Book description
'The Kreutzer Sonata' is the self-lacerating confession of a man
consumed by sexual jealousy and eaten up by shame and eventually driven
to murder his wife. The story caused a sensation when it first appeared
and Tolstoy's wife was appalled that he had drawn on their own
experiences together to create a scathing indictment of marriage. 'The
Devil', centring on a young man torn between his passion for a peasant
girl and his respectable life with his loving wife, also illustrates the
impossibility of pure love. 'The Forged Coupon' shows how an act of
corruption can spiral out of control, and 'After the Ball' examines the
abuse of power. Written during a time of spiritual crisis in Tolstoy's
life, these late stories reflect a world of moral uncertainties.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), the Russian prose writer, is chiefly
remembered for his novels, War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
David McDuff has also edited Dostoyevsky's House of the Dead for
Penguin Classics.
