The ten stories collected in this volume demonstrate Tolstoy's artistic prowess displayed over five decades experimenting with prose styles and drawing on his own experiences with humour, realism and compassion. Inspired by his experiences in the army, ''The Two Hussars'' contrasts a dashing father and his mean-spirited son. Illustrating Tolstoy's belief that art must serve a moral purpose, ''What Men Live By'' portrays an angel sent to earth to learn three existential rules of life, and ''Two Old Men'' shows a peasant abandoning his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in order to help his neighbours. And in the highly moving ''Master and Man'', Tolstoy depicts a mercenary merchant travelling with his unprotesting servant through a blizzard to close a business deal little realizing he may soon have to settle accounts with his maker.