Ranging in scope from lengthy novellas to fables and folktales only a few pages long, Leo Tolstoy’s short fiction provides a marvelous opportunity to become closely acquainted with Russia’s great novelist. Volume 2 of the Collected Shorter Fiction reveals how Tolstoy’s growing spiritual preoccupations flowered into a series of extraordinary late masterpieces that equal anything in the earlier novels for intensity and power. Readers of The Death of Iván Ilých, The Kreutzer Sonata, Father Sergius, Master and Man, and Hadji Murád will recognize the brilliant novelist now transfigured by his passionate quest for salvation and forgiveness.             Aylmer and Louise Maude’s classic translations are supplemented by new translations by Nigel J. Cooper of six stories, including two that have never before appeared in English. The only comprehensive hardcover edition of Tolstoy's shorter fiction--57 stories and novellas, including two that have never before appeared in English. In these two handsome volumes, every aspect of Tolstoy's art and personality is reflected: his experiences as a soldier in the Caucasus, his married life, his passionate interest in the peasantry, his belief in truth and simplicity, and above all, his growing preoccupation with religion. Ranging in scope from the short novels Hadj Murad and The Kreutzer Sonata to folktales only a few pages long, they bring us intimately into the world of the great Russian novelist. The only comprehensive hardcover edition of Tolstoy's shorter fiction--57 stories and novellas, including two that have never before appeared in English. In these two handsome volumes, every aspect of Tolstoy's art and personality is reflected: his experiences as a soldier in the Caucasus, his married life, his passionate interest in the peasantry, his belief in truth and simplicity, and above all, his growing preoccupation with religion. Ranging in scope from the short novels "Hadj Murad and "The Kreutzer Sonata to folktales only a few pages long, they bring us intimately into the world of the great Russian novelist. John Bayley , author of the Introduction to the collection, is former Thomas Warton Professor of English Literature at Oxford University and the author of books on Tolstoy, Hardy, and Housman. He has also written several novels and a memoir, Elegy for Iris . The translators: Aylmer Maude spent much of his life in Russia and was a personal friend of Tolstoy's. Nigel J. Cooper recently retired from Middlesex University, where he was a principal lecturer in modern languages (Russian and French).