[Reviewed by Bruce Roberts]

Count Lyev Nicolayevich Tolstoy has long been acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest novelists, author of War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and The Death of Ivan Ilyich, among others, in a lifetime of writing.

In 1886, he also published a short story, “How Much Land Does a Man Need.” Now newly translated by Boris Dralyuk, a Ph.D. candidate in Slavic languages at U.C.L.A., this simple story speaks volumes about the world throughout history in general, and about modern America in particular.

“How Much Land Does a Man Need” is a folktale. The characters are Russian peasants, people who actually work and derive sustenance from the land. In this story though, their simple life is complicated by a character with other motives, the Devil.

Born into Russian nobility, Tolstoy became less and less satisfied with his wealth and talent and good fortune as he grew older.  He even wanted to renounce the royalties from his famous novels, feeling strongly that no man should have so much while others starved.

This renunciation of wealth is ironically the unwritten message of this folktale. The title question is a universal metaphor for greed. Pakhom, a peasant farmer, is relatively successful and content with his life—except for this question.

Bruce Roberts is a poet and ongoing contributor to Synchronized Chaos Magazine. Roberts may be reached by at brobe60491@sbcglobal.net.

And every time contentment begins to settle his life, the devil, always lurking nearby in some disguise, finds a way to raise this question again, and Pakhom’s answer, always, is “MORE!”  With his contentment then gone, Pakhom sets out to find—and acquire—“MORE!” and “MORE!” until too much of a good thing brings him to a tragic end.

In Tolstoy’s world, this is a salvo at the land-owning nobility of Russia, including himself. In modern America, this easily applies to corporations that profit billions, yet pay zero taxes. It applies to CEO’s who retire with millions in stock and bonuses, regardless of the quality of their work. It applies to companies who take their jobs overseas, leaving American workers in poverty. It applies to banks that loan money for mortgages recklessly, then foreclose on a family’s American Dream when things get tight. The list could go on.

In Medieval Morality Plays, the good guys won. Jesus would suddenly emerge when things looked darkest and vanquish the devil and other evil-doers, much to the delight of the audience. In this morality tale, there’s no cheering at the end; only laughter, and a little sorrow, at what a fool Pakhom was.

In short, this is a revival of a morality tale, by a master writer, in a world that needs morality. As such, it is certainly worth reading.