Short Fiction Tolstoy, Leo: Family Happiness. v1, 20 Sep 2016

[AlexBell]

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian writer regarded as one of the greatest authors of realist fiction.

His parents died during his infancy, and he was brought up by relatives. As a young man he drank and gambled heavily, and failed at university. In 1851 he joined the army and fought during the Crimean War, and began to write. In 1862, at age 34, he married Sophia (Sonya) Behrs, aged 18, who bore him 13 children, eight of whom survived childhood. Their early married life was happy, and she acted as his secretary, proofreader, and financial manager. In the 1870s he experienced spiritual conversion, and renounced many of his previous beliefs in favour of ascetic religious beliefs including pacifism. His marriage deteriorated, and shortly before his death at age 82 he absconded from the family home in the depths of winter, and died soon after of pneumonia.

Family Happiness was written in 1859, and tells of the marriage of an older man to a much younger woman, their mutual courtship and happiness, and how their relationship changed with time. The story is told in the first person by the wife.

The text was taken from the University of Adelaide ebook site, and seems very similar to the text in Wikisource and the text in Delphi Classics. I have been unable to find an online source of the original text. I have silently corrected many typos, used British English, and made changes to spelling and hyphenation using oxforddictionaries.com.

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