The ten stories collected in this volume demonstrate Tolstoy's artistic prowess displayed over five decades
- experimenting with prose styles & drawing on his own experiences with humour realism & compassion Inspired by his experiences in the army ' The Two Hussars' contrasts a dashing father & his mean-spirited son Illustrating Tolstoy's belief that art must serve a moral purpose ' What Men Live By' portrays an angel sent to earth to learn three existential rules of life & ' Two Old Men' shows a peasant abandoning his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in order to help his neighbours & in the highly moving ' Master & Man' Tolstoy depicts a mercenary merchant travelling with his unprotesting servant through a blizzard to close a business deal
- little realizing he may soon have to settle accounts with his maker