Autobiographical Novels

Childhood is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by graf Tolstoy is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of graf Tolstoy then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.

Childhood, Boyhood and Youth were originally published in separate parts in the 1850s. This trilogy portrays a fictionalized version of the author's formative years in Russia. "Childhood" and "Boyhood" were written when Tolstoy was in the army; "Youth" was composed during a visit to western Europe. Years later, he said, "What I aimed at was not to write my own history, but that of friends of my youth." Tolstoy sought to communicate the intense emotions, confusions, and fears of a young boy as he grows up.

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) commonly referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer - novelist, essayist, dramatist and philosopher - as well as pacifist Christian anarchist and educational reformer. He was the most influential member of the aristocratic Tolstoy family. His first publications were three autobiographical novels, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852-1856). They tell of a rich landowner's son and his slow realization of the differences between him and his peasants. As a fiction writer Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all novelists, particularly noted for his masterpieces War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). In their scope, breadth and realistic depiction of 19th-century Russian life, the two books stand at the peak of realist fiction. As a moral philosopher Tolstoy was notable for his ideas on nonviolent resistance through works such as The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894).