IV.

Last Works

Returning to imaginative fiction, Tolstoy wrote a number of brief, edifying tales Stories for the People (1884-1885) with rural settings; they are models of economy in construction. Other works, intended for the educated reader, are also morally purposeful in subject matter but give fuller rein to his immense creative powers. The best known of these are the short stories “The Death of Ivan Ilych” (1886) and “Master and Man” (1895), both depicting the spiritual conversion of a man facing death; the short story The Kreutzer Sonata (1889), about a loveless marriage; the play The Power of Darkness (1888), a naturalistic tragedy of cupidity and lust leading to violence; and the novel Resurrection (1899), the story of the moral regeneration of a conscience-stricken nobleman.

At the age of 82, increasingly tormented by the disparity between his teachings and his personal wealth, and by endless quarrels with his wife, who resisted his attempts to renounce their material possessions, Tolstoy left his home one night accompanied by his doctor and his youngest daughter. He fell ill three days later and died of pneumonia on November 20, 1910, at a remote railway station. Today Tolstoy is generally considered to be one of the most influential moralists of the 19th century.