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Bezig met laden... What Men Live By (1881)door Leo Tolstoy
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. I first heard about this story in Cancer Ward, and I was immediately curious. Had I understood at the time how very short a story it is, I would have realized that the summary given by the characters in Cancer Ward pretty much covered the entire thing, but still, when I saw this charming little hardback at my favorite used bookstore, I was enchanted and couldn't pass it up. What Men Live By is a parable/fairy tale -- and because it's by Tolstoy you know it will be religious, moral, and austere. I confess I have a lot of sympathy for his philosophy, so I could hardly fail to be charmed by this story, with or without its religious motivations. A simple story at first glance, narrated by the one of the world's most magnificent writers, so naturally, it couldn't have been "a simple story" but one with a profound message at the end. I can tell, though, that the story suffered in the process of translation and I am going to find the original Russian version. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Onderdeel van de uitgeversreeks(en)Is opgenomen in
Classic Literature.
Fiction.
Short Stories.
HTML: Settle in with a collection of tales from the pen of one of the world's most acclaimed authors, Leo Tolstoy. The stories brought together in What Men Live By and Other Tales tackle heady philosophical questions in an engaging, easy-to-read, almost fable-like format, highlighting Tolstoy's unique genius. .Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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The title story concerns a poor shoemaker named Simon and his wife who, moved by pity, take in a man Simon finds naked and hungry. The man rarely talks but turns out to have wonderful skill at making and repairing shoes. After six years of living and working with them the man is revealed as the angel Michael, who had disobeyed God and as a result had been sent to earth to live as a man until he learned three lessons. The first of these is what dwells in man (love); the second of these is what is not given to man (to know his own needs); and the third of these is what men live by: The second story, "Three Questions", is a brief tale of a King who goes to see a hermit to ask him, well, three questions that occupy his mind: when is the right time to begin any action, whom it is most important to listen to, and what is the most important thing to do. The third story, "The Coffee House of Surat", is an engaging argument for religious brotherhood and tolerance that a great many people would do well to read 125 years now after it was published. The final story, "How Much Land Does A Man Need?", is the story so well thought of by Joyce. It tells of a peasant who is provoked by the Devil to keep seeking ever more land for himself, greed continually making him envious of those he meets who seem to have found better fortune than him, filling his heart so that he cannot be happy with that which he already has, no matter how many times he "moves up in the world", so to speak. He ends up with a nomadic tribe of Bashkirs, a Turkic people in Southern Russia, whose Chief tells him that for a thousand rubles he can have all the rich virgin land of theirs that he can encircle on foot from sun up to sun down. The catch is that if he is not back at the starting point when the sun sets, he forfeits his money. Naturally, the peasant Pahom lets his greed get the better of him and walks too far away from the start/finish point. It is a brutally hot day and he forces himself to run as hard as he can once he realizes his error in order to try to make it back to the spot where the Chief and tribe wait. He barely makes it, as the Chief sits holding his sides in laughter, but the strenuous effort was too much, and he falls dead. His grave is dug right there, all six feet of it - all the land he needs. ( )