Youth ruined this for me. If I had only read Childhood and Boyhood, this would have been a 4 star rating. ( )

Here's what I wrote in 2008 about this read: "An aristocratic boy, seemingly under-achieving, walks through the trails and trials of Russian aristocratic life. Reported to be semi-autobiographical." ( )

In [Childhood], the young Count captures the wrath of "God's Thunderstorm,"
setting a truly high standard for landscape descriptions which often only he equals.

The education episodes with St.-Jerome felt contrived, awkward and went on way too long.

His earliest meditative philosophy on death and thinking about thinking then alternates with his inner turmoils.

These continue in [Boyhood] as he explores man's destiny to perfect himself as he suddenly emerges in public
as a scholar and, finally, with a best friend, despite his impenetrable shyness.

Fascinating studies of people's appearances, personalities, and projected feelings are ongoing.

With [Youth], he applies his ideas to his actions and begins his Rules for Life,
moving away from arrogance, pride, and self absorbed selfishness.

He is surrounded by mostly rich women, yet does not see how constricted their lives remain.

As he helps the servant, Nicolai, repair a window, he is summoned by nature -
the fresh air, sunshine, dark earth, grass, insects, rain, the flowering garden,
and joyful birds! ( )

Sociale, melodrammatico, stimolante e veritiero sulla questione che scriviamo su un diario il nostro cambiamento ma non si sa che il giorno dopo sarà un tormento! ( )

This is an instance where, I think, translation matters. I checked this book out electronically from my library--the only copy in the entire system--and realized too late that it was a Barnes & Noble production with an anonymous translator. In the preface, in fact, the translator spoke of Tolstoy as being alive, so I imagine this was translated during the author's lifetime! I have a sense that if I'd read the newer translations, I'd have gotten even more out of this. That being said, Tolstoy's genius was evident even in this fragmentary, very early work. His description of nature and natural phenomenon is second to none. His complex and deep character descriptions (rather than characterization, which I don't think had truly reached its full flower here) transfixed me, and I copied down many examples for later study. It ends abruptly, of course, because it was meant to be a much longer work, and there is, frustratingly, an entire section that the translator merely reports was not included in the original Russian. I have no idea if this means it was lost or never written. ( )