"Two Old Men" ("Два старика") is a short story by Leo Tolstoy written in 1885. It is a religious piece that was translated to English by Leo Wiener in 1904. According to Christianity Today, it is the story of Efim and Elisha, two neighbors who decide to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem before dying, "but one gets sidetracked caring for a needy family".Klagge, James C. (2021). Wittgenstein's Artillery: Philosophy as Poetry. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: The MIT Press, p. 97.
Publication and Commentary
The story was retold in a sermon by Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast, who concluded his retelling with, "Who really got to the goal of the pilgrimage?" The story is included in numerous Tolstoy collections, such as Twenty-Three Tales (1924), Leo Tolstoy's 20 Greatest Short Stories (2009), and Tolstoy: Tales of Courage and Conflict (1986).
See also Bibliography of Leo Tolstoy Twenty-Three Tales
References
External links Original Text Two Old Men, from RevoltLib.com Two Old Men, from Marxists.org Two Old Men, from Archive.org