Tolstoy's stories are in some sense founded on a paradox. They are carefully and beautifully composed tales by a genius who did not give his whole alle giance to this formal method of composi tion. It is an exciting paradox, and like many such paradoxes in art it produced with some incidental defects powerful and unforgettable results.

Introduction by John Barley

Family Happiness

The Cossacks

The Death of Ivan llych

The Devil

The Krcutzcr Sonata

Master and Man

Father Sergius

Hadji Murrad

Alyosha the Pot

A Chronology

A Bibliography