Tolstoy: Father Sergius & Other Short Stories

By: Leo Tolstoy

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Tolstoy is perhaps best recognized as the author of the classic novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina. While he was able to sustain complex and moving plots through large novels, his ability as a writer is also demonstrated in his many short stories.

Tolstoy brings to these brief tales the same psychological depth and spiritual insight found in his larger works. In fact, his short stories are an excellent place to begin reading this great author. In them, you will find the same challenging themes of morality, forgiveness, redemption, and more.

Public Domain (P)2005 christianaudio.com

Unusual and enjoyable

Good job (as usual) by Simon Vance. These stories are more explicitly religious than some of Tolstoy's work. The collection includes the title story, along with "God Sees the Truth but Waits," "Prisoner in the Caucasus," "What Men Live By," "Where Love Is, God Is," and "Alyosha the Pot." I particularly enjoyed "What Men Live By," which has a fairy-tale quality matched by both the writing and Vance's narration. "Father Sergius" and "Prisoner in the Caucasus" are more realistic, hard-bitten tales. An unusual and enjoyable collection. Unfortunately the chapter breaks are (apparently) based on the original CD lengths rather than the individual stories, so it's hard to navigate unless you're listening straight through.