Childhood - The Original Classic Edition

This is a new and freshly published edition of this culturally important work by Leo Tolstoy, which is now, at last, again available to you.

Enjoy this classic work today. These selected paragraphs distill the contents and give you a quick look inside Childhood:

In his presence I felt ashamed to cry, and, moreover, the morning sun was shining so gaily through the window, and Woloda, standing at the washstand as he mimicked Maria Ivanovna (my sisters governess), was laughing so loud and so long, that even the serious Nicola-a towel over his shoulder, the soap in one hand, and the basin in the other-could not help smiling as he said, Will you please let me wash you, Vladimir Petrovitch?

...Twelve years have I lived in this house, went on Karl, lifting his eyes and his snuff-box towards the ceiling, and before God I can say that I have loved them, and worked for them, even more than if they had been my own children.

...All that I myself knew was that from his fifteenth year upwards he had been known as an imbecile who went barefooted both in winter and summer, visited convents, gave little images to any one who cared to take them, and spoke meaningless words which some people took for prophecies; that nobody remembered him as being different; that at, rare intervals he used to call at Grandmammas house; and that by some people he was said to be the outcast son of rich parents and a pure, saintly soul, while others averred that he was a mere peasant and an idler.

...When Karl Ivanitch entered the room she looked at him for a moment, and then turned her eyes away with an expression which seemed to say, You are beneath my notice, Karl Ivanitch.

...I well remember how, one day after luncheon (I was then six years of age), the talk fell upon my personal appearance, and how Mamma tried to find good features in my face, and said that I had clever eyes and a charming smile; how, nevertheless, when Papa had examined me, and proved the contrary, she was obliged to confess that I was ugly; and how, when the meal was over and I went to pay her my respects, she said as she patted my cheek; You know, Nicolinka, nobody will ever love you for your face alone, so you must try all the more to be a good and clever boy.