Six of the narratives included in the present volume are representative of Count Tolstoy's literary activity in the years 1856, 1857, and 1859; the first, which gives the volume its name, is of earlier date, having been written in 1852, the same year as "Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth." Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian author, a master of realistic fiction and one of the world's greatest novelists. Tolstoy is best known for his two longest works, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, which are commonly regarded as among the finest novels ever written.