If you want to get started with Tolstoy without reading War and Peace (1296 pages) or even Anna Karenina (864 pages), look no further. This compilation includes 8 of Tolstoy's finest short works (some longer than short stories), including The Death of Ivan Ilych, which many consider to be his best work.

“Happy families are all alike;” begins this classic novel, “every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” If you’ve never read Anna Karenina, a great time to find out why William Faulkner called this novel “the best ever written.” Whether or not you agree, you’ll be glad you read it.

Includes all 12 novels with professional formatting, several unfinished novels, short stories, and Tolstoy's journals.

Enthusiastic readers have finally convinced me to add this tome to my TBR. Called the greatest novel ever written, a philosophical study, a historic epic of the Napoleonic Wars, chock full of characters, and often compared to Homer. Originally written in Russian, and translated numerous times—from Dunnigan to Garnett to Maude to Edmonds. Scholar and author Andrew D. Kaufman recommends the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation.