Leo Tolstoy was one of the most gifted novelists of all time. He created the masterpieces War and Peace, and Anna Karenina, but he wrote hundreds of other books, stories, and essays. In the middle of his life, he underwent a spiritual transformation and became an ardent pacifist. His beliefs influenced non-violent political action from Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr. This is the last of a triology of autobiographical novels he wrote. The first two are Childhood, and Boyhood.