Childhood, Boyhood and Youth

Childhood is the first in a series of three novels and is followed by Boyhood and Youth. Published when Tolstoy was just twenty-three years old, the book was an immediate success, earning notice from other Russian novelists including Ivan Turgenev, who heralded the young Tolstoy as a major up-and-coming figure in Russian literature. Childhood is an exploration of the inner life of a young boy, Nikolenka, and one of the books in Russian writing to explore an expressionistic style, mixing fact, fiction and emotions to render the moods and reactions of the narrator. Boyhood is the second novel in Leo Tolstoy's autobiographical trilogy, The novel was first published in the Russian literary journal Sovremennik in 1854. Youth is the third novel in Leo Tolstoy's autobiographical trilogy, It was first published in the popular Russian literary magazine Sovremennik.