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Twenty-Three Tales

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Uncluttered by the complexities of plot and character that daunt so many readers of the longer Russian masterpieces, Tolstoy's tales illumine eternal truths with forceful brevity. While inspired by the sense of spiritual certainty, their narrative quality, subtle humor, and visionary power lift them far above the common run of "religious" literature. Moralists purport to tell us what our lives should mean, and how we should live them. Tolstoy, on the other hand, has an uncanny gift for simply conveying what it means to be truly alive Tolstoy is one of the great masters of fiction--and of Christian fiction. And the stories you will find here are many of his best. Newly designed and typeset in a modern 6-by-9-inch format by Waking Lion Press.

298 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1907

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About the author

Leo Tolstoy

7,941 books28.4k followers
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой; most appropriately used Liev Tolstoy; commonly Leo Tolstoy in Anglophone countries) was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist fiction. Many consider Tolstoy to have been one of the world's greatest novelists. Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer.

His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
Profile Image for Abolfazl.
91 reviews49 followers
November 10, 2019
حکایات پند آموز با نقالی تولستوی.
Profile Image for Muhammad  Ehab.
97 reviews32 followers
April 6, 2019
مجموعة من القصص القصيرة يتحدث فيها تولستوي عن القيم الإنسانيّة، ستقرأ هنا حكايات عن الرحمة والعطف، عن التعاون بين الناس، عن الجشع البشريّ والزهد الإنسانيّ، عن سر الحكمة، أو باختصار، عن ما يجعل الإنسان إنسانًا.
المجموعة عبارة عن ترجمة صادرة عن دار تبارك لمجموعة قصصيّة لتولستوي عناونها بالإنجليزيّة Twenty Three Tales بينما اختار المترجمون هنا أن يترجموا عشرًا من هذه القصص للعربيّة وأظن أن هذه أول ترجمة عربيّة لهذه القصص. عنوان المجموعة "ثلاثة أسئلة" هو عنوان اختاره تولستوي لإحدى القصص يسأل فيها ملك ما ثلاثة أسئلة عن سر الوجود وهي
ما هو الوقت المناسب لفعل ما؟ (سؤال الزمن؛ الماضي والحاضر والمستقبل)
ما هو هذا الفعل المناسب؟ (سؤال الأخلاق)
من هم الأشخاص الذين يجب علينا أن نثق بهم؟ (سؤال العلاقات الاجتماعيّة)
يصيغ تولستوي فلسفته في صورة قصصيّة ليمرر خلالها حكمة السنين، تلك الحكمة النابعة من تجارب مريرة وثقافة واسعة، لذلك تمر مباشرة وتترك بصمتها على القلب دون حجاب.
Profile Image for Pardis.
707 reviews
July 31, 2013
بر اساس یادداشت مترجم، این مجموعه داستان های تولستوی را میتوان نوعی مثنوی مولانا در فرهنگ روس دانست. با این تفاوت که این مجموعه داستان، ساده و سر راست است. وجه مشترک این کتاب با مثنوی در این است که آفرینندگان این دو اثر جذاب و موثر، بر کتابهای آسمانی تکیه دارند. تولستوی بر انجیل و مولوی بر قرآن مجید. لودویک ویتگنشتاین، فیلسوف برجسته ی معاصر که شیفته ی عرفان بود، در نامه ای به راسل، که او نیز از فلاسفه ی برجسته ی سده ی بیستم میلادی بود، مینویسد:

" داستانهای تولستوی را، که تازه منتشر شده، خواندم. عالی است. اگر نخوانده ای بگیر و بخوان. "

شما هم اگر از خواندن داستانهای پرپیچ و خم به ستوه آمده اید و باید ذهنتان را کمی با فضاهای ساده ی داستانی به یک تعطیلات موقت مهمان کنید، خواندن این مجموعه خالی از لطف نیست.
Profile Image for Mahsa.
35 reviews3 followers
October 21, 2025
مهر 1404

در روند تولستوی‌خوانی به این کتاب رسیدم که مجموعه‌ای از داستان‌های کوتاه اوست. نیمی از این داستان‌ها نوشته‌ی خود تولستوی‌ هستند و نیمه‌ی دیگر بازنویسی‌هایی از قصه‌های عامیانه‌ای هستند که میان مردم روسیه و گاه فرانسه رواج داشته‌اند.

برخی از داستان‌ها را واقعاً دوست داشتم از جمله (نادیده گرفتن جرقه، آتش گرفتن خانه) و (چه مقدار زمین نیاز است) که هر دو برایم تاثیرگذار بودند. در مجموع سطح داستان‌ها قابل قبول است اما به نظرم نیمه‌ی نخست کتاب که شامل اثار خود تولستوی هستند از نیمه ی دوم کتاب که داستان های عامیانه هستند تاثیر عمیق‌تر و صمیمانه‌تری دارد.

درون‌مایه‌ی بیشتر داستان‌ها رنگ و بویی دینی دارد و به پیوند میان خداوند، نیکی، مهربانی و دوری از بدی تاکید می‌کند. به قول مترجم، این آثار از نظر مضمون با مثنوی مولانا شباهت‌هایی دارند .

در کل کتاب‌های کوتاه تولستوی برایم شاهکارهایی بی‌نظیرند و اگرچه این مجموعه در مقایسه با دیگر آثار کوتاه او کمی ضعیف‌تر است، اما خواندنش همچنان خالی است لطف نیست .
Profile Image for James Klagge.
Author 13 books97 followers
December 23, 2016
These are what Tolstoy thought of as great literature once he decided his own extraordinary novels were worthless. These were basically re-written folk tales. I recently read and reviewed Tolstoy's What is Art?, where this later view was set forth.
While Tolstoy viewed these as great literature, I consider them at least to be great stories. They promote Biblical values for the most part. But surprisingly there are very positive portrayals of other religions (e.g., "The Coffeehouse of Surat"), especially the Muslims in the stories. Even when the Muslims are the bad guys, they are very respectfully presented.
Wittgenstein loved this book and occasionally gave copies to friends. He mentioned four of the tales as favorites that others should read--"What Men Live By," "Two Old Men," "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" and, his personal favorite "The Three Hermits." Tolstoy himself considered, toward the end of his life, that "God Sees the Truth, but Waits" and "Prisoner of the Caucasus" were his best work. I liked a number of the stories, including these. But I also liked "Too Dear," "Three Questions," and "The Godson," which addressed some less-common values.
Profile Image for Sara.
5 reviews1 follower
February 10, 2019
تولستوی را بیشتر با جنگ و صلح او می شناسیم و آناکارنینایش.بیست و سه قصه داستان های کوتاهی است که اخلاق و انسانیت و عرفان و عشق را به
معرض نمایش گذاشته است.سادگی و لحن گیرا و کوتاهی و ایجاز از ویژگی های کتاب است و می توانید به راحتی در دنیای عرفان سفر کنید .با توجه به گفته مترجم کتاب این داستان ها را می توان نوعی مثنوی مولانا در فرهنگ روس دانست.با خواندن کتاب خود این حقیقت را در می یابید.عرفایی چون جلال الدین و تولستوی علیرغم اختلافشان در زبان و جغرافیا و زمان,هر دو از یک حقیقت سخن گفته اند و هر دو رسول هستند با یک رسالت.مطابقات و مقارناتی که به شاخه شاخه های برآمده از ذرختی هستند که ریشه اش عشق است.همان عشقی که به عقیده سهروردی اصل وجود و خانه اصیل هستی و خلقت است.چشمه ای که تولستوی و مولانا از آن نوشیده اند چشمه معرفت بوده است و آن معرفتی که بدان نایل شده اند,معنای حقیقت عشقی است که آبشخور اصلی اندیشه های آن ها شده است.درست آنگونه که داستایوفسکی می گوید:گرانقدرتر از عشق چه چیزی وجود دارد؟عشق برتر از زندگی است,عشق سرلوحه زندگی است.بنابراین چگونه ممکن است که زندگی در برابراو سر تسلیم فرود نیاورد؟تولستوی محو در این حقیقت بود و آسوده بال در دریای معرفت شناگری می کرد.
Profile Image for Autumn Kearney.
1,205 reviews
February 21, 2024
Even though Tolstoy is one of my favorite authors this collection could have been better. Perhaps it’s not his writing that is at fault, but the skill of the translator.
Profile Image for Mrekhy ET.
171 reviews174 followers
June 20, 2020
الكتاب مكوّن من 10 قصص قصيرة، كل قصة فيها حكمة أو فكرة من وراها.

القصص فكرتني ب"كليلة ودمنة" و"ألف ليلة وليلة"، الإسلوب راقٍ، وعلى الرغم إن الكلام سمعناه كتير قبل كده؛ ولكنه مش مُبتذل ومكتوب بشكل جميل. القصص تنفع للكبار وللأطفال كقصة قبل النوم.

الترجمة حلوة، بس الأخطاء الإملائية مزعجة قليلاً.


Profile Image for Ali Najafiyan.
146 reviews6 followers
February 27, 2023
بیست و سه قصه کوتاه از لئون تولستوی که داستان های ابتدایی به قلم خود و مابقی داستان های عامیانه و سینه به سینه ای است که به قلم اون نقل میشود . داستان های اولیه غنا و پختگی و روایت قدرتمندتری دارند و نیمه دوم کتاب که به روایت داستان های عامیانه می گذرد بسیار ساده با مضامین سطحی اخلاقی و مذهبیست .
Profile Image for Peter Holford.
155 reviews3 followers
September 14, 2018
This is my first foray into the works of Tolstoy and, rather than start with War and Peace (literally), I thought I'd go with this little collection of short stories. Also, being a little book, I thought it would be a good companion for my recent journey into Russia.

I am so glad to have read this book. I enjoyed each of the 23 stories but at least eight of them strongly affected me. Many are enjoyable as simple folk tales. Others are morality stories with strong biblical allusions (if not direct references). Tolstoy was clearly a master storyteller with a strong desire to influence his community and culture for good. For example, 'A spark neglected burns the house' (1885) on the importance of forgiveness and overlooking offence. Another is 'Two old men' (1885) concerning a pilgrimage across Russia to Jerusalem. Tolstoy opens that story with a quote from John 4:23 - 'But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth'. There is also a nice touch of simple wisdom as found in 'The Three Hermits' (1886) concerning a bishop's voyage from Archangel to the Solovetsk Monastery and 'The Coffee-house of Surat' (1893). 'How much land does a man need?' (1886) is a wise allegory as applicable today as for any time in history.

Reading them whilst living among Russians did enliven both my understanding of the literature and my experience of the people, but even apart from that experience, I can recommend this little volume to anyone thinking of making a start on one of the great Russian authors. Now onto something bigger ... Anna Karenina? Not quite so long as War and Peace.
Profile Image for Toby Smith.
100 reviews
June 23, 2025
A beautifully written collection of tales. As my first exposure to Tolstoy, I was taken in by his writing, the cinematic nature of his prose, and the worlds he evoked. His characters always felt real, even in some of the more fantastically surreal stories.

Not all of the tales are equal, though all contain something of merit. Some of them, like 'Two Old Men' and 'How Much Land Does a Man Need?' are positively exquisite, with truly meaningful moral lessons at their core, and lots of striking imagery.

I've heard of people referring to Tolstoy as 'God', and it isn't a stretch to understand why. The writing here is akin to that of The Bible.
Profile Image for Sedmorteza.
57 reviews21 followers
April 23, 2022
بسم الله

نشستن پای نصیحت‌های پیرمرد روس.

داستان‌های این مجموعه، بی‌شباهت به حکایت‌های پندآموز سعدی نیست. تولستوی در هر کدام از این داستان‌ها، دغدغه‌ی اخلاق و انسانیت دارد. گاهی موفق می‌شود به واسطه‌ی داستان پندهایش را منتقل کند و گاهی در خلق داستان ضعیف عمل می‌کند و به واقعْ داستان، تبدیل به سخنرانی اخلاقی می‌شود!

ترجمه‌ی کتاب صرفا کارراه‌انداز است؛ وگرنه خیلی می‌توانست بهتر باشد.
Profile Image for Somi_kohan.
46 reviews2 followers
November 11, 2020
ترجمه افتضاح.
نمی‌دونم بخاطر ترجمه بود یا نه، به نظرم داستان‌هاش خیلی سطحی بودند.
Profile Image for Arielle.
166 reviews
July 6, 2020
Some of the stories were absolutely outstanding. I especially loved How Much Land Does a Man Need? I have also read a children's adaptation of Three Questions, so it was fun to read the original story.

A couple of quotes I'd like to remember:

"You thought life dwelt in you alone, but I have drawn aside the veil of delusion, and have let you see that by doing evil to others you have done it to yourself also. Life is one in them all, and yours is but a portion of this same common life. And only in that one part of life that is yours, can you make life better or worse—increasing or decreasing it. You can only improve life in yourself by destroying the barriers that divide your life from that of others, and by considering others as yourself and loving them. By so doing you increase your share of life. You injure your life when you think of it as the only life, and try to add to its welfare at the expense of other lives."
-- From Esarhaddon, King of Assyria

"They have begun to understand that with death constantly threatening each of us, the only reasonable business of every man is to spend the years, months, hours and minutes allotted to him—in unity and love."
-- From Work, Death and Sickness
1 review
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July 5, 2025
ကျွန်ုပ်တို့ခရစ်ယာန်ဆိုတဲ့ ဘုရားသခင်ကိုယုံကြည်သူတိုင်းဟာ ကျမ်းစာအတိုင်းလိုက်နာကျင့်ကြံနေထိုင်ရမည်မှာ အခြေခံကျတဲ့ခရစ်ယာန်ယုံကြည်ခြင်းဖြစ်တယ်။ ဒါပေမဲ့ ကျမ်းစာပါစကားတွေကို နားလည်လက်ခံဖို့ဟာ အင်မတန်လေးနက်ခက်ခဲတဲ့အရာဖြစ်တာမလို့ ဝိရောဓိများစွာနဲ့ အယူအဆများစွာကွဲပြားခြားနားလာစေခြင်းတွေကိုဖြစ်ပွားစေပါတယ်။
လီယိုတော်လ်စတွိုင်းရဲ့ဝတ္ထုတိုတွေကိုဖတ်ယူပြီးကျမ်းစာပါအကြောင်းအရာတိုင်းကိုနားလည်သိရှိနိုင်သည်ဟုမဆိုလိုနိုင်ပေမဲ့ အဖိုးအခများစွာမပေးရဘဲ စိတ်ကျေနပ်ခြင်းအတွက် ကြည့်လိုက်ရနားထောင်လိုက်ရတဲ့ အင်တာနက်ပေါ်က ၅မိနစ်စာ၊ ၁၀မိနစ်စာ ဒေသနာများကနေရယူတာထက်တော့ ကျမ်းစာစကားတွေရဲ့ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ကို ပိုပြီးနားလည်လက်ခံစေမယ်လို့မြင်မိတယ်။

ကျွန်ုပ်မှာသာ ကလေးရှိရင် အိပ်ရာဝင်ပုံပြင်တွေထက် တော်လ်စတွိုင်းဝတ္ထုတိုတွေကို ရွတ်ဖတ်ပြပေးမှာသေချာပါတယ်။

ကျွန်ုပ်ဟာအဲ့လောက်တောင် သူ့ရဲ့စာပေအပေါ်ယုံကြည်သက်ဝင်မိပါတယ်။ ။
55 reviews
February 28, 2015
A mixed bag. Two were amazing (What Men Live By and Two Old Men), and several others were good.
Profile Image for عزام الشثري.
616 reviews752 followers
December 7, 2019
تمنّيت أن تكون تجربتي الأولى مع تولستوي جميلة، لكنّ تراكم الاخطاء الطباعيّة مع سطحيّة القصص مع تواضع الترجمة أحبطتني..
Profile Image for Emma.
487 reviews
December 26, 2021
1) Tales for Children
God Sees the Truth, But Waits - 4/5
The Prisoner of the Caucasus - 2/5
The Bear Hunt - 1/5
2) Popular Stories
What Men Live By - 2/5
Quench the Spark - 2/5
Two Old Men - 3/5
Where Love Is, God Is - 4/5
3) A Fairy Tale
Ivan the Fool - 2/5
4) Stories Written to Pictures
Evil Allures, But Good Endures - 1/5
Wisdom of Children - 2/5
Ilyas - 2/5
5) Folk-Tales Retold
The Three Hermits - 1/5
Promoting a Devil - 2/5
How Much Land Does a Man Need? - 3/5
The Grain - 1/5
The Godson - 1/5
Repentance - 3/5
The Empty Drum - 4/5
6) Adaptations from the French
The Coffee-House of Surat - 5/5
Too Dear! - 4/5
7) Stories Given to Aid Persecuted Jews
Esarhaddon, King of Assyria - 2/5
Work, Death and Sickness - 2/5
The Three Questions - 2/5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
73 reviews21 followers
December 30, 2023
Disclaimer: I haven't read all 23 tales yet, but only 6 of the 7 "Folk-Tales Retold". In particular, I read an illustrated German edition "Volkslegenden", translated 1885 in Odesa, published 1948 "under permission of the allied military government", and it was a surprisingly light read.

There's really not that much to say about the tales: They are in-between fairy tales and religious tales, refreshingly different from the typical popular Russian short stories, and a nice insight into 19th century Russia but also into Tolstoy's character who seemed to be a good person. I wouldn't say that they are terribly memorable, but I can't say anything bad about them either.

Since Tolstoy's writings are public domain, I will continue to read the remaining 17 tales online in English or Russian.
Profile Image for Eva.
588 reviews16 followers
November 14, 2024
I will be using these as bedtime stories for my children.
What a lovely bunch of fairy tales, legends, and parables! I was truly impressed with the imagery in the stories used to illustrate Biblical principles. The last three stories weren't as solid as the first with Bible truths, but I had no real favorite because they were all good in their own little way! What a way to start off the Thanksgiving season. I'm so glad I picked this book up in Powell's Bookstore when I was there last year.

4.5/5
Didn't expect anything less from my favorite classical author.
Profile Image for John Richard.
400 reviews3 followers
March 19, 2022
Had this sitting around the house and finally got around to finishing. Tolstoy’s always good for some wisdom, although sometimes the stories are just a bit crazy. I had read a few of these in the past…some of the longer ones or ones on wealth and busyness etc are really good and still true today. Nice to read Tolstoy and for it not to take so long!
Profile Image for Janet Bird.
519 reviews4 followers
Want to read
March 31, 2023
Poems again... my little hardback is 'World's Classics' : Humphrey Milford Oxford University Press London Edinburgh Glasgow New York Toronto Melbourne Bombay. Might be the 1917 reprinting, inscribed on flyleaf 'Lilian Manifold October 1919'
78 reviews
September 28, 2019
Interesting take on biblical and sometimes eastern philosophy (how sacrilegious)
Profile Image for Mahdi Moghaddam.
10 reviews1 follower
December 15, 2020
داستان های کوتاه و آموزنده خوبی داشت، برای کسایی که طرفدار داستان کوتاه هستند خوبه.
Profile Image for Eslam.
36 reviews
January 11, 2022
عشر قصص و عشرة دروس في الحياة ✨
Profile Image for Saleh.
16 reviews3 followers
July 8, 2022
تجربتي الثانيه لقراءة قصص قصيره لتولستوي ولن تكون الاخيره، كلاسيكية حكيمه تملأها البصيره ، انصح بها الجميع صغير وكبير
Profile Image for Rehana.
25 reviews2 followers
January 6, 2023
قصص جملية ذات مغزى عميق يُقرأ مرة وثانية وثلاث
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