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Master and Man
- Narrated by: Walter Zimmerman
- Length: 2 hrs and 10 mins
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Master and Man
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Editor reviews
Famous for epic novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy also wrote psychologically adept, morally engaged short stories like "Master and Man".
Tolstoy’s 1895 story concerns a journey taken by a landowner with one of his serfs into town, where the wealthy landowner will complete a business transaction. The two are caught in a blizzard. It’s in this crisis that the "Master" is confronted with a revelation about humanity’s true purpose in life.
With his ringing voice, Walter Zimmerman offers a crisp, intelligent performance of this Russian master’s humanist parable.
Summary
Tolstoy is know primarily for his epic novels like War and Peace and Anna Karenina, but he also wrote a number of excellent short pieces that carry the same kind of themes on a much smaller scale. Two of the best are Master and Man and The Death of Ivan Ilych.
In the story, a land owner named Vasili Andreevich Brekhunov takes along one of his peasants, Nikita, for a short journey to the house of the owner of a forest. He is impatient and wishes to get to the town more quickly to purchase the forest before other contenders can get there. They find themselves in the middle of a blizzard, but the master in his avarice wishes to press on. They eventually get lost off the road and they try to camp. The master's peasant soon finds himself suffering from hypothermia. The master attains a spiritual and moral revelation, and Tolstoy once again repeats one of his famous themes: that the only true happiness in life is found by living for others as the master acts a way he never thought was possible.