How Much Land Does a Man Need?
By Leo Tolstoy
Foreword by Os Guinness
(1996)The 2007 edition includes a Discussion Guide. Or download a PDF here.
Tolstoy’s timeless short story about a Russian farmer driven by an endless quest for more land still provokes thought today.
What is the meaning of money? What is success? How should we pursue happiness? How much is enough?
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910), the Russian writer and social reformer, famous for writing the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Born to a noble, landed family, his early years were marked by a dissolute life and a violent reaction to the horrors of the Crimean War. In 1862 he married and settled down, producing thirteen children and a burst of literary successes. But after writing Anna Karenina he experienced a profound spiritual crisis and renounced his literary ambitions, believing them to be incompatible with his deepest convictions. His numerous later works were on religious and moral subjects. “How Much Land Does a Man Need?,” written in 1886, and translated from the Russian by Louise and Aylmer Maude, is from this later period.
It is an enduring story that reveals the sometimes insidious and sometimes overt destructiveness of greed—the deadly sin of avarice or avaritia—and challenges us to question our own self-awareness.
Reissued in 2007 with new typesetting and a discussion guide.
Category: Readings (No. 14)
