Reading Groups

Tolstoy's "Master and Man" and a Cocktail with Pam Newton

$30

Includes a Drink from Our Café & Bar

Out of stock

Thursday, 6:30 pm EDT - 8:00 pm EDT January 11, 2024

The Center for Fiction

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This reading group has reached its capacity.

The registration fee includes a signature cocktail, house beer or wine, coffee, or soft drink from our Café & Bar. Gratuity is happily accepted on the night of the event.

Tolstoy wrote his brilliant short story, “Master and Man,” in 1895. It tells the tale of a landowner and a peasant setting out on a journey by horse-and-sleigh and becoming lost in a brutal snowstorm. The power of the story lies not only in the gripping and harrowing narrative, so richly imagined by Tolstoy, but also in its spiritual exploration of basic human goodness and redemption.

Join us for a discussion of this quintessential winter story—a testament both to Tolstoy’s genius and to the heights achieved by the short story form in 19th-century Russia. While we read of Vasili and Nikita’s struggle in the cold, we can keep ourselves warm with a cocktail, courtesy of the Center for Fiction Café & Bar.

A PDF of the story will be emailed to registrants. It is also available in Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude.

What to expect from this reading group: This will be more of a conversation than a lecture, but the instructor will be on hand to provide some context and guide the exploration of the story.

Led by

Pam Newton

Pam Newton

Pam Newton teaches writing in the English department at Yale University and is a freelance magazine writer. Her articles, mostly personal essays and art/culture journalism, have appeared in the New York Times magazine, Time Out New York, the Huffington Post, American Theatre, the National Book Review, LitHub, and elsewhere. She has taught writing and literature for many years to a wide range of ages, including a decade teaching in the Humanities faculty at Cooper Union and directing the Writing Fellows program there. She has a B.A. in Drama from Northwestern University and an M.A. in English Literature from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College.

About this series

Reading Groups

Whether you’re looking to catch up on great novels or you’re interested in exploring a new writer or literary period, our reading groups offer high-level literary discussion led by experts in the field.

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