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Reading Mindfully: Leo Tolstoy’s “Three Questions”

• Reading Mindfully

May 6, 2016  |   Cecily Erin Hill

Each month, we pause for a moment to read mindfully, using literature as a springboard to think about, and to practice, compassion, empathy and awareness – of ourselves and of the world we live in.

Leo Tolstoy, the nineteenth-century Russian author, is best known for Anna Karenina and War and Peace . Both novels are massive, brick-like tomes. But Tolstoy wrote accessible short stories, too. “The Three Questions” was published in 1885, as part of a larger collection .  

Illustration for “Three Questions” in “Tolstoy for the Young,” 1916, [Public Domain] via Wikimedia Commons

As you read, consider these questions:

• What assumptions does the king make with his three questions? What can those assumptions tell us about importance, necessity and “the right way”?
• What kinds of advice does the king receive? What moral philosophies – or ways of going about life – does the advice represent? And how are these philosophies divorced from the king’s life experience?
• The moral of the story suggests that the advice the king was seeking is right in front of him. How often in life is the advice we seek similarly in front of us? And what would it take to see it more clearly?

Three Questions

It once occurred to a certain king, that if he always knew the right time to begin everything; if he knew who were the right people to listen to, and whom to avoid; and, above all, if he always knew what was the most important thing to do, he would never fail in anything he might undertake.

Continue reading  –  or listen to the story, here .

Image: Vincent Van Gogh, Farmers at Work, 1890, [Public Domain] via Wikimedia Commons

Further Reading

Reading Mindfully: Chekhov’s “The Princess”

Reading Mindfully: Wendell Berry’s Poetry

Why We Are Still Reading Mindfully

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Leo Tolstoy, the nineteenth-century Russian author, is best known for Anna Karenina and War and Peace. Both novels are massive, brick-like tomes. But Tolstoy wrote accessible short stories, too. “The Three Questions” was published in 1885, as part of a larger collection.

“Three Questions” begins with a king and his desire to do right—or, at least, to avoid failure.

Cecily Erin Hill

Cecily Hill is the Project Director, NEH for All at the National Humanities Alliance and former member of the Books@Work team.

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The Three Questions [Based on a story by Leo Tolstoy] › Customer reviews

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The Three Questions [Based on a story by Leo Tolstoy]

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The Three Questions

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Based on a story by Leo Tolstoy, this exquisitely illustrated book explores the meaning of life. Full color.

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Jon J Muth’s enchanting picture books include his Caldecott Honor Book Zen Shorts and four companion books featuring Stillwater, Koo, and their wonderful young friends. His book The Three Questions, based on a short story by Tolstoy, was called “quietly life-changing” by The New York Times Book Review. And The Horn Book called Jon’s Stone Soup “delicious and satisfying.” His exquisitely beautiful books have been translated into more than fifteen languages and are cherished by readers of all ages. Jon lives in New York State with his wife and their four children.

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