Youth

Leo Tolstoy - In Youth, Leo Tolstoy's protagonist now a fervent sixteen-year-old eagerly prepares to strike out on his own. And as he does so, he begins to savor life in all its glory, both grand and miniscule. From his interactions with friends, old and new, to his perceptions of the beauty of nature, the young man has an entirely new world to look forward to.

But harsh lessons are waiting to teach him that far-flung expectations are rarely fulfilled to the dreamers' specifications, and that disappointment, anger, and grief are constant foes that must be contended with if one is to truly live.

Youth concludes Tolstoy's semiautobiographical trilogy, originally planned as a four-part series of novels tentatively called the Four Epochs of Growth. The completed works together form a remarkable expression of the great Russian novelist's early voice and vision, which would ultimately make him one of the most renowned and revered authors in literary history.