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Class notes bs ENG How Much Land Does A Man Need
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“How Much Land Does a Man Need?”“How Much Land Does a Man Need?” is a short story by Leo Tolstoy, the great 19th-century
Russian novelist and short story and essay writer. Published in 1886, the story was translated
into English in 1906 by Louise and Aylmer Maude in a collection of Tolstoy’s short fiction titled
Twenty-Three Tales (1906). This translation has been reprinted many times and is the one this
guide uses (published by Oxford University Press in 1967).“How Much Land Does a Man
Need?” retells a Russian folktale about a peasant’s greed for land and its consequences.
Tolstoy wrote the story in his late fifties during a period when he believed that all literature
should contain a moral lesson.The story consists of nine parts.
In Part 1, a woman visits her younger sister, who lives in the country. The elder sister, who is
married to a tradesman in a town, talks about all the advantages of town life: fine clothes, good
food, trips to the theater, and other things. This angers the younger sister, who is married to a
village farmer. She says she won't trade her farming life. She and her husband may never be
rich, but they will always have enough, whereas rich people often lose everything they have.
She says that this city surrounds people with Satan's temptations. Lying on the stove nearby,
Pahom, the younger sister's husband, overhears what they are saying. He agrees with his wife,
but he also thinks they do not have enough land. If he had more land, even the Devil would
not be able to tempt him. The Devil, who is sitting unseen in the room, overhears this boast and
decides to give Pahom more land to ensnare him.
In Part 2, a woman who owns a large estate near Pahóm hires a steward, who fines farmers
when their cattle stray onto the estate. Pahom gets angry whenever he must pay a fine. When
the lady decides to sell the land, the peasants try to arrange for their commune to buy it, but
the Devil causes them to disagree amongst themselves about how to do this. Finally, the land
is sold individually to farmers who can afford it. Pahóm raises enough money to buy 40 acres
of land. Now he is a landowner and enjoys a good harvest. He is satisfied.
In Part 3, Pahóm's happiness is spoiled when some neighboring farmers' cattle stray onto his
land. For a while Pahom tolerates these intrusions, but later he decides that he must teach
the peasants a lesson, and he forces them to pay fines. The peasants are angry with him and
show hatred against him. After five of Pahóm's lime trees were destroyed, Pahóm blamed a
man named Simon of the deed. He goes to Simon’s house but finds nothing incriminating.
There is a trial and then a retrial, but Simon is realeased for lack of evidence. Pahom accused
the judges of taking bribes and quarrels further with his neighbors. During this period, Pahóm
learns that many peasants in the village are moving away, and he hopes this will enable him
to buy more land. A peasant passing through the village tells him that many people have been
moving to an area hundreds of miles away on the other side of the River Volga. Each farmer
got 25 acres of high quality land. Pahóm's interest is aroused. He visits the new settlement in
, the summer and is pleased with what he sees. In the fall, he returns home and sells all his
belongings. In the spring, he and his family make their way to the new community.
When he arrives (Part 4), the commune of a large village gives Pahóm and his sons 125
acres for their own use. Pahóm has much arable land, and there is plenty of space for him to
graze his cattle, but he longs to grow more wheat from his land soon. To solve the problem,
he rents land from a dealer, but this requires transporting the wheat he grows there more than
10 miles to the village. Nevertheless, his crops are good, and he continues the arrangement
for three years. By then, he has grown tired of renting and wants to own land instead. He
negotiates with a farmer and is about to buy 1,300 acres of land from him, but then a passing
dealer returning from distant Bashkir land tells Pahom that he has bought 1,300 acres there
for very little money. The dealer gave some gifts to the Bashkir chiefs, and they were happy
to sell their land. Pahom realizes that if he does this, he will get 10 times more land for less
money than he was willing to pay the peasant.
In Part 5, leaving his wife behind, Pahóm and a servant travel more than 300 miles to the
Bashkirs. The journey takes them almost a week. They find that the Bashkirs live in covered
tents on the bank of the river. They do not cultivate the land, but keep their cattle and horses.
The women milk the cows, and from the milk they make a drink called kumiss. The men like to
eat mutton, play their pipes, and drink kumiss. They welcome Pahom warmly, give him food
and drink, and Pahom offers them gifts, including tea and wine. Then they ask Pahom what
he likes best of all the things they have, so they can give him what he wants. Pahóm says that
he is very impressed with their land, which is much better than the land where he comes from.
Bashkir talks to each other for a while and then offers him as much land as he wants.
However, they need to confirm this with their chief.
In Part 6, the Bashkir chief arrives and Pahóm gives him tea and a fine dressing-gown. When
his men tell him about the proposed land deal, the Chief readily agrees to it. At Pahóm’s
request, he also says that he will issue a deed to the land so that there will be no disputes
about it. The Chief then tells Pahóm that the price of the land will be 1,000 rubles a day.
Pahóm is surprised to see what this means, and the chief explains that he can have as much
land as he can walk around in a day. If he fails to return to his starting point within that time,
he will forfeit his 1,000 rubles. When Pahóm asks how he will identify the land he covers, the
chief tells him to periodically make marks with a spade. When he turns, he has to dig a hole
and pile earth around it.
In Part 7, Pahóm plans to walk a circuit of 35 miles the next day. He wakes up thinking of
what he will do with the land. Just before dawn he goes to sleep and has a dream in which he
hears someone laughing outside the tent. In the dream, he goes outside and discovers that
the man laughing heartily is the Chief. When Pahóm asks him why he is laughing, he sees
that the man is now the dealer who told him about the Bashkirs. Pahóm is about to ask the
man a question when he sees that he is not the dealer but the peasant from long ago who told
him about the land on the other side of the Volga. Pahóm then sees that the figure is the Devil
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