Master and Man Leo Tolstoy 9781535299374 Books
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Brekhunov has a passion to acquire a grove of oak trees in the nearby village of Gorachkin. He fears that unless he gets there as soon as possible, someone else will buy it before he can. The enterprising Brekhunov intends to have the trees cut down to make into sledge-runners; the leftovers will be sold for firewood. From this deal, he hopes to realize a tidy profit. He figures that the grove of trees is worth more than twenty thousand rubles. The owner is asking only ten thousand but will probably take seven thousand, with three thousand on account. Brekhunov will use seven hundred rubles of his own money for the down payment and make up the rest with some church money that he has in his safekeeping. Brekhunov is a church elder.
Master and Man Leo Tolstoy 9781535299374 Books
I have a weakness for Tolstoy and the realism he uses to write his novels. I added “and the realism” but I’m pretty sure if Tolstoy wasn’t involved the realism wouldn’t be nearly as attractive. I’ve read books by lesser authors who took great pains to give minute details, but in many of those books the details are dead-weight. They authors seem to be using the details to say “Look what I am doing. Aren’t I grand.”In Tolstoy’s books the details thrill me. They breathe life into his worlds which then turn into my worlds. For Tolstoy the details are the medium of expression just as color is the medium of expression for Monet. Tolstoy’s details are the existence of his characters.
Unlike Tolstoy’s great works such as Anna Karenina and War and Peace, Master and Man comes off as a short story in comparison. Perhaps due to the short space to tell the story Master and Man is crawling with details. They almost overlap and lay on top of each other, and yet the images formed are crystal clear and meaningful. Even the horse, Mukhorty, lives in his own unique way:
Picking his way out of the dung-strewn stable, Mukhorty frisked, and making play with his hind leg pretended that he meant to kick Nikita, who was running at a trot beside him to the pump.
“Now then, now then, you rascal!” Nikita called out, well knowing how carefully Mukhorty threw out his hind leg to touch his greasy sheepskin coat but not to strike him—a trick Nikita much appreciated.
The simplest of details is used to move the story along. As Andreevitch and Nikita head out in a sledge on business we feel the conditions in which they travel with a simple:
The snow swept down from a neighbouring shed and whirled about in the corner near the bath-house.
And then a few paragraphs later we get early signs of foreboding with these details:
As soon as they passed the blacksmith’s hut, the last in the village, they realized that the wind was much stronger than they had thought. The road could hardly be seen. The tracks left by the sledge-runners were immediately covered by snow and the road was only distinguished by the fact that it was higher than the rest of the ground.
We couldn’t celebrate Tolstoy’s details any more than we could celebrate Monet’s paint if they didn’t form a coherent picture. The picture in Master and Man centers on Andreevich, an ambitious merchant, and Nikita, a peasant laborer who often serves Andreevich. In just a few lines the relationship and personality of the two men starts coming into focus:
He was quite aware that Vasili Andreevich was cheating him, but at the same time he felt that it was useless to try to clear up his accounts with him or explain his side of the matter, and that as long as he had nowhere to go he must accept what he could get.
Now, having heard his master’s order to harness, he went as usual cheerfully and willingly to the shed, stepping briskly and easily on his rather turned-in feet;
We start to understand the Andreevich’s arrogance to cheat good men and call it fair, and Nikita’s easy humility.
In a few short chapters things go from bad to worse due to Andreevich’s insistence that they get to the desired destination where he aims to take advantage of a young landowner’s naiveté and purchase his woods for one-third the worth. He must get there before other merchant’s bid up the price in spite of the dangerous weather conditions.
The success of the book depends upon Tolstoy’s ability to make the reader accept a 180 degree change in Andreevich’s soul that happens two or three short hours. We go from Andreevich leaving Nikkita to die in the blizzard:
“As for him,” he thought of Nikita—“it’s all the same to him whether he lives or dies. What is his life worth? He won’t grudge his life, but I have something to live for, thank God.”
To his decision to lay down on Nikita to try to warm him back to life:
“There, and you say you are dying! Lie still and get warm, that’s our way . . .” began Vasili Andreevich.
But to his great surprise he could say no more, for tears came to his eyes and his lower jaw began to quiver rapidly. He stopped speaking and only gulped down the risings in his throat. “Seems I was badly frightened and have gone quite weak,” he thought. But this weakness was not only unpleasant, but gave him a peculiar joy such as he had never felt before.
Tolstoy had what many author’s today are missing—a clear sense of morality. I’m not talking about political correctness or popular sentimental movements, but a deep sense of what is right and what is wrong as it applies across the millenniums of mankind. This sense of morality plays out clearly in Master and Man. In lesser hands a sense of morality weights a book down and can warp the truths it is trying to convey. In Master and Man Toltoy’s understanding of the complexity of existence does not allow his sense of morality to become cumbersome and deadening. Instead, the mixture of complexity and moral intuition gives the story wings and it soars.
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Tags : Master and Man [Leo Tolstoy] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Brekhunov has a passion to acquire a grove of oak trees in the nearby village of Gorachkin. He fears that unless he gets there as soon as possible,Leo Tolstoy,Master and Man,CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,1535299371,Literary,FICTION Thrillers Suspense,Fiction,Fiction Literary,FictionLiterary,FictionShort Stories (single author)
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Master and Man Leo Tolstoy 9781535299374 Books Reviews
A brilliant insightful exploration of the human foibles that we all share in various degrees, told with love and understanding and pictorically unique. To reread as a rare treat whenever we begin to lose sight of what true excellence really is. A gem. Unforgettable.
An interesting look at the inherent goodness of man upon finding himself in a life or death situation. A different take on Tolstoy.
It is a brilliant short story that captures the lives and passions of two men. How one who is rich and working hard to be richer, but he is not cruel or shallow. In his mind it is for his family and the respect it will earn him in his community. The other is a servant. He is a good man and everyone agrees a great worker. He is also an alcoholic who lives on the edge of economic destruction for his family because of his drinking. When he is sober, he works hard and is kind to all. A fatal snow storm causes a long look at their respective lives.
In this book Tolstoy is focused on religious aspect of life. He explains the relationship between people as well as the expectation of afterlife. There are extraordinary characters and stories which are connected with religious supernatural beliefs. He does a great job telling us stories that we can enjoy reading. He makes people think about death and after. It is a real good book particularly religious people will love it.
What a story! This is a remarkably effective simple tale of two men, a businessman and his trusty assistant, who set off in the afternoon of a cold and bitter Russian day with a reliable horse in search of a town where a business meeting is to take place. They get lost, and a challenge for survival ensues. Read alongside Jack London's "To Build a Fire," and you will never see a pretty snowfall in the same way again.
If you are unfamiliar with the epic works of Tolstoy, this is as good an introduction to his world as any of the rest. Well worth the hour or so it will take to read.
Note Best enjoyed while wrapped in the arms of a loved one and while drinking a cup of hot coffee in front of a fireplace.
I have a weakness for Tolstoy and the realism he uses to write his novels. I added “and the realism” but I’m pretty sure if Tolstoy wasn’t involved the realism wouldn’t be nearly as attractive. I’ve read books by lesser authors who took great pains to give minute details, but in many of those books the details are dead-weight. They authors seem to be using the details to say “Look what I am doing. Aren’t I grand.”
In Tolstoy’s books the details thrill me. They breathe life into his worlds which then turn into my worlds. For Tolstoy the details are the medium of expression just as color is the medium of expression for Monet. Tolstoy’s details are the existence of his characters.
Unlike Tolstoy’s great works such as Anna Karenina and War and Peace, Master and Man comes off as a short story in comparison. Perhaps due to the short space to tell the story Master and Man is crawling with details. They almost overlap and lay on top of each other, and yet the images formed are crystal clear and meaningful. Even the horse, Mukhorty, lives in his own unique way
Picking his way out of the dung-strewn stable, Mukhorty frisked, and making play with his hind leg pretended that he meant to kick Nikita, who was running at a trot beside him to the pump.
“Now then, now then, you rascal!” Nikita called out, well knowing how carefully Mukhorty threw out his hind leg to touch his greasy sheepskin coat but not to strike him—a trick Nikita much appreciated.
The simplest of details is used to move the story along. As Andreevitch and Nikita head out in a sledge on business we feel the conditions in which they travel with a simple
The snow swept down from a neighbouring shed and whirled about in the corner near the bath-house.
And then a few paragraphs later we get early signs of foreboding with these details
As soon as they passed the blacksmith’s hut, the last in the village, they realized that the wind was much stronger than they had thought. The road could hardly be seen. The tracks left by the sledge-runners were immediately covered by snow and the road was only distinguished by the fact that it was higher than the rest of the ground.
We couldn’t celebrate Tolstoy’s details any more than we could celebrate Monet’s paint if they didn’t form a coherent picture. The picture in Master and Man centers on Andreevich, an ambitious merchant, and Nikita, a peasant laborer who often serves Andreevich. In just a few lines the relationship and personality of the two men starts coming into focus
He was quite aware that Vasili Andreevich was cheating him, but at the same time he felt that it was useless to try to clear up his accounts with him or explain his side of the matter, and that as long as he had nowhere to go he must accept what he could get.
Now, having heard his master’s order to harness, he went as usual cheerfully and willingly to the shed, stepping briskly and easily on his rather turned-in feet;
We start to understand the Andreevich’s arrogance to cheat good men and call it fair, and Nikita’s easy humility.
In a few short chapters things go from bad to worse due to Andreevich’s insistence that they get to the desired destination where he aims to take advantage of a young landowner’s naiveté and purchase his woods for one-third the worth. He must get there before other merchant’s bid up the price in spite of the dangerous weather conditions.
The success of the book depends upon Tolstoy’s ability to make the reader accept a 180 degree change in Andreevich’s soul that happens two or three short hours. We go from Andreevich leaving Nikkita to die in the blizzard
“As for him,” he thought of Nikita—“it’s all the same to him whether he lives or dies. What is his life worth? He won’t grudge his life, but I have something to live for, thank God.”
To his decision to lay down on Nikita to try to warm him back to life
“There, and you say you are dying! Lie still and get warm, that’s our way . . .” began Vasili Andreevich.
But to his great surprise he could say no more, for tears came to his eyes and his lower jaw began to quiver rapidly. He stopped speaking and only gulped down the risings in his throat. “Seems I was badly frightened and have gone quite weak,” he thought. But this weakness was not only unpleasant, but gave him a peculiar joy such as he had never felt before.
Tolstoy had what many author’s today are missing—a clear sense of morality. I’m not talking about political correctness or popular sentimental movements, but a deep sense of what is right and what is wrong as it applies across the millenniums of mankind. This sense of morality plays out clearly in Master and Man. In lesser hands a sense of morality weights a book down and can warp the truths it is trying to convey. In Master and Man Toltoy’s understanding of the complexity of existence does not allow his sense of morality to become cumbersome and deadening. Instead, the mixture of complexity and moral intuition gives the story wings and it soars.
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