April

4 weekly readings

Good

Dobro

Buka (pseudonym)

This philosophical meditation on the nature of good and evil explores Tolstoy's doctrine of non-resistance to evil by force, arguing that the struggle against evil is properly conducted only within on

The Street Vendor

Ulichny torgovets

Anatole France (abridged translation)

This is Tolstoy's abridged translation of Anatole France's novella *Crainquebille* (1901), a devastating critique of the French justice system. The story was highly influential in exposing judicial in

From a Letter

Iz pis'ma

Alexandre Dumas (père)

This philosophical meditation appears to be extracted from a letter by Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), the French author of *The Three Musketeers* and *The Count of Monte Cristo*. Writing near the end of

The Grain the Size of a Hen's Egg

Zerno s kurinoe yaytso

Leo Tolstoy

This folk tale, written in 1886, is one of Tolstoy's most celebrated moral parables. Through the story of a giant grain of wheat and three generations of increasingly healthy elders, Tolstoy illustrat