Childhood (1852) was Tolstoy’s first published work, written when he was 23, and it made his reputation immediately. An autobiographical novella narrated by the ten-year-old Nikolai Irteniev, it recreates with extraordinary vividness and emotional honesty the sensory world and inner life of a Russian nobleman’s child — the textures of domestic life, first encounters with death and loss, and the irreversible passing of innocence.
Remarkable for the maturity and precision of its observation, Childhood announced one of the great literary careers. This free EPUB download lets you trace Tolstoy’s genius from its very beginning.