検索キーワード： "Leo Tolstoy" SF・ファンタジー

Leo Tolstoy, best known for the novels Anna Karenina and War and Peace, also wrote short stories that expound on Christianity. The Godson is a moving parable about a man finding a way to understand himself, the events around him, and his purpose in life. The story is about a son who was born to a poor peasant who rejoiced and went to a neighbour to ask him to become godfather to the boy.

This is the story of the labourer Emelian, who got married to a beautiful woman. When the king of the land saw Emelian’s wife, he fell in love with her. The king and his advisers thought up various schemes to get rid of Emelian, but they all backfired, so the couple lived happily ever after.

Included: The Apparition Of Mrs. Veal by Daniel Defoe, Alice Addertongue by Benjamin Franklin, The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, Prosper Mérimée by Mateo Falcone, Napoleon And The Spectre by Charlotte Bronte, The Mortal Immortal by Mary Shelley, Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dr. Heidegger's Experiment by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask Of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe, An Honest Thief by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Frog by Edgar Allan Poe, The Knitted Collar by Mary Anne Hoare.

For an atheist it’s a great deal, though it does suggest atheism may have a weak point. For those of faith it’s a matter of jam now and purgatory tomorrow. A bargain many artists feel is something they can live with. For agnostics it’s usually a question of can the afterlife really be that bad, would workplace regulations reach all parts of heaven and hell. However, in this volume the terms are agreed and the Devil pays his fees and the character his dues, each happy to wait a few decades for the eternal payback.