The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories (Penguin Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Tolstoy lectures
Review: This is a collection of odd, rather creaky pieces by Tolstoy. ¨The Kreutzer Sonata¨ is essentially a discussion (or rather a lecture) in which the character Pozdnyshev tells of his disasterous marriage. The narrator is trapped on a train with Pozdnyshev and as the story went on, I felt as cornered! It's a cautionary tale, a declamation against ¨immorality¨ and sexual indulgence. Marriage is condemned as a kind of prostitution. Pozdnyshev appears an unbalanced, irrational character but according to the introduction to my copy of the book, he reflected many of Tolstoy's own views, which says a lot about the author's state of mind at the time.

¨The Devil¨ tells of Yevgey Irtenev's sexual self-indulgence with a married peasant woman and the destructive effect of that on his marriage. Again, it's a cautionary tale. ¨The Forged Coupon¨ is the story of how a student's forgery of a government bond has a sort of domino effect on a series of people - each are affected as a result of the original crime. The first half of the story is good, fast-paced stuff but the latter half goes into more detail about the personal history of a few of the characters, and as a result I felt the story lost pace and punch. ¨After the Ball¨ is a very short story about the abuse of power.

In summary, a collection not without some interest, but it's not Tolstoy at his best.

G Rodgers