Childhood (1852) is a novel by Leo Tolstoy. Published at the beginning of his career as a leading Russian author of his generation, Childhood is the first in a trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels tracing Nikolenka’s journey from innocence to experience. As a record of the past, a nostalgic reminder of a lost world, Childhood is one of Tolstoy’s most personal works

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was born at Yasnya Polyana, in Tula Province, fourth of five children. Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all novelists, particularly noted for his masterpieces War and Peace and Anna Karenina; in their scope, breadth and realistic depiction of Russian life, the two books stand at the peak of realistic fiction. As a moral philosopher he was notable for his ideas on nonviolent resistance through his work The Kingdom of God is Within You, which in turn influenced such twentieth-century figures as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. In the 1850s Tolstoy also began his literary career with an autobiographical trilogy: Childhood (1852), Boyhood (1854), and Youth (1857). His first publications tell of a rich landowner's son and his slow realization of the differences between him and his peasant playmates. Although in later life Tolstoy rejected these books as sentimental, a great deal of his own life is revealed, and the books still have relevance for their telling of the universal story of growing up.

The third and final novel in Tolstoy’s Autobiographical Trilogy, following Childhood and Boyhood. In Youth, Leo Tolstoy’s protagonist—now a fervent sixteen-year-old—eagerly prepares to strike out on his own. And as he does so, he begins to savor life in all its glory, both grand and miniscule. From his interactions with friends, old and new, to his perceptions of the beauty of nature, the young man has an entirely new world to look forward to. But harsh lessons are waiting to teach him that far-flung expectations are rarely fulfilled to the dreamer’s specifications, and that disappointment, anger, and grief are constant foes that must be contended with if one is to truly live. Youth concludes Tolstoy’s semiautobiographical trilogy, originally planned as a four-part series of novels tentatively called the “Four Epochs of Growth.” The completed works together form a remarkable expression of the great Russian novelist’s early voice and vision, which would ultimately make him one of the most renowned and revered authors in literary history. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

Begun in 1851, when Tolstoy was twenty-three and serving as a cadet in the Russian army, Childhood, the first part of Tolstoy’s first novel, won immediate praise from Turgenev and others, and marked Tolstoy’s emergence as a major writer. Its originality was striking, as Tolstoy sought to communicate with great immediacy the “poetry” of childhood—the intense emotions, confusions, and fears attendant upon a young boy, Nikolenka, as he grows up. In the years following, Boyhood and Youth appeared (a fourth volume was planned but never executed), each replete with psychological and philosophical subtleties hitherto unknown in Russian literature. In Scammell’s resplendent translation, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth remains one of Tolstoy’s major works.