"Divine and Human was written as a direct criticism of the Russian Revolution. Why Did it Happen? was based on a real event where a Polish officer and his wife managed to escape from a Siberian prison. Other stories are Tolstoy's versions of other great writers whom he particularly admired. The Socrates' Great Death is a rather free version of several pages from the Conversation by Plato; Death in a Prison Hospital is an edited form of a Dostoevsky short story; The Power of Childhood is loosely based on a story by Victor Hugo. Tolstoy also collected Russian folk tales and some of the stories like A Grain of Wheat the Size of an Egg and Prayer are based on legends."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved