L. N. Tolstoy: the story «Акула»

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828–1910) was born on 9 September 1828 at Yasnaya Polyana in Tula province into a rich aristocratic family. His childhood passed among meadows, fields and forests; his mother died before he was two, and he had a home education and upbringing. At twenty-three he went to war in the Caucasus, where he began the trilogy «Детство», «Отрочество», «Юность». He wrote the novels «Война и мир», «Анна Каренина» and «Воскресение»; his works are translated into many languages. Tolstoy respected ordinary people: he ploughed, sowed and chopped wood alongside them, opened a school for peasant children and wrote an alphabet book and textbooks that included his children’s stories. In «Акула» a ship lies at anchor off the African coast and the sailors dive in. Two boys race in the open sea, a shark suddenly appears, the father – an old artilleryman – fires the cannon, the shark is killed and the boys are saved.