The Kreutzer Sonata and Other StoriesDownload Now...
| Text Source: |  |
| Description: | Not available |
| Table of Contents: | The Kreutzer Sonata — Ivan the Fool — A Lost Opportunity — Polikushka The Candle |
Customer Review: A Mix of Realism and Religion
Tolstoy's ability to capture the humanity of his characters is displayed in this collection of novellas as it is in all of his work. Tolstoy's characters practically are human, tortured with guilt and doubt, selfish, full alternatively of naïve delight and jaded disgust, aspiring to be something more. This feeling of reality is prominent in three of the novellas: Family Happiness, The Cossacks, and Hadji Murat. The Kreutzer Sonata, on the other hand, is full of Tolstoy's religious convictions and is basically a warning against the dangers of carnal love, even between a man and his wife. I have always loved Tolstoy's novels, and it is always a little jarring for me to run into the deep Christianity that characterizes some of his work. Although I am not a Christian myself, I can appreciate that Tolstoy's religious feeling is very pure and very biblically based, a completely different being from the ritual based displays of the church. This set of novellas is interesting then, it that it shows that Tolstoy was just as complicated and contradictory as his characters so often are.
Product Description
Our ambitious program of new Tolstoy editions continues with two collections of powerful stories
The violent spiritual crisis in Tolstoy’s life that inspired his last period of creativity produced the stories in this compelling and startling collection. They portray the multifaceted nature of desire, from idealistic romance to sexual jealousy, from desperate lust to relentless longing. “The K reutzer Sonata” caused a public sensation with its indictment of so-called Christian marriage, a theme echoed in “Family Happiness.” In “The Devil,” a young man finds it impossible to resist a beautiful peasant woman with whom he had an affair before his marriage. And “Father Sergius” shows a man going to increasingly desperate ends in order to avoid the temptations of the flesh.
Customer Review: Cynical and honest
Tolstoy in lecture mode gives a cynical account of courting, romantic love, and a recognizably painful depiction of jealousy. While it may lack the sweep of his major works, there is still much to be mulled in this short work.
Customer Review: not simply autobiographical
I think that the reviews here are a little bit off and essentially betray themselves by insulting the writer, and without reason praising his earlier works as a means of battering this later one. first of all, nobody who wants to simply spew out his own life and endoctrinate his readers puts his own views into the mouth of a character who is carefully portrayed as out of his mind. calling Tolstoy Pozdnischef would be like calling the Underground man or prince Mishkin Dostoevsky...similarities, yes just like there are always similarities between a great idea and a stupid one [or put it the other way around]. True, the kreutzer sonata is very autobiographical, but not in a self serving way, and the killer is not tolstoy. The story does not argue for abstinence necessarily either and there is a very high regard for ideal marraige... only tolstoy has to show what he thinks that is by counter example. the kreutzer '' resembles in no way the sort of fundamentailist, "we know you are going to hell and there is no arguing with us", techniques we hear about in the news which other reviewers have it sounding like [why can reviewers do this so easily today concerning late Tolstoy?..because it is easy to bash anykind of sexual morality today unless it happens to be the morality of not getting physically, and hence physically demonstrably, sick]. tolstoy shows [rather than sheethes in political language]the flaws of an institution [marraige]which, as current debates and troubles with marraige show, are very on spot or at least of major interest; if he is wrong in the story the kreutzer sonata, then it should be clear to readers from a quick look at current marraige and life in practice [ i don't know anybody who seriously thinks marraige in general is in a good state right now]. at best the story is not just an unmasking of rhetorical figures, but a careful psychological portrait of decline into mental instability, much easier to follow than say Raskolnikov's. if tolstoy eventually did adopt extremist views, at least in the story here he shows you the problem; that's all he can do--and you don't have to draw the same conclusions that tolstoy may have drawn to appreciate his depiction of something...which he also happens to tell with great passion and drama, and with considerable insight into the working of art, including his own work. just for the heck of it i'll add that i don't share tolstoy's late life philosophy but admire any day a writer who could take a very great piece of music like the kreutzer sonata and translate it's unique intensity into a perhaps equally great novella.
Customer Review: Love and war, romance and idealism
The reviews of the "other stories" indicate that different editions contain different stories besides "The Kreutzer Sonata." I refer to the Oxford World Classics version. It begins with "Family Happiness," which I found rather long-winded in its depiction of a rather naive young woman's realization of the enduring love of child and husband will supplant her earlier infatuation with her husband as a lover. "The Kreutzer Sonata" follows logically, and the afterword included here must be read too, for it shows Tolstoy attempting to convolutedly explain why couples should refrain from copulating and even procreating. His link to Jesus's teaching to support his view shows both Tolstoy's ingenuity and his fringe thinking, to say the least. Still, he makes a spirited argument that shows his Christian anarchism which so enflamed his later writing and thinking.
With "The Cossacks" we find a romanticized depiction of a love triangle of sorts between a Russian officer, a local girl, and her village suitor. It too takes too long to develop, but it has its moments, best seen when Tolstoy looks up from his characters and shows us the culture of the frontier in the Caucasus mountains fought over still today. This leads to the somewhat more rugged and lively last novella, "Hajid Murad," in which the titular Chechen chieftain must decide between saving his son who has been taken hostage and rebelling against the Russians who have compromised his tribal rebellion. It lags, but it does manage to give snide glimpses of the cruelty of Nicholas' regimen and the 1851-2 state of a situation that 150 years later still has not found the Russians victorious over these peoples.
All in all, lots of philosophizing, even more turgid dialogues with rather pampered Russian officers and their ladies, and a heap of sentimentality that goes with the territory of most 19th-century fiction. The updated Maude translation used here in the last three stories still feels musty and stuffy to me, but perhaps this is to convey the feel of a slightly antiquated level of discourse to our ears.
Customer Review: Tolstoy at his worst
The title story, " The Kreutzer Sonata" is Tolstoy at his preaching, hypocritical, immoral worst. By the time he writes this the great works so filled with love of life are behind him. Here his tirade against sexuality seems a set- speech and not a part of the story of a living character. As for the blanket condemnation of sexuality this is Tolstory narrowly condemning his own monstrous appetites in this area.
All in all nothing in these four works is really reminiscent of the Tolstoy who has such a feeling for his characters and their experience.
Another ironic side of this is that Tolstoy did not at all follow his own prescription to Puritanism and even in advanced old age was reportedly bothering his wife, among others, in order to supply his own needs.
The story is an illustration of how even the greatest creators are not uniformly so, and often have mixed among the gold works of tremendous mediocrity.
Book Categories:
Fiction
Short stories
Russian literature
Books / Subjects / Literature & Fiction / Short Stories / British
Books / Subjects / Literature & Fiction / History & Criticism / Criticism & Theory / General
Books / Subjects / Literature & Fiction / Contemporary
Books / Subjects / Literature & Fiction / General / Classics
Books / Subjects / Literature & Fiction / Short Stories / General
Books / Subjects / Literature & Fiction / World Literature / Russian
Books / Subjects / Literature & Fiction / Classics / Russian
Books / Subjects / Literature & Fiction / Foreign Language Fiction / Russian
Books / Refinements / Binding (binding) / Paperback
Books / Refinements / Format (feature_browse-bin) / Printed Books
|
Pick of the Day
Lists of Interest
Modern Library 100 Best Novels:
In 1998, Modern Library picked the top 100 Novels of the century. This list contains all of the bo
...
Webmaster's Favourites:
These are my selections, humbly presented as books that I particularly enjoyed.
Other ways of browsing
|
