Resumen
Resumen de Juventud
Para quién es
For readers who love close, honest portraits of an inner life, and anyone who remembers the gap between who they meant to be at eighteen and who they were.
De qué trata este libro
Youth is the third book of Leo Tolstoy's autobiographical trilogy, which began with Childhood and Boyhood. It appeared in Russian in 1857, when Tolstoy was still a young writer. The story is told by Nikolai Irtenev, a boy from a landowning family who is now sixteen and ready to enter Moscow University. Tolstoy drew on his own early years, but he shaped them into fiction.
This book is about the years when a young person decides who to be and keeps failing to become that person. Nikolai makes rules for himself, breaks them, and writes new ones. He wants to be good, and he also wants to be admired. You will hear how a sharp, honest mind watches itself and catches its own vanity. Let us begin with the plans Nikolai makes for his new life.
En este resumen
- 1A boy resolves to remake himselfFree
- 2Dmitri Nekhlyudov offers a harder honesty
- 3The pull of society and the wish to be admired
- 4Family, estate, and the ties of home
- 5Love, shame, and the failure of resolutions
- 6A mind that watches itself
Idea clave 1 de 6
A boy resolves to remake himself
The story opens as Nikolai stands on the edge of adult life. He is sixteen, and he is preparing to enter the university in Moscow. His older brother Volodya is already a young man of the world, and Nikolai measures himself against him.
Nikolai is full of schemes. He imagines a new, orderly self who will work hard, think clearly, and master his passions. He writes down rules of life and lists of duties, and he believes that writing them is half the work.
Tolstoy lets us see the comedy in this. Nikolai thinks deeply about virtue in the morning and forgets it by afternoon. Yet the plans are not foolish. They come from a real hunger to become better, and the book treats that hunger with respect.
This opening sets the pattern for everything that follows. Nikolai looks inward, finds a fault, and vows to fix it. Then life, with its parties, visits, and small temptations, gets in the way. As you listen, notice how often he is both serious and absurd in the same moment.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Nikolai Irtenev
- Nikolai is a sixteen-year-old nobleman preparing for Moscow University, torn between moral improvement and the wish to impress others.
- Dmitri Nekhlyudov
- Dmitri is Nikolai's close friend and fellow student, whose strict principles encourage Nikolai to examine his own conduct.
- Volodya
- Volodya is Nikolai's older brother, whose social confidence offers a standard against which Nikolai measures himself.
- Nikolai's father
- Nikolai's father is a landowner whose decisions and moods shape family life and influence his son's feelings.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 67,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 4 h 25 min
- Listening time7 h 25 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages
Questions about Juventud
What is Youth by Tolstoy about?
It follows Nikolai Irtenev as he enters Moscow University and tries to become a better person. He makes rules, seeks friendship and status, and keeps failing his own standards, while learning to look at himself honestly.
Is Youth part of a trilogy?
Yes. It is the third book of Tolstoy's autobiographical trilogy, after Childhood and Boyhood. Each book follows the same narrator, Nikolai Irtenev, at a later stage of growing up.
Is Youth a true story?
It is fiction based on Tolstoy's own early life. He drew on his memories, but changed events and characters. It was published in Russian in 1857.
Who is Dmitri Nekhlyudov in Youth?
He is Nikolai's close friend, a serious, self-critical student who talks with him about how to live well. Tolstoy used the name Nekhlyudov for several idealistic characters in his work.
Is Youth hard to read?
No. The story is easy to follow, because a single narrator, Nikolai, tells it in plain language and in short chapters, each with a simple title naming a mood or a scene. You always know where you are and who is speaking.