Tolstoy, Lev
Tolstoy, Lev (1828–1910),Russian writer, most famous for his novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, but also the author of many fairy tales for children. Tolstoy was an ardent educationalist and used the fairy‐tale form for didactic and educational purposes. In the 1860s and 1870s he opened several rural schools and published a number of school primers, which mostly contain retellings of folk and fairy tales from all over the world: fables, animal tales, magical tales, and some local aetiological tales. These collections were addressed to peasant children and are very simple in structure and style. When using well‐known plots, such as ‘Little Tom Thumb’, Tolstoy often followed Russian chapbooks rather than Perrault, and he always described Russian peasant settings in detail. However, he also included in his collections several oriental and Arabian fairy...
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