
Childhood
by Leo Tolstoy
- First published
- 1852
- Reading level
- Plain English
- Price
- Free
About the book
"Childhood" by graf Leo Tolstoy is a novel published in 1852. It marks Tolstoy's debut at age twenty-three and launched his literary career, earning immediate acclaim from established Russian writers. The first in a trilogy followed by "Boyhood" and "Youth," it explores the inner world of young Nikolenka through an innovative expressionistic style that blends fact, fiction, and emotion. This groundbreaking work captures childhood's fleeting innocence, joy, and intense capacity for love through the narrator's moods and reactions.
- Autobiographical fiction
- Russia
- Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910
Updated September 2026. Public domain in the USA. Text and summary from Project Gutenberg eBook #2142. Childhood on Wikipedia.
More free books by Leo Tolstoy
About Leo TolstoyWar and Peace
Anna Karenina
What Is Art?
What Men Live By, and Other Tales
"The Kingdom of God Is Within You"
The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories
Resurrection
Master and Man
The Journal of Leo Tolstoi (First Volume—1895-1899)
The forged coupon, and other stories
Tolstoy on Shakespeare
Fables for Children, Stories for Children, Natural Science Stories, Popular Education, Decembrists, Moral Tales











