Master and Man Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Richard F. Gustafson

Critical Essay by Richard F. Gustafson

SOURCE: “The Way to Love,” in Leo Tolstoy, Resident and Stranger: A Study in Fiction and Theology, Princeton University Press, 1986, pp. 197–202.

In the following excerpt, Gustafson considers the autobiographical nature of Master and Man.

The perfect type of Tolstoy's fiction is Master and Man. This late (1895) narrative is an emblematic journey of discovery and a parable of the way to love. Vasily Andreevich Brekhunov, a “local merchant of the second guild,” is the one who thinks he is the master (i). He is in a most profound sense, therefore, a liar and a braggart. His name (brekhun) suggests both. He “boasts to himself and rejoices in himself and his position” (vi). He certainly thinks he is not like everyone else. “With me it's not like with them others where you gotta wait and then there's bills and fines. We go on honor. You serve me and I'll...
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