This Norton Critical Edition presents twelve of Tolstoy's best-known stories, based on the Louise and Aylmer Maude translations (except 'œAlyosha Gorshok'), which have been revised by the editor for enhanced comprehension and annotated for student readers. The Second Edition newly includes 'œA Prisoner in the Caucasus,' 'œFather Sergius,' and 'œAfter the Ball,' in addition to Michael Katz's new translation of 'œAlyosha Gorshok.' Together these stories represent the best of the author's short fiction before War and Peace and after Anna Karenina .'œBackgrounds and Sources' includes two Tolstoy memoirs, A History of Yesterday (1851) and The Memoirs of a Madman (1884), as well as entries'”expanded in the Second Edition'”from Tolstoy's 'œDiary for 1855' and selected letters (1858'95) that shed light on the author's creative process.'œCriticism' collects twenty-three essays by Russian and western scholars, six of which are new to this Second Edition. Interpretations focus both on Tolstoy's language and art and on specific themes and motifs in individual stories. Contributors include John M. Kopper, Gary Saul Morson, N. G. Chernyshevsky, Mikhail Bakhtin, Harsha Ram, John Bayley, Vladimir Nabokov, Ruth Rischin, Margaret Ziolkowski, and Donald Barthelme.A Chronology of Tolstoy's life and work and an updated Selected Bibliography are also included.