Walk in the Light While There is Light

"Walk in the Light While There is Light" is a short story by Leo Tolstoy written in 1893. According to famed Tolstoy-translators Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude, this story reflects Tolstoy's interest with early Christians,[1] and according to translator Huntington Smith, this is a story about the early times of Christianity.[2]

Aylmer Maude suggests that this story, and the ideas that inspired it, inspired the failed commune organized by followers of Tolstoy, Whiteway Colony.[3] According to Maude, Tolstoy was ashamed of this story, partly because it portrayed bad heathens and good Christians as distinct groups when in reality they would have been mixed.[3]

According to literary critic Malcolm Jones in a Cambridge University Press collection, this work is frequently recommended to aspiring Tolstoy scholars as seminal reading.[4]

  1. ^ graf Leo Tolstoy, Louise Maude, Aylmer Maude (2003). Walk in the Light and Twenty-three Tales. Orbis Books. ISBN 9781570754609.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Leo Tolstoy (29 June 2009). My Religion. Translated by Huntington Smith. W. Scott. ISBN 9781448631506.
  3. ^ a b Aylmer Maude (1910). The Life of Tolstoy. Vol. 2. Dodd, Mead. p. 337.
  4. ^ Malcolm Jones (2011). New Essays on Tolstoy. Cambridge University Press. p. 218. ISBN 9780521169219.