Leo Tolstoy’s 1857 autobiographical work about childhood and youth is Youth.
Youth is the third and final part of Tolstoy’s autobiographical trilogy. It follows Childhood, published in 1852, and Boyhood, published in 1854. The narrator, Nikolai Irtenev, reflects on adolescence, moral development, social ambition, and the desire to become a better person.
The trilogy draws on Tolstoy’s experiences but is not a literal autobiography. Its fictional narrator and shaped episodes allow Tolstoy to explore memory, class, education, and the formation of character.
Readers sometimes identify Boyhood as the final volume because its title directly names a stage between childhood and adulthood. In publication order, however, Youth is the concluding installment. The work appeared in the Russian literary journal Sovremennik.