3 h 14 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 3 h 14 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when childhood's trust gives way to grief, shame, and the need to be admired?
Nikolenka Irtenev leaves the country estate for Moscow with his brother Volodya, their father, and the household. A great loss shadows the journey. At his grandmother's house, rank and manners shape daily life, while new teachers and rules make the sensitive boy painfully aware of his place among others.
In Boyhood, Leo Tolstoy draws on his own memories to follow a child who no longer feels like one. Nikolenka envies Volodya's ease, struggles with the strict tutor Saint-Jérôme, and feels the first stir of love. His wish to be good meets an equally strong wish to be admired.
What you’ll discover
- A life between worlds Follow Nikolenka through the uneasy space where childhood ends and adult confidence remains out of reach.
- Brothers, love, and envy See how Volodya's confidence awakens both affection and painful comparison in his younger brother.
- Lessons beyond the schoolroom Meet tutors whose kindness and strictness bring questions of fairness close to home.
- The first shy attraction Discover how Katenka draws Nikolenka's attention as familiar company begins to stir new feelings.
- An unguarded inner life Find comedy, small cruelties, and honest feeling in a boy's restless scrutiny of himself.
Who will love it
For readers who love quiet, close portraits of an inner life, stories of grief and first love, and anyone curious about Tolstoy before War and Peace.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A carriage ride closes one life
- Moscow gives him a new point of view
- Teachers, lessons and a boy's shame
- Friends, rivals and a first stir of love
- A desert of doubt and self-judgment
- What the book is about and how it is told
Who’s who
- Nikolenka IrtenevThe boy at the center, sensitive and self-watching, who wants to be good and admired while grieving for the life he has left.
- VolodyaNikolenka's older brother, more confident and worldly, whom the younger boy both envies and loves.
- Karl IvanovichThe kindly German tutor who has loved the children since their early years and stands for a gentler way of teaching.
- Saint-JérômeThe French tutor, strict and proud of his dignity, who clashes with Nikolenka over rules and fairness.
- The fatherA worldly landowner, busy with society, whom his sons admire and fear and cannot easily understand.
- The grandmotherThe proud head of the Moscow household, who values rank and good form and holds the family to them.
- KatenkaA girl of the household who shares the children's lessons and games and draws Nikolenka's shy attention.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 3 h 14 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Knabenjahre in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Knabenjahre
by Leo Tolstoi · 1854
Nikolenka carries his grief to Moscow, where new rules, first love and wounded pride reshape his sense of himself.
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In short
Boyhood is the second book in Leo Tolstoy's autobiographical trilogy, which began with Childhood and ended with Youth. Tolstoy published it in 1854, when he was in his twenties and serving in the army.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A carriage ride closes one life
The book opens on the road. Nikolenka, his older brother Volodya, their father and the household travel by carriage from the country estate toward Moscow. The family is leaving the place where the boy grew up, and the trip is slow and full of small events. Tolstoy lets us feel the long hours, the changing sky and the odd stops along the way.
Everything on the road is colored by the death that has struck the family. Nikolenka does not say his grief all at once. It shows in how he looks at things and how quickly his mood turns. A bright field can lift him for a moment, and then the memory returns and shuts the lightness out.
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What is Boyhood by Tolstoy about?
It tells of a boy named Nikolenka who moves with his family from the country to Moscow after a death. He faces tutors, social pressure, friendships and first love while learning to judge himself.
Is Boyhood by Tolstoy a true story?
It is fiction drawn from Tolstoy's own memories. Many feelings and settings come from his life, but the characters and events are shaped for the story. It was published in 1854.
What order are Tolstoy's Childhood, Boyhood and Youth in?
Childhood comes first, Boyhood second and Youth third. They follow the same narrator, Nikolenka, as he grows. Boyhood can be read alone, but it gains from reading the first book before it.
The author
Leo Tolstoy
1828–1910 · Russian novelist and moral philosopher
Leo Tolstoy was a Russian author born in 1828 at Yasnaya Polyana, where he lived for much of his life. He wrote novels, stories, and essays. War and Peace appeared in 1865–1869 and Anna Karenina in 1875–1877. He died in 1910 at Astapovo, Russia.
More by Leo Tolstoi
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