The Russian novelist and moral philosopher Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) ranks as one of the world's great writers, and his "War and Peace" has been called the greatest novel ever written. The purpose of all true creative art, he believed, is to teach. But the message in all his stories is presented with such humour that the reader hardly realises that it is strongly didactic.

The seven parts into which this book is divided include the best known Tolstoy stories. "God Sees the Truth, but Waits" and "A Prisoner in the Caucasus" which Tolstoy himself considered as his best; "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" depicting the greed of a peasant for land; the most brilliantly told parable, "Ivan the Fool" – these are all contained in this volume.

Contents:

The Godson

The Empty Drum

How Much Land does a Man Need?

The Repentant Sinner

The Three Hermits

A Grain as Big as a Hen's Egg

The Imp and the Crust

Too Dear!

The Coffee-House of Surat

The Prisoner of the Caucasus

The Bear-Hunt

God Sees the Truth, but Waits

Ivan The Fool

Work, Death and Sickness

Esarhaddon, King of Assyria

Three Questions

Ilyás

Evil Allures, but Good Endures

Little Girls Wiser than Men

A Spark Neglected Burns the House

Two Old Men

Where Love is, God is

What Men Live by