"Lucerne: From the Recollections of Prince D. Nekhliudoff" ("Из зaписок князя Д. Нехлюдовa. Люцерн","Iz zapisok knyazya D. Nekhlyudova. Lyutsern") is a first person narrative, in the form of diary and based on personal experiences,[1] written byLeo Tolstoy in 1857 and translated into English in 1899 byNathan Haskell Dole. It takes the form of a travel diary of someone inLucerne,Switzerland.
Though classified by scholars as a short story, it is clear that this story is based on his personal experiences as noted in Tolstoy's Diaries, where Tolstoy also notes his travels through Zurich, Friedrichshafen, Stuttgart, Baden-Baden, Frankfurt, and Dresden.[2] According to historianHenri Troyat, during his time in Lucerne, Tolstoy gambled heavily, writing one night in his diary, "Lost every cent, you pig!"[3]
It was first published bySovremennik ("The Contemporary") in 1857, after he first recited the work to the editor Nekrassof. His meeting with Nekrassof was in St. Petersburg, only a few weeks after his visiting Lucerne, and after getting it published, Tolstoy was back on the move toward Moscow.[4]
One literary critic at theYale Press has described the work as one of "pantheistic despair," which originated as a letter, and whose key moment is when Tolstoy watches abusker musician who is performing in the street being unrewarded by cruel tourists.[1]
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