Image: Illustration
to “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” by Leo Tolstoy. ‘Pahóm Running to the Hillock’ by Arkady
Plastov (1952), watercolour
and gouache on paper. The Leo Tolstoy State Museum, Moscow.
Reflections for the Second Sunday in Lent, the 16th of March 2025, in
the pew notes at St Peter’s Church, Eastern Hill, Melbourne. Written by Philip Harvey.
James Joyce,
who wrote the funniest novel in the English language, regarded Leo Tolstoy’s
short story ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need’ as “the greatest story that the
literature of the world knows.” It is a story about being tempted with the
promise of owning the world.
Pahóm, a
villager, listens to his wife argue with her sister, who comes from the city. The
elder sister praises town life (fine clothes, good food, theatre) while the younger
sister says she would not trade her peasant life; she and her husband may never
grow rich, but they will always have enough, whereas rich people often lose all
they have. The city, she says, surrounds people with temptations from the
Devil. Pahóm agrees with his wife, but 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, hears this boast and decides to give
more land to ensnare him.
And so Pahóm
raises money to buy 40 acres of a deceased estate. Happiness reigns until he
starts fining other peasant landowners who let cattle roam onto his land. This
causes resentment. Trials are held with no outcome other than further quarrels,
bribes, and ill-feeling. Soon Pahóm hears of promises of even better land some
distance away on the other side of the River Volga. Selling his land, he moves
there, further away from home. Crops are good, life is fine, but he then learns
from a passing dealer of even better land, and cheaper, in a province 300 miles
away. He takes a punt and travels all that way, taking a servant but leaving
wife and family behind.
Negotiations
with the chiefs of this region, who flatter and entertain him, lead to a deal: the
price of their land will be one thousand rubles a day. Pahóm is puzzled by what
this means, so it is explained 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 thousand rubles. The night before the Big Walk, Pahóm in a
dream meets a man who is laughing outside his tent. It’s the Chief, but he then
sees it is also the land dealer of long ago and, in fact, the Devil and that at
his feet is a dead man: Pahóm.
Waking up he
goes out early to walk the perimeter of the land he wishes to own. The chiefs
watch, the day is hot, and he walks for a long time, morning into afternoon
then evening. Exhausted, he goes faster and faster and breaks into a run,
discarding his coat, boots, and flask. The sun is close to the horizon as he
rushes towards the chiefs and collapses in front of them, touching the Chief’s cap,
in which his money lies. The Chief declares that Pahóm has acquired a lot of
land. However, when Pahóm’s servant runs to him, he finds that Pahóm is dead.
The servant digs a grave and buries him.
After
striving for so long to acquire land, all the land Pahóm needs now is six feet.
