The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Short Stories (1889)

Absolutely his best. The Kreutzer Sonata is way ahead of its time and shows, that in essence nothing has changed. When reading this book, listen to Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata. It will help to understand the turmoil and depth of this novel. ( )

This was my first glance into Tolstoy's fiction, and as I expected, I was blown away by his writing. The Death of Ivan Ilyich really captures human depravity and societal indifference to others. Ivan's personal and professional lives hardly serve any other function than to build and reinforce his appearance, and are therefore essentially meaningless; he lacks emotion and sincerity and compassion and love and oh so many things that are essential to life. Finally, all is rectified through a sort of spiritual rebirthing that can only be facilitated through death. The paradoxical nature of the story and the main character's relationships with others are brilliantly crafted and thought provoking. ( )

Franklin Library, 1983. Leather Bound. Book Condition: Near Fine. Nearly Fine Condition! Full genuine leather with silk moire end papers. w/ notes from the editors booklet; No DJ; Gilt Edges And Designs; booklet good; Book VG overall. We Ship Daily! Satisfaction Guaranteed!

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. ( )

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