marked Tolstoy’s emergence as a major writer. Its originality was striking, as Tolstoy sought to communicate with great immediacy the “poetry” of childhood—the intense emotions, confusions, and fears attendant upon a young boy, Nikolenka, as he grows up. In the years following, <i>Boyhood</i> and <i>Youth</i> appeared (a fourth volume was planned but never executed), each replete with psychological and philosophical subtleties hitherto unknown in Russian literature. In Scammell’s resplendent translation, <i>Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth</i> remains one of Tolstoy’s major works.

Author(s): Leo Tolstoy  

ISBN 10: 1847026036
ISBN 13: 9781847026033
Pages: 268
Format: Paperback
Publication: April 2006