The kind of story that made him Tolstoy the Great : Master and Man

With Master and Man, in the Pevear-Volokhonsky translation of Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich & other stories," we get back to the kind of writing that we love in Tolstoy, that made him one of the great writers in the history of world literature. In Kreutzer and The Devile he demonstrated that he was not Dostoyevky and not meant to be, totally out of touch when trying to establish characters on the verge of insanity and on the fringes of society, the outcasts and aliens that populate so much of 20th- and 21st-century fiction, especially short fiction. Master and Man is truly Tolstoyan - about social class, about the interaction between two fairly conventional characters, and the collision of forces within the mechanisms and conventions of society. First half of the story establishes the wealthy but greedy landowner, Vasily, and his servant, Nikita - Vasily has to head off to make a land purchase in a neighboring village at a price that's very cheap, needs to get there before someone else scoops up the land (never mind that he has no qualms about paying way under market value), enlisting Nikita's help they set off in a terrible snowstorm and lots of things go wrong as they lose the road, go around in circles, finally taken in by a large family but Vasily insists they just arm up and then push on - Nikita, in his muzhik way, just goes along, he's completely dependent and subservient, but far wiser and kinder than Vasily (master). Much of the drama of the story develops from how they treat of mistreat their very smart horse: it seems cruel to bring the horse out again into the storm, but Vasily is totally unfeeling on this matter, and Nikita just hopes for the best. Use of animals to develop themes is another Tolstoyan signature.