Father Sergius

Leo Tolstoy's Father Sergius was written in 1890 and published in 1898. The story centres on the life of Prince Stepan Kasatsky, who has a successful career in the military. He learns about his fiancée's affair with his beloved Tsar Nicholas I on the eve of his wedding and, upset and disturbed, he becomes a monk. With this story Tolstoy comments on private property, marriage, and the ideals of chastity and abstinence.