25 books Leo Tolstoy strongly recommends adding to your reading list

CULTURE
FEB 28 2018
RUSSIA BEYOND

Leo Tolstoy on his 80th birthday

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If you’re already 35, you should read both “The Odyssey” and “The Iliad” by Homer, in Greek! This is
what the great Russian writer thought. So, include these literary masterpieces on your summer reading
list.
When Leo Tolstoy read John Lubbock's list of 100 greatest books that was published in 1891 in the Pall
Mall Budget magazine, he was not happy and even angry. So, he decided to compile his own list of 100
must-read books, but then realized that it’s an impossible task. However, in a letter to publisher
MikhailLederle he sent a list of 45 books that impressed him most of all.
It had a wide range of different books, from religious tomes and ancient Greek and Chinese
philosophical works, to Russian poetry and little known novels. We read that list and chose the most
available and interesting examples that the great Leo enjoyed most. (link in Russian).
Childhood (up to 14 years)
1. Old Testament. Book of Genesis – actually, Tolstoy calls it “The Story of Joseph from the Bible”
2. Arabian Nights, or how it’s known in Russia, One Thousand and One Nights.  (Especially Ali Baba and
the Forty Thieves, and Tale of Kamar al-Zaman)
From 14 to 20 years
3. The Gospel of Matthew: The Sermon on the Mount – it’s a part of the gospel with choice sayings and
teachings by Jesus
4. Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
5. Eugene Onegin, novel in verse by Russian poet Alexander Pushkin
6. The Robbers, a drama by German playwright Friedrich Schiller
7. Several books by Nikolai Gogol, including the horror story Vyi, The Overcoat, Nevsky Prospect, and of
course his most famous work, Dead Souls.
8. David Copperfield, a novel by classic English writer Charles Dickens
9. Hero of Our Time, a novel by Russian writer Mikhail Lermontov

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From 20 to 35 years
10. Hermann and Dorothea, the verse epic by German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
11. Notre Dame de Paris (a.k.a. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame), acclaimed novel by French writer Victor
Hugo
12. The Odyssey and The Iliad by Homer (in translation)
From 35 to 50 
13. The Odyssey and TheIliad by Homer (in Greek)
14. Les Misérables, another historical novel by Victor Hugo 
15. Chronicles of Barsetshire by Anthony Trollope
16. Novels by English writer Mrs. Henry Wood (we assume Tolstoy meant most of all East Lynne)
17. Novels by George Eliot (Tolstoy was angry at John Lubbock for naming only authors and not
particular works; here, Leo does the same…)

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From 50 to 63
18. All the Gospels in Greek (why not?)
19. Book of Genesis in Hebrew (haven’t you learned both languages yet? Tolstoy wouldn’t be happy to
know that)
20. Progress and Poverty, nonfiction book by American economist Henry George
21. The Pensées ("Thoughts") by Blaise Pascal
22. Epictetus – probably anything by this ancient Greek Stoic philosopher
23. Confucius – probably The Analects – and his successor Mencius
24. The Great Initiates by Édouard Schuré (the part about Buddha greatly influenced Tolstoy, and after
reading it he started to gather works on Buddha and wrote his own essay, The Buddha). Read more
about the influence of Buddhism and Hinduism on Tolstoy’s life
25. The Tao Te Ching by Laozi (Tolstoy was among the first translators of Laozi into Russian).
Read more:  Leo Tolstoy’s 10 hobbies that prove he was a hipster
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