Written over a period of more than half a century, Tolstoy¿s enchanting short stories and novellas reflect every aspect of his developing art and outlook. Volume 1 of the Everyman <i>Collected Shorter Fiction</i> is dominated by the characteristic experiences of his early life as soldier, land-owner, husband and father, the life which shaped <i>Anna Karenina</i> and <i>War and Peace</i>. It also includes several short fables which point to his later preoccupation with the religious life. Volume 2<i></i>reveals how these spiritual intimations flowered into a series of extraordinary late masterpieces which equal anything in the earlier novels for intensity and power. Readers of <i>The Death of Ivan Ilych</i>, <i>The Kreutzer Sonata</i>, <i>Father Sergius</i>, <i>Master and Man</i> and <i>Hadji Murad</i> will recognize the brilliant younger novelist, now transfigured by his passionate quest for salvation and forgiveness.