How Much Land Does a Man Need

“How Much Land Does a Man Need”

• Genre: Fiction; short story
• Originally Published: 1886
• Reading Level/Interest: College/Adult
• Structure/Length: Approx. 9 pages; approx. 36 minutes on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: When his wife and sister-in-law argue over the pros and cons of town and farm life, the peasant Pahóm thinks that “if [he] had plenty of land, [he] shouldn’t fear the Devil himself,” but little does he know that Satan is hiding behind the stove and hears him. When the opportunity arises to purchase a large area of land for a small price, Pahóm takes on more than he can handle, with catastrophic consequences.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Death, images of the devil  

Leo Tolstoy, Author

• Bio: 1828-1910; Russian writer regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time; born to a family of Russian nobility; fourth of five children; studied law and languages at Kazan University but didn’t graduate; served as an artillery officer during the Crimean War; married Sophia Andreevna Behrs in 1862; had 13 children, eight surviving to adulthood; profound influence on the development of Christian anarchist thought and that being a Christian requires pacifism; nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902-1906 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902, and 1909; died at age 82 of pneumonia; thousands of peasants lined the streets of the funeral procession
• Other Works: Childhood (1852); Family Happiness (1859); War and Peace (1869); Anna Karenina (1878); Resurrection (1899)