Master and Man

About the book

Vasili Andreevich is anxious to complete a profitable purchase before competing buyers can intervene. He sets out with his labourer Nikita, carrying into the journey the inequalities and familiar explanations of their working relationship. Snow and uncertain direction gradually make those ordinary arrangements less secure. Tolstoy gives close attention to bodily discomfort, the horse, the changing road, and the thoughts by which each man interprets his situation. The merchant's confidence that he treats his servant generously is already challenged by the account of wages and dependence. As the journey grows more difficult, practical decisions take on a significance that neither money nor social standing can settle in advance. The story brings a broad question about human obligation into the concentrated experience of a few hours.

• Wealth and dependence
• Human obligation
• Vulnerability

Why read it

For a compact narrative in which material detail gives an ethical question its full physical urgency.

Louise and Aylmer Maude English translation