Which Leo Tolstoy novella follows the life of a horse named Kholstomer?

Leo Tolstoy’s novella about the life of a horse named Kholstomer is Kholstomer.

The work is also known in English as Strider: The Story of a Horse. Its unusual narrator is an old piebald gelding who recounts his life and reflects on human ideas of ownership, status, and property. By presenting society from an animal’s viewpoint, Tolstoy exposes the contradictions in treating living beings as possessions.

Tolstoy wrote the story in the 1860s, but it was published posthumously in 1886. The horse’s name, Kholstomer, is the Russian title commonly used for the work. English editions vary in title, which can cause confusion when readers search for it.

The novella is notable for combining animal narration with Tolstoy’s ethical criticism. Its perspective anticipates later literary works that use animals to question human institutions.