Welcome back to Hardcore Literature, your favourite book club.

Deep dives into the greatest books ever written.

Provocative poems, evocative epics, and life-changing literary analyses.

We don't just read the great books. We live them.

Together we'll suck the marrow out of Shakespeare, Homer, Tolstoy and many more.

We'll relish the most moving art ever committed

to the page and stage from every age. Join us and me, your host, Benjamin McAvoy, on the reading

adventure of a lifetime with hardcore literature. Welcome back to hardcore literature. How are you doing today? I hope you're doing well and I hope your reading is going well.

And today we are going to appreciate a tremendous short story by Leo Tolstoy.

A short story that James Joyce called the greatest story that the literature of the world

knows. And indeed, if the craftsman responsible for the exquisite gems in Dubliners, says something

like that, then we must pay attention. This short story was written in 1886 and if you know your

Tolstoy, you'll know that that means this story came after the masterpieces for which he largely has

his reputation today. The sprawling epic and classic of Russian literature that is war and peace,

the psychologically complex character study that is Anna Karenina. 1886 is a fine literary vintage

when it comes to the short fiction of Leo Tolstoy. But it's worth bearing in mind that what we have

here is not a slice of life style of schrostoy. But it's worth bearing in mind that what we have here is not a slice of life style of

short story that we might expect from Anton Chekhov, nor is it the kind of naturalistic short story

that we might expect from Turgienov. The key to appreciating this story, how much land does a man need,

is to understand that it is a parable. It is a parable, which means it has a lesson for us. It is a

teaching tale. It is didactic. And we have Tolstoy being overtly moralizing here.

And of course that is something that we would expect from Tolstoy.

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