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"Moments of dramatic genius: a wracking vision of marriage as jealousy nourished, hatred voluptuously fed, rage taken for breakfast." --Elizabeth Hardwick
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
Pozdnyshev and his wife have a turbulent relationship. When her beauty blossoms after the birth of their children, men begin to flock around her, and he becomes increasingly jealous. Convinced his wife is betraying him with a young musician, his overpowering suspicion drives him to ever more dangerous lengths.
United by the theme of love, the writings in the Great Loves series span over two thousand years and vastly different worlds. Readers will be introduced to love’s endlessly fascinating possibilities and extremities: romantic love, platonic love, erotic love, gay love, virginal love, adulterous love, parental love, filial love, nostalgic love, unrequited love, illicit love, not to mention lost love, twisted and obsessional love….
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I have to raise one quibble with the other review as it's very misleading: this is not a piece of autobiography, however much some of the events and ideas parallel those in Tolstoy's life.
It is, rather, a melodramatic monologue (and a brilliant, gripping novella) told by the cuckolded Pozdynshev to a chance railway carriage listener. A discussion on marriage and love amongst the travellers provokes the prematurely aged 'hero' to tell his own story, and offer his take on marriage based on his own bitter experience.
What is particularly striking in the tale - which caused a huge sensation when leaked in the 1890s - is the protagonist's (and Tolstoy's) take on sex. Love is merely, on the part of men, lust, a sensual pleasure with nothing noble about it. With the institution of marriage, this is ingrained in society in the most hypocritical way - we live in a kind of licensed brothel. Women, subjugated, find their power in the manipulation of the one thing men want them for - and in turn use the man for their own sensual pleasure, namely profiting from his work by spending his earnings on unnecessary clothes, furnishings, trinkets...
I'm not going to go into the full argument here - its subtlety and nuances would be lost. Some points he makes may seem outdated. Still, I can't help seeing the world he describes - of sex and consumerism that are sanctified as being essential for life, morally good, noble even, but which in reality lead to violence and hatred when left to run their natural course - as a near perfect projection of our own society of Sex and the City, Ikea, Ibiza, the Sun, Ann Summers...
In short, it's a great story in itself, but also, notwithstanding Tolstoy's own peculiarities of argument (abstinence) one that holds as much relevance today as it ever did.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I approached the Kreutzer Sonata with some misgivings, expecting, after reading Tolstoy's "Confession" to be an anti-sex hyper conservative Christian themed rant, fears that only intensified at the discovery of Bible quotes in the inside cover.
However, I was so, so wrong. Instead this is a tragic insight to the jealous mind. Tolstoy even attacks the traditionalist views on marriage towards the start of the novella, and shows Tolstoy to be the man of great heart every critic takes him for. The way Tolstoy paints a murderer as a human being, while still preserving a feeling of disgust throughout the novella is masterful. Just as you start to sway gradually towards the murderer's delicate character, Tolstoy will reveal something shocking or distasteful which will keep your mind affixed that a convicted murderer is the narrator here.
The simplicity of it all is staggering. The whole story is set in one carriage compartment on a Russian sleeper train. It is two men (one largely listening) conversing on a life gone wrong. The train, though maybe a cliche setting nowadays, is beautifully used to show emotions, and when multiple characters at the start are introduced, you feel part of an animated discussion.
The brutality however, is also staggering. While not throwing any spoliers in, the description of the murder itself is brutal and shocking almost. Testament indeed to the many skills Tolstoy possesses as a writer.
I found it simply unputdownable, and is one of the best I've read this year. (I'm currently slogging through War and Peace though, so maybe it will be beaten) The penguin translation as ever is excellent, and the cover is a thing of beauty. A wonderful little thought provoking book which needs to be added to any collection. As concrete a five stars I've ever awarded on Amazon. Tolstoy is a genius, and all his writings, however small, demand respect and reading.
However, I was so, so wrong. Instead this is a tragic insight to the jealous mind. Tolstoy even attacks the traditionalist views on marriage towards the start of the novella, and shows Tolstoy to be the man of great heart every critic takes him for. The way Tolstoy paints a murderer as a human being, while still preserving a feeling of disgust throughout the novella is masterful. Just as you start to sway gradually towards the murderer's delicate character, Tolstoy will reveal something shocking or distasteful which will keep your mind affixed that a convicted murderer is the narrator here.
The simplicity of it all is staggering. The whole story is set in one carriage compartment on a Russian sleeper train. It is two men (one largely listening) conversing on a life gone wrong. The train, though maybe a cliche setting nowadays, is beautifully used to show emotions, and when multiple characters at the start are introduced, you feel part of an animated discussion.
The brutality however, is also staggering. While not throwing any spoliers in, the description of the murder itself is brutal and shocking almost. Testament indeed to the many skills Tolstoy possesses as a writer.
I found it simply unputdownable, and is one of the best I've read this year. (I'm currently slogging through War and Peace though, so maybe it will be beaten) The penguin translation as ever is excellent, and the cover is a thing of beauty. A wonderful little thought provoking book which needs to be added to any collection. As concrete a five stars I've ever awarded on Amazon. Tolstoy is a genius, and all his writings, however small, demand respect and reading.
Format:Paperback
A treatise on marriage disguised as a novella. This appalled Mrs. Tolstoy and rightly so.
Set up with the flimsiest of plots this is really an essay by Tolstoy on marital relationships, about which he takes a dim and extreme view. Essentially he puts forward the thesis that men and women get married for what they can get out of each other (broadly speaking men want sex and women want material possessions). He concludes that this inevitably leads to unhappiness and that children just make things worse. You would not want Tolstoy as your marriage counselor.
As an analysis of relational breakdowns, it's a load of tosh - although not without some interesting points, clever insights and moments of exaggerated truth. It's also brilliantly and persuasively argued, and cleverly written - making it a very good introduction to Tolstoy as a writer, since at 144 pages you can make a relatively modest investment of time here and decide whether or not you like his style. That way you can either move on to War and Peace or Anna Karenina or decide to leave them alone.
Set up with the flimsiest of plots this is really an essay by Tolstoy on marital relationships, about which he takes a dim and extreme view. Essentially he puts forward the thesis that men and women get married for what they can get out of each other (broadly speaking men want sex and women want material possessions). He concludes that this inevitably leads to unhappiness and that children just make things worse. You would not want Tolstoy as your marriage counselor.
As an analysis of relational breakdowns, it's a load of tosh - although not without some interesting points, clever insights and moments of exaggerated truth. It's also brilliantly and persuasively argued, and cleverly written - making it a very good introduction to Tolstoy as a writer, since at 144 pages you can make a relatively modest investment of time here and decide whether or not you like his style. That way you can either move on to War and Peace or Anna Karenina or decide to leave them alone.
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