Childhood, Boyhood, Youth Book

Childhood, Boyhood and Youth was Tolstoi's first novel, it is the novel, along with Turgenev's 'Sketches' which, at least in it's first part 'Childhood', best celebrates Russian country life and the peasantry. Some of the descriptions of nature would not look out of place from Turgenev's best works, a lot of the character portraits, sympathetic descriptions of lost, pathetic people, obviously influenced Chekhov. It is also nice to see elements of Leo's oft contradictory personality begin to emerge in the book; from his selfless love of other people to his boundless egoism, from his compassion to his vast imagination, the book is a description of the emergence of a genius; one even sees Tolstoi's literary alter ego's emerge; shy, awkward mawkardishly romantic Levin can be sensed in many of the ball scenes, where an embarassed Leo glowers in the corner. Overall a beautiful book and well worth a read.