By COUNT LEO TOLSTOY
Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, with an Introduction
Containing Letters by Tolstoy
Esarhaddon, King of Assyria. An allegorical story with an Oriental setting, telling how a cruel king was made to feel and understand the sufferings of one of his captives, and to repent his own cruelty.
Work, Death, and Sickness. A legend accredited to the South American Indians, showing the three means God took to make men more kind and brotherly toward each other.
Three Questions. A quaint folk-lore tale answering the three questions of life: "What is the Best Time?" "Who Are the Most Important Persons?" "What Thing Should be Done First?"
OPINION OF THE PRESS
St. Louis Globe-Democrat: "Count Tolstoy is a man so sure of his message and so clear about it that he always finds something worth while to say.... There is a quality in the little tales published under the title 'Esarhaddon' which is quickly suggestive of certain Biblical narratives. There is one called 'Three Questions,' which contains, in half a dozen pages, an entire philosophy of life, and it is presented in such apt pictures and ideas that its meaning is not to be overlooked. It would be hard to suggest anything that could be read in five minutes that would impart so much to think about. 'Esarhaddon,' the sketch from which the volume takes its name, is of the same character, and the third tale, 'Work, Death, and Sickness,' is full of very fine thought. There is, perhaps, no writer working to-day whose mind is centered on broader and better things than the Russian master, and the present offering shows him at his very best."