List of Tolstoy

Lev Nikolayevich, at the age of 63, compiled a list of books that impressed him, with a commentary on how strong the impression was.

Childhood up to 14 years

• The story of Joseph from the Bible (huge).
• “Tales of a Thousand and One Nights: 40 Thieves, Prince Kamaralzaman” (large).
• “Black Chicken” by A. Pogorelsky (very large).
• Russian epics (Dobrynya Nikitich, Ilya Muromets, Alyosha Popovich) (huge).
• Folk tales (huge).
• Poems by Pushkin: “Napoleon” (large).

From 14 to 20 years

• Gospel of Matthew: Sermon on the Mount (huge).
• Stern: Sentimental Journey (very large).
• Rousseau: “Confession” (huge).
• “Emil” (huge).
• “New Eloise” (very large).
• Pushkin: “Eugene Onegin” (very large).
• Schiller: Robbers (very large).
• Gogol: “Overcoat” (large);
• “How Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” (large);
• “Nevsky Prospekt” (large);
• “Viy” (huge);
• “Dead Souls” (very large).
• Turgenev: “Notes of a hunter” (very large).
• Grigorovich: “Anton-Goremyka” (very large).
• Druzhinin: “Polinka Saks” (very large).
• Dickens: “David Copperfield” (huge).
• Lermontov: “A Hero of Our Time” (very large).
• Prescott: “The Conquest of Mexico” (large).

From 20 to 35 years

• Goethe: “Hermann and Dorothea” (very large).
• Hugo: “Notre Dame Cathedral” (very large).
• Homer: “Odyssey” and “Iliad” (read in Russian – very large).
• Plato: “Dialogues”, “Phaedo” and “Feast” (large).
• Koltsov: poems (large).
• Tyutchev: poems (large).
• Fet: poems (large).

From 35 to 50 years

• Homer: “Odyssey” and “Iliad” in Greek (very large).
• Epics (very large).
• Xenophon: “Anabasis” (very large).
• Hugo: Les Misérables (huge).
• Wood: English novels (large).
• Elliot: English novels (large).
• Trollope: English novels (large).

From 50 to 63 years

• The gospels are all in Greek (huge).
• The book of Genesis is in Hebrew (very large).
• Henry George: “Progress and Poverty” (very large).
• Frederick Robertson: “Sermons” (large).
• Ludwig Feuerbach: “The Essence of Christianity” (large).
• Pascal: “Thoughts” (huge).
• Epictetus (huge).
• Confucius and Mencius (very large).
• Philippe Foucault: “Buddha” (huge).
• Stanislas Julien: “Lao Tzu” (huge) *.

Source: L. Tolstoy. Collected works in 22 volumes. Vol. 19 (Fiction, 1984).