The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories

by Leo Tolstoy, David McDuff (Editor, Translator), Paul Foote (Editor, Translator)

The violent spiritual crisis in Tolstoy’s life that inspired his last period of creativity produced the stories in this compelling and startling collection. This volume includes "Family Happiness"; "The Kreutzer Sonata"; "The Devil" and "Father Sergius". The four stories are all about love, but they take very different attitudes towards it. They portray the multifaceted nature of desire, from idealistic romance to sexual jealousy, from desperate lust to relentless longing. “The Kreutzer Sonata” caused a public sensation with its indictment of so-called Christian marriage, a theme echoed in “Family Happiness.”
Tolstoy knows that his readers have fallen in love and also, often, fallen out of it; they have wanted to kill their loved ones; they have lusted vigorously; or desperately sought the approval and even worship of others - Tolstoy depends on our own memories to entangle us in his tragic stories.
In these four stories, Tolstoy depicts desire in its different manifestations - from idealistic romance to sexual jealousy, from desperate lust to relentless longing. "Family Happiness", an early work, portrays the struggles of a couple as they move from courtship and passion through disillusionment to the quieter stage of married love. A passenger tells a bitter tale of sex, suspicion and murder when strangers on a train discuss the nature of love in "The Kruetzer Sonata", a novella banned for its scandalous content in 1890. In "The Devil", a young man finds it impossible to resist a beautiful peasant woman with whom he had an affair before his marriage, while "Father Sergius" shows a man going to increasingly desperate ends - from a soldier to monk, to hermit to beggar - in order to avoid the temptations of the flesh.

The translations by David McDuff and Paul Foote faithfully convey Tolstoy's candid, vigorous prose. This edition also includes a new introduction by Donna Orwin discussing Tolstoy's depiction of love and sex in these works, as well as a chronology, further reading and notes.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Short Stories, Russian Literature, Russia, Literature, 19th Century

318 pages, Paperback

First published August 26, 2014

About the author

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой; most appropriately used Liev Tolstoy; commonly Leo Tolstoy in Anglophone countries) was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist fiction. Many consider Tolstoy to have been one of the world's greatest novelists. Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer.

His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Reviews

[Darwin8u · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Love, marriage, family,—all lies, lies, lies."
- Leo Tolstoy, The Krutzer Sonata



First, let me start this review by stating I think Anna Karenina might just be a perfect novel. So, I love Tolstoy. War and Peace, also amazes me and easily belongs on the list of Great World Novels. But 'The Kreutzer Sonata' plays like the writings of an over-indulged, philosophically-stretched, cranky, Fundamentalist older man. It is the sad, second wife to Anna Karenina*. That said, I enjoyed the structure. It is basically a man, Pozdnyshev, discussing his feelings on marriage, morality, and family on a train ride with some strangers. During this discussion he admits that in a jealous rage he once killed his wife (and was later aquited).

The story was censored briefly in 1890 (its censorship was later overturned), but that didn't stop Theodore Roosevelt calling Tolstoy a "sexual moral pervert". The novel does allude to masturbation, immorality, adultery, abortion, etc. Which is funny, because the whole premise of the book is to rage against our moral failings. In a later piece Tolstoy wrote (Lesson of the"The Kreutzer Sonata") defending the novella, he basically explained his views:

1. Men are basically immoral perverts with the opposite sex when young. Society and families wink at their dissoluteness.
2. The poetic/romantic ideal of "falling in love" has had a detrimental impact on morality.
3. The birth of children has lost its pristine significance and the family has been degraded even in the "modern" view of marriage.
4. Children are being raised NOT to grow into moral adults, but to entertain their parents. They are seen as entertainments of the family.
5. Romatic ideas of music, art, dances, food, etc., has contributed and fanned the sexcual vices and diseases of youth.
6. The best years (youth) of our lives are spent trying to get our "freak on" (my term, not Count Tolstoy's). That period would be better spent not chasing tail, butserving one's country, science, art, or God.
7. Chasity and celibacy are to be admired and marriage and sex should be avoided. If we were really "Christian" we would not "bump uglies" (again, my term not the Count's).

It might seem like I am warping Tolstoy's argument a bit, but really I am not. I think the best response to Tolstoy came in 1908 at a celebration of Tolstoy's 80th* from G.K. Chesterton (not really a big libertine; big yes, libertine no):

"Tolstoy is not content with pitying humanity for its pains: such as poverty and prisons. He also pities humanity for its pleasures, such as music and patriotism. He weeps at the thought of hatred; but in The Kreutzer Sonata he weeps almost as much at the thought of love. He and all the humanitarians pity the joys of men." He went on to address Tolstoy directly: "What you dislike is being a man. You are at least next door to hating humanity, for you pity humanity because it is human”

* There are even a couple lines that seem to borrow scenes from, or allude to, Anna Karenina:
"throw myself under the cars, and thus finish everything."
"I was still unaware that ninety-nine families out of every hundred live in the same hell, and that it cannot be otherwise. I had not learned this fact from others or from myself. The coincidences that are met in regular, and even in irregular life, are surprising."
** Which, if the backward math works, means Kreutzer Sonata was written/published when Tolstoy was in his early 60s.

[Shakiba Bahrami · Rating 5 out of 5]

به عنوان دانشجوی ادبیات روسی از تالستوی رُک و خلاصه بگم: همون‌قدر که نویسنده‌ی بزرگی بود، آخوند هم بود:))
به عنوان یک کتابخونِ غلت‌زن هم بگم از اندازه‌ی کتاب ناراضی بودم. همیشه با کتاب قطور مشکل دارم ولی خداروشکر سبک بود.
به عنوان کسی که روسی میدونه هم بگم ترجمه‌ی سروش حبیبی روان و زیباست اما ترجمه‌ی причастие و деепричастие ها واقعا آزاردهنده و غیرفارسی بود! مگه "وَ" چشه آقای حبیبی؟!
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎
حالا از داستان‌ها بگم براتون:

داستان اول: سعادت زناشویی
داستان از زبان دخترک هفده‌ساله‌ای نقل میشه که برای تالستوی نماد حماقت، سبک‌سری، تجمل‌گرایی و گندزدن به سعادت و بنیان خانواده‌ست(همونطور که آنا کارنینا و صدها شخصیت زن دیگه توی داستان‌هاش). تالستوی بار سعادت رو تماماً روی شونه‌ی دخترکی میذاره که نصف شوهرش سن داره! آخوند درون تالستوی معتقده که وظیفه‌ی زن بزرگ کردن فرزندان و اطاعت از همسره(همونطور که توی زندگی واقعی خودش از همسر بیچاره‌اش، سوفیا، انتظار داشت) پس از همین داستان اول بگم:
"اگه اعصاب نشستن پای منبر رو ندارید، به خودتون رحم کنید و تالستوی نخونید!"

داستان دوم: مرگ ایوان ایلیچ
شاید بهترین داستان این کتاب، همین باشه. انگار تالستوی به شخصیت ایوان ایلیچ، نه فقط به خاطر کاراکتر اصلی بودنش پرداخته، بلکه با همین کاراکتر عمیق‌ترین و شخصی‌ترین تفکرات و ترس‌های انسان رو نشون داده. تکراری بگم: شخصیت‌پردازی زنان داستان افتضاحه. تکراری نگم هم، ترتیب روایت بسیار خاصه: داستان از خبر مرگ ایوان ایلیچ شروع میشه و بعد فلش‌بک میزنه به ابتدا تا انتهای زندگی او. این داستان رو با یک راوی بی‌نظیر از فیدیبو گوش داده بودم. پیشنهاد میکنم شما هم بشنوید مخصوصاً اگر تجربه کتاب صوتی(خوب) ندارید.

داستان سوم: سونات کرویستر
از داستان اول بدتر، این داستانه. تالستوی توی این داستان به مردی تریبون میده که ادعا میکنه زنش رو کشته. قهرمان تالستوی یه مرد پارانویدِ عصبیه که حق به جانبه و باز هم (برگردیم به اول ریویو) انتظار اطاعت بی‌چون و چرا از زنش داره. آخوند درون نویسنده اعتقاد داره اگر زن پاک و بی‌گناه باشه، شوهرش اگر بارها کرم بریزه توی زندگی زناشویی، این زن هرگز از راه راست که ضعف و اطاعت و سایر بسوزوبسازهاست، منحرف نمیشه:))) الله اکبر!

داستان چهارم: ارباب و بنده
اما برسیم به داستانی که باهاش میتونید از تالستوی لذت ببرید و حتی عاشق قلمش بشید؛ هرچند قلم زیبای تالستوی، علی‌الرغم محتوای زن‌ستیزانه و مذهبی‌اش، توی داستان‌های قبلی هم حتی حس میشه. عنوان، محتوا رو مشخص میکنه اما هر چی داستان درباره‌ی ارباب‌های روسی خوندید، بریزید دور چون این داستان یک لِوِل دیگه‌ای داره! تغییر و تعریف جایگاه ارباب و نوکر، خودبینی و پول پرستی ثروتمندان، روابط انسانی، امید به زندگی، فداکاری و... داستان رو به شدت خاص کرده. پایان داستان برخلاف تصورّم از تالستوی، بسیار جذاب بود. این داستان رو به شکل ویژه‌ای پیشنهاد میکنم بخونید.


داستان پنجم: پدر سرگی
"مرد هرچقدر عیاش باشه، با زن‌های بسیاری خوابیده باشه، با قلب بیشمار دختر هم بازی کرده باشه، طبیعتشه. حتی اگه برای کسب جایگاه از زنان اشرافی استفاده کنه که دیگه نشان از ذکاوت و هوش اوست. زن اگه حتی یک معشوق قبل ازدواج داشته باشه، لیاقت همچین مردی رو نداره حتی اگه نصف سن مرد رو داشته باشه!" این جمله‌ها رو از چند صفحه‌ی اول این داستان میتونید برداشت کنید.
شخصیت‌های زن این داستان یا به درد استفاده جهت ترقی مرد داستان میخورن، یا اگر ابزار شیطان و مشغول اغفال مردان نباشن، حتماً دید ماشین‌جوجه‌کشی بهشون هست و دیگر هیچ! لیِف نیکالایویچ، دستت درد نکنه با این نگاه زیبات:))
بگذریم.
برخلاف تلاش‌های آخوندک درونِ تالستوی، این داستان بسیار عجیبه، چرا که شک و تردیدی که سراغ مردان خدا میاد، تلاش روحانیون برای استغفار و جلوگیری از گناه، موفقیت‌ها و شکست‌هاشون در این راه و نگاهی که تالستوی به روحانی مسیحی به عنوان یک انسان معمولی داره رو حداقل در ادبیات روسیه ندیدم. اینم بگم تالستوی منکر سنت‌ها و دین نبود، اتفاقاً بسیار سنتی بود. تالستوی با روحانیون کلیسا مشکل داشت، نه با خود کلیسا؛ یه آخوند که از بقیه آخوندا بدش میاد، اون رو از آخوندبودن معاف نمیکنه:)))
خلاصه که این داستان بسیار زیبا پرداخته شده بود: جدال شک و یقین بود!


داستان آخر: داستان یک کوپن جعلی
فیلم "butterfly effect"(اثر پروانه‌ای) رو دیدید؟ اگه از اون فیلم خوشتون اومده، از این داستان هم لذّت می‌برید. هرچند کتاب تالستوی کجا و فیلم کجا!
بعد این همه صحبت راجع به عقاید عهد قجری تالستوی، باید بگم که تالستوی نویسنده‌ی بزرگی بود و نوشتن از اندیشیدن جدا نیست. این داستان جزئیات بسیار زیادی داره که تک به تک بخش‌هاش رو میشه تجزیه و تحلیل روانشناسی و جامعه‌شناسی کرد. ارتباط افراد مختلف جامعه با هم و تاثیر مثبت و منفی‌ای که هر کار کوچیکی روی دنیای ما داره، توی این داستان به شکل خلاقانه و حرفه‌ای روایت شده. من این داستان رو خیلی دوست داشتم چون نشون میداد چطور پاک‌ترین شخص می‌تونه گناهکار باشه و مجرم‌ترین آدم، ناجی! و تاثیر یک نگاه، کمتر از قتل نیست.
مذهب و اعتقادات مسیحی، و همچنان ضدیت نه با خود کلیسا، بلکه با روحانیون کلیسا مثل بقیه‌ی داستان‌ها، در این داستان هم پررنگه. دوستش داشتم:)
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎
من به این کتاب پنج ستاره دادم چون نقد و دید واقعی خوبه اما اگر سوفیا با اون همه خانمی و صبر، نتونست تالستوی رو از خر شیطون پیاده کنه، من کی باشم که معلم اخلاق تالستوی بشم؟! :))

[Behnam M · Rating 5 out of 5]

سعادت زناشویی: ۵ ستاره
مرگ ایوان ایلیچ: ۵ ستاره
سونات کرویتسر: ۵ ستاره
ارباب و بنده: ۴ ستاره
پدر سرگی: ۵ ستاره
داستان یک کوپن جعلی: ۴ ستاره

[fคrຊคຖ.tຖ · Rating 4 out of 5]

بالاخره تموم شد✋🏼
شش داستان کوتاه از تولستوی که مرگ ایوان ایلیچ و
پدر سرگی رو قبلاً خونده بودم. از بین ۴ داستان باقی مونده "داستان یک کوپن جعلی" رو بیشتر دوست داشتم که آخرین داستان بود؛ پر از شخصیت و پر از ماجرا و غافلگیری
سعادت زناشویی ۴
سونات کرویتسر ۳
ارباب و بنده ۴
داستان یک کوپن جعلی ۵

[Nocturnalux · Rating 1 out of 5]

Have you ever found yourself stuck on a plane with a veritably annoying co-passenger bent on talking to you when you would rather be left in peace? Replace 'plane' with 'train' and instead of merely being annoyed by, say, a lady who wants to chat about airplane crashes (as happened to me, once), you are dealing with a psychotic man who must tell you all about how he killed his wife because, well, she had it coming.

That is, in a nutshell, The Kreutzer Sonata. And yet, this scenario, as deeply disturbing and perplexing as it is, could be fertile ground for literary exploration. Abnormal psychology has often provided the themes for the best, deepest if darkest literature. There is the risk of ending up siding with absolute evil, though, and this is precisely what happens in this one. Imagine if Raskolnikov's self-justifications for killing the old lady were implicitly and later on, in an addendum, endorsed by the author and that his point of view was lauded throughout the text with absolutely no push-back and you may have an idea of the depths of depravity to which Kreutzer descends.

The misogyny is thick, acid, dripping from virtually every single line with a kind of desperate bravado and aggrandizing sense of injured pride that it gives one pause. Occasionally, here and there, a few nuggets of decency are littered as we are reminded that if women are essentially pigs, they are so merely because they were raised that way and if given a choice and a proper moral conduct they would overcome their swinish ways.

Unfortunately, said proper moral conduct is another piece of lunacy: chastity at all costs and if that is unattainable than being perpetually pregnant and nursing. The text goes out of its way to condemn contraception several times and this in a shortish tale.

If there is one thing that I have learned is that doctrines- and this is a doctrinal text through and through, it may be well written and in such a way as to almost camouflage its design but dig below the glittering sentence and you can see it for what it is- that hail women's 'purity' as the stuff of wonders are almost by default heavily anti-women. It follows almost logically: if a woman after having sex feels 'impure' and is 'degraded', to the point that her emotional scope is deadened (all articles of faith in this one), the ideal of womanhood that emerges as a counterpart is that of virginal girls, with sexually active women being placed in a very lower tier.

Which is not to say that Kreutzer thinks highly of men, it very obviously does not, as time and time again it reminds us how sexual urges also reduce them into becoming beasts. But it is worth mentioning that when push comes to shove and our 'hero' finally kills someone, it is the wife that gets it. Not the man that may be having an affair with her; no, violence in this one is directed with gusto and blood lust at the woman.

Because, let's be honest, she kind of had it coming. What was she wearing?

I cannot help but wonder if the high praise this one receives comes from its author more than anything else. Were it an anonymous text, would it have all this raving devotion? Maybe. Then again, maybe not.

Be it as it may, the text runs through a gamut of things that are just too terrible in that they derail one from becoming chaste and following Christ (with the laudable goal of eventually extinguishing the human race, Tolstoy the OG anti-natalist) and those include: music, the titular sonata in particular, for it is nothing but a trigger for having frenzied sex (good thing Tolstoy wasn't around when Rock'n'roll was a thing, it'd kill him dead); children, for they become nothing but pawns in the parents' sick power games once things turn sour; marriage, which is the source of all evils because it gives vent to that frenzied sex and creates more children which are in turn horrible and may even grow up to (gasp!) compose music (say it ain't so!).

I need to stress that there is a point to all this craziness. Marriage was, indeed, very often a horror show in Tolstoy's time, women were treated as cattle and put on auction in the marriage market (one of the few scenes that is truly great is the one describing those 19th century balls where young women were put on display, all decked up in their best clothes, to be more or less purchased as brides, no actual effort being put into developing them as individuals) and sexuality burdened women with so many children that health and life were compromised.

Unfortunately, Kreutzer does a good job at defining the problems but goes down in flames when it offers its demented solution. The very obvious possibility of rearranging gender roles within marriage so as to create such asymmetries, of using contraception to avoid being perpetually pregnant and of investing in the actual education of women and girls, is either completed ignored or overtly condemned, as is the case with contraception (this needs emphasizing, it is almost a litmus test: texts that oppose contraception are anti-women). Whenever anyone claims that sex should be exclusively for procreation, as is the case here, a red flag should pop up.

What is offered instead is this ideal of Christian sappiness where men and women become sexless, or as close as possible, and women are kept nursing so as not to go into 'heat', or whatever lunatic notion passes for female sexual desire. Only then will people become Christlike, producing a batch of even more Christlike people who will abstain from sex even further until we all become so Christlike that humanity comes to an end, as it really ought to happen.

And here I was, thinking that the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement was a modern idea.

I actually recommend reading this one as it has to be read to be believed. With that said, if detailed scenes of violence against women are triggering then stay far, far away from this one.

[Simona Cosma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sau "câteva motive pentru a-ţi ucide nevasta, explicate de însuşi ucigaşul".
Tolstoi a fost impardonabil de sincer pentru secolul său, așa că ajunge să ofenseze cu Sonata Kreutzer nu doar critica vremii sau pe pudibonzii ultraortodocşi ruşi, dar mai presus de toate, propria-i soţie.
Pe scurt, protagonistul Pozdnîșev relatează naratorului, pe parcursul unei călătorii cu trenul, cum anume iubirea intensă pentru soția lui ajunge să se transforme într-o ură viscerală şi cum sfârșește, în cele din urmă, să o omoare fără regrete.
Profund neîmpăcat şi chinuit, Pozdnîșev este achitat pentru odioasa faptă, dar este urmărit până la capăt de autoinculpare şi penitenţă. Sfârşeşte prin a-şi valoriza soţia ucisă imediat ce ea trece la cele veşnice, dar mai ales pe măsură ce îşi evocă şi îşi înţelege fiecare temei prostesc al geloziei care l-a împins la crimă: „Adevărul e că, fiind eliberată de sarcină şi alăptare s-a trezit în ea cochetăria adormită. Şi odată cu asta s-a trezit şi în mine o teribilă gelozie, care din acea clipă m-a torturat fără încetare şi care-i torturează pe toţi bărbaţii ce duc aceeaşi viaţă dezgustătoare în căsnicie, cum o duceam şi eu.”
Autoflagelându-se fără milă în introspecţii şi retrospectii psihanalitice, îşi descoperă sursa geloziei într-o imagine viciată ce o avea asupra femeilor, dobândită încă din vremea tinereţii sale înecate în desfrâu: „…sufeream cumplit. Nu într-un spital de sifilitici aş duce eu tinerii ca să le treacă pofta de femei, ci în sufletul meu, ca să vadă demonii care-l sfâşiau!”
Nu e de mirare că, la vremea ei, această scriere a stârnit un imens scandal şi a ajuns să fie interzisă din Rusia și până în America. Nu a fost puțin lucru să îndrăznești să fii atât de lipsit de ipocrizie și formalism în secolul al XIX-lea, aș adăuga eu.

[Hugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book borrowed from my parents' collection. This collection brings together four of Tolstoy's late stories. The first three (The Kreutzer Sonata, The Devil and The Forged Coupon) are arguably novellas, and the collection is completed by After the Ball, a short essay (Postface to the Kreutzer Sonata) and an alternate ending for The Devil.

All of these stories have a strict religious and moral underpinning, and all explore the consequences of various forms of temptation. This makes them read very much as period pieces - Tolstoy's views on the importance of chastity would be much less popular today, but taken together they are still enjoyable and at times (particularly in the first half of The Forged Coupon) entertaining.

[Kowsar · Rating 4 out of 5]

این کتاب شامل چند داستان هستش . که من یکی دوتاش رو قبلا توی کتابهای جداگانه خونده بودم. تولستوی اونقدر واقعی و بدون دلرحمی داستان پیش میبره ک گاهی دلت میخوای بهش بگی کمی با قهرمانان داستانت مهربون تر باش و همین واقعی بودن نکته اصلی داستان های تولستوی هستش. از خوندنش لذت بردم

[Gabriela Pistol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recitire.

Nu știu dacă acum 22 de ani sau cam așa ceva, când am citit prima dată Sonata Kreutzer, mi-am dat seama ce monstru puritan e soțul ucigaș. Cred că eram mult mai radicală la vârsta aia fragedă și am văzut doar că a fost înnebunit de gelozie.
Sunt in continuare fascinată de atenția cu care Tolstoi sondează psihologia umană și de frumusețea literară a stilului său, dar mă îngrozește fanatismul lui (religios și moral).

Mai mult mi-a plăcut nuvela Fericirea vieții de familie, reuseste să rezolve făra radicalisme criza conjugală și o face foarte convingător.

Doi husari nu am putut parcurge, m-au plictisit teribil ocupațiile "bărbătești" ale protagoniștilor (jocuri de noroc, băutura, dame).

[Arezu Wishka · Rating 5 out of 5]

این اولین کتابی بود که از تالستوی می خوندم. مجموعه ای از شش داستان به اسم های
سعادت زناشویی
یکی از داستان های مورد علاقه ام در مورد عشق و ازدواج که یکی از دغدغه های خودمم بود و از میزان جذابیت و دلنشینی این داستان هر چی بگم کم گفتم و تمام وجودم موقع خوندن این داستان فریاد می زد که این خود خود دغدغه ایه که همیشه توی ذهنم بوده.
5 ستاره*
مرگ ایوان ایلیچ
مرگ ایوان ایلیچ داستانی درباره مرگ و ضعف انسان هاست. اینکه چقدر راحت می میریم و چطور باهاش مواجه می شیم. حقیقت اینه که مرگ یکی از دغدغه های من نیست یا شایدم دارم مقاومت می کنم اما بهرحال داستان خوبی بود.
4.5 ستاره*
سونات کرویتسر
اینم یکی دیگه از داستان های محشر این مجموعه که اسم کتاب هم همینه. مردی که توی قطار داره همین جوری یه ریز حرف می زنه و از یه داستان هولناک پرده بر می داره. روندی که این داستان گره گشایی می شه رو واقعا دوست داشتم و لذت بردم.
5 ستاره*
ارباب و بنده
این داستان کمی از نظرم کند پیش می رفت و برای من ضعیف ترین داستان این مجموعه بود شاید چون جزو الویت ها و دغدغه های اصلی زندگیم نبود اما می تونست باشه و بنابراین بازم داستان واقعا خوبی محسوب می شد که اختلاف طبقاتی و رفتار نادرست افراد رو توی این اختلاف نشون می داد.
4.5 ستاره *
پدر سرگی
یکی از درون نگرترین داستان های این مجموعه که زندگی یه فرد به شدت کمال طلب و برتری طلب رو نشون می ده که این ویژگیش طوری اون رو به سمت حقیقت پیش می بره که در راه انتقاد و اصلاح خودش مرزهای زیادی رو رد می کنه و واقعا داستان مجذوب کننده ایه.
5 ستاره*
داستان یک کوپن جعلی
این هم یکی دیگه از داستان های محشر تالستوی بود که گردشی عمل می کرد و ما با تاثیرات یه عمل سفر می کنیم و می بینیم یه کار اشتباه به ظاهر کوچیک چطور روی زندگی آدم ها تاثیر می ذاره و از اون مهم تر اینکه واکنش انسان ها چقدر مهم تر از تاثیرات محیطه! یه جورایی نوع نگاه افراد همه چیزه. فوق العاده!
5 ستاره*

[محمد یوسفی‌شیرازی · Rating 3 out of 5]

دربارۀ آن دسته از داستان‌های این مجموعه که به‌صورت مجزا نیز چاپ شده، یعنی داستان‌های «سعادت زناشویی» و «مرگ ایوان ایلیچ» و «ارباب و بنده» و «پدر سرگی»، جداگانه یادداشت‌هایی نوشته و نظرم را گفته‌ام. می‌ماند دو داستان «سونات کرویتسر» و «داستان یک کوپن جعلی» که تا امروز به‌صورت کتابی جداگانه منتشر نشده است. از این دو، «داستان یک کوپن جعلی» را به‌دلیل شلوغی بیش‌ازحد فضایش و شخصیت‌های متعددی که در آن وجود دارد، چندان نپسندیدم؛ گرچه این اثر نیز از نکته‌سنجی‌های اخلاقی تولستوی خالی نیست و در جاهایی می‌توان به‌عیان درخشش اندیشۀ او را در آن دید. اما از بین همۀ داستان‌های این کتاب، «سونات کرویتسر» به‌راستی جایگاهی ویژه دارد و چه‌بسا به همین سبب بوده که سروش حبیبی عنوان این داستان را بر کل مجموعه نهاده است. د�� اینجا مختصری دربارۀ این شاهکار کم‌مانند می‌نویسم.

شخصیت اصلی «سونات کرویتسر» مردی است که مدتی پس از ازدواجش به رابطۀ زنش با جوانکی خوش‌قیافه که آموزگار موسیقی او است، بدگمان می‌شود و خلق‌وخوی شکننده و بی‌اعتمادبه‌نفسی‌اش سبب می‌شود هر دم به این بدگمانی بیشتر دامن بزند و به این تصور که زنش خیانت‌کار است، بیشتر باور پیدا کند. این سوءظن تا آنجا پیش می‌رود که سرانجام مرد، تلخ‌کام از حس خیانت‌دیدگی و بیزار از زندگی زناشویی، غافل‌گیرانه از مأموریت به خانه برمی‌گردد و زن را در خانه با آن جوانک می‌بیند و بی‌اینکه به‌وضوح به خیانتی پی ببرد یا چیزی را با چشم خودش ببیند، زن را با دست خودش می‌کُشد. این البته پایان تشویش‌های او نیست؛ چراکه از این پس، عذاب‌وجدان آدم‌کشی نیز به ناآرامی‌های او افزوده می‌شود و روانش را بیش از پیش می‌فرساید.

هنرمندی تولستوی در روایتگری و نقب‌زدن به درون شخصیت‌ها و برملاکردن احوال روانی‌شان در این داستان در اوج است. علاوه‌براین، در کنار روایت پُرکشش و نفس‌گیری که به دست می‌دهد، ماجرای خیانت زن به شوهر را در هاله‌ای از ابهام باقی می‌گذارد و پایانی نسبتاً باز برای این داستان رقم می‌زند؛ ترفندی که در داستان‌های دیگرِ او دیده نمی‌شود. به‌بیان بهتر، در آخر این داستان مشخص نمی‌شود که آیا زن به‌راستی در حق شوهرش خیانت کرده یا اینکه تمام آنچه از خیانت و خیانت‌پیشگی نقل شده، برساختۀ ذهن بدبین و شکاک شوهر است. با همۀ این‌ها، گزندگی و تلخیِ حس بی‌اعتمادی و خیانت‌دیدگی و خیانت‌پیشگی به بهترین وجه به تصویر کشیده شده است و به‌خوبی مخاطب را با خود همراه می‌سازد.

در مجموع، باید گفت «سونات کرویتسر» روایتی است سراسر طعنه و کنایه به سرشت شهوت‌جوی بشر و گرفتاری‌هایی که به‌واسطۀ عشق و ازدواج برای انسان پدید می‌آید. محور داستان، جدا از موضوع خیانت، نفی ازدواج و عشق است و اینکه آنچه غالباً عشق می‌نامند، چیزی است پوک و بی‌مایه که صرفاً از نیازهای تنانۀ آدمی برمی‌خیزد و به‌میزانی که این نیازها برآورده شود، آتش شهوت آدمی نیز فرومی‌نشنید و حرارت عشق هم رو به خاموشی می‌رود و در عوض، آتش اختلاف و نزاع و بیزاری زبانه می‌کشد و بالا می‌گیرد. لابه‌لای سطرهای این داستان، گفته‌های نغز و دل‌انگیزی نیز وجود دارد که نشانۀ درک عمیق تولستوی از ماهیت زندگی انسان و ریزه‌کاری‌های آن است:

ـ زن‌ها، خاصه آن‌هایی که در مکتب مردها درس آموخته‌اند، به‌خوبی می‌دانند که بحث‌های آن‌ها دربارۀ مسائل والای اخلاقی همه یاوه است و مردها جز بدن و آنچه آن را به فریبنده‌ترین صورت به نمایش می‌گذارند، نمی‌خواهند. آن‌ها این را می‌دانند و می‌کوشند آنچه را مردها به آن چشم دارند، عرضه کنند. (۲۴۵)

ـ انسان وقتی به‌زشتی زندگی می‌کند و به راه کج می‌رود، آینهٔ ضمیر خود را کدر می‌کند و نمی‌تواند فلاکت وضع خود را دریابد. (۲۸۲)

ـ زندگی در شهر برای ناکامان راحت‌تر است. در شهر، انسان ممکن است صد سال زندگی کند و نفهمد که مدت‌ها است مرده است و پوسیده. آدم در شهر هرگز فرصت ندارد با خود خلوت کند و در احوال خود باریک شود. یک سر است و هزار سودا: امور مالی، دیدوبازدید، وضع سلامتی، کارهای هنری، تن‌درستی بچه‌ها و امر تربیت آن‌ها. باید عمرو و زید را پذیرفت یا به دیدن قیس و قادر رفت. گاه باید فلان را دید و زمانی به بهمان گوش سپرد. در شهر که هستی، هر ساعت آدم سرشناسی هست که نمی‌شود نادیده‌اش گرفت و گاهی هم دو یا سه تا با هم. گاه باید درد خود را دوا کنی یا از فلان و بهمان پرستاری. یک وقت باید با معلم مدرسه یا سرخانه کلنجار رفت و گاه باید چیزی را به پرستاران حالی کرد؛ حال‌آنکه زندگی خالی است. (۲۸۵)

کتابنامه: سونات کرویتسر و چند داستان دیگر، لئو تولستوی، ترجمهٔ سروش حبیبی، چ۲، تهران: چشمه، ۱۳۸۹.

[Siti · Rating 3 out of 5]

È un racconto lungo, scritto in modo magistrale e giocato su un climax ascendente che ne rende veloce e bramosa la fruizione. Si vuole infatti conoscere la motivazione che induce un uomo ad uccidere la moglie, fatto che ci viene anticipato dall’uxoricida dichiarato, durante un tragitto in treno condiviso col narratore, ben presto scalzato dal suo ruolo dal monologo- confessione che terrà scena fino all’epilogo. Non che l’assassino sia impunito, o meglio lo è, perché pur avendo confessato all’autorità giudiziaria è stato assolto in virtù dell’adulterio compiuto dalla moglie, e questa sia dunque la storia di un fuggiasco, no, affatto, è però la storia di un uomo che deve comunque convivere con l’irreversibilità del gesto compiuto a causa della gelosia, ossessionante al punto tale da rendere, per noi lettori, dubbiosa perfino la condotta fedifraga della moglie.
L’intero scritto nasce dall’intento dichiarato, dopo le prime richieste di delucidazione da parte dei suoi lettori, contenuto nella postfazione che segue il testo: fare una critica ai costumi sessuali della sua epoca, all’istituto del matrimonio, al fine di argomentare la tesi, secondo lui convincente, che l’atto sessuale tra gli umani sia da disdegnare, e che sia da preferirgli una sobria castità. Lascia alquanto perplessi; la lettura della postfazione l’ho interrotta quando la posizione mi è parsa fine a se stessa e insostenibile, affacciandosi poi Freud alla mente per una frazione di secondo, ho preferito fermarmi con un atteggiamento simile a quello che si ha quando si è di fronte ad ogni genere di estremismo. Il tutto poi si intuiva già in modo chiaro attraverso la maglia narrativa, quando si parla di eccessi sessuali in gioventù, del rapporto sessuale di coppia, delle dinamiche del disamore collassate in odio reciproco a causa della convivenza brutale alla quale il matrimonio costringe. I figli, frutto di questa unione sessuale, si badi bene non d’amore, un ulteriore tormento. Lo scritto appartiene alla fase finale della produzione del nostro e si inserisce nella biografia dell’autore, abbandonò in vecchiaia la moglie e la famiglia, e nel nascente tolstojsmo. Lascia di stucco. Un debole epilogo, questo sì più riconducibile all’etica cristiana del perdono, lo rende appena più digeribile dopo aver nel frattempo dimenticato le pagine dedicate alla musica che mi sono parse anch’esse stucchevoli, tendenziose e funzionali ad una tesi non convincente. Credo nell’amore tra uomo e donna, resistente a qualsiasi matrimonio. Di questi tempi però penso che le sue argomentazioni possano risultare gradite a tanti e condivisibili, resta il fatto, a scanso di equivoci, che non c’è giustificazione alcuna dell’atto violento rappresentato. La lettura è almeno utile per approcciarsi alla Sonata a Kreutzer di Beethoven, magistrale, eppure anch’essa anticonformista e poco gradita ai contemporanei, faceva dialogare violino e pianoforte come mai si era sentito prima. Se il racconto è una nota stonata, la sonata proprio no. Ascoltatela.

[Sean Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just brilliant on all accounts. From the idealistic, rural love of Family Happiness to the psychologically terrifying Kreutzer Sonata and the painful disillusionment of Father Sergius, it's just enthralling reading. Literature at its best. Typical with Tolstoy, expect beautifully written passages, philosophy and a deep understanding of human nature.

[Shabnam_wr · Rating 4 out of 5]

سعادت زناشویی (اینم خوب بود واقعا)
مرگ ایوان ایلیچ( شاهکار بود و حس ایوان رو به خوبی توصیف کرده بود)
سونات کرویتسر(تعریف خاطره بود همش ،راجع به مردی که زنش رو کشته ...)
ارباب و بنده (فضای بسیار زمستونی داشت مخصوص این روز ها**)
پدر سرگی(اینم دوست داشتم)
داستان یک کوپن جعلی(داستان آخر جزئیات زیادی داشت ولی من خیلی خوشم نیومد نسبت به اون یکی ها)
بیشتر از همه داستانِ دوم رو دوست داشتم.اگه وقت کنم توی اینستاگرام بیشتر راجع بهش میگم.(shabnam_neviss)

[Mehdii · Rating 5 out of 5]

6 داستان نیمه بلند از عالـــیـــجـــنــاب تــولــسـتــوی...
فـوق الــعـااااااده بود!!🔥

[مِستر کثافت درونگرا · Rating 4 out of 5]

من سونات جداگانه خوندم و مثل همیشه آثاری روسی درجه یک و شخصیت پردازی بی‌نظیر و روایت عالی.

[El]

Marieke brought this article to my attention and I must find this book immediately.

[Susan Sample · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh lordy, I'd say everyone involved in these stories really needs to chill out and get laid, but they'd be so devastated with shock that I'll refrain. First, Michael Katz has done a very cool thing here: he's put together Lev Tolstoy's novella The Kreutzer Sonata with Tolstoy's wife Sofiya's direct response Whose Fault?, along with her Song without Words and their son's response Chopin's Prelude. Yes, this is a family who has its arguments via novellas, counter novellas, and pretty bad, but terribly sincere and earnest, short stories. There are also a number of letters, diary entries, etc. pertaining to the publication of The Kreutzer Sonata included in The Kreutzer Sonata Variations. In its era (the 1890s), Tolstoy's original novella was utterly scandalous, was banned from publication in Russia until Sofiya begged the Tsar personally to allow it to be published, banned in a couple of states in the US, and generally caused a real literary ruckus (and at least one young man to castrate himself). Having them all in one collection is inspired, and anyone interested in sex, crazy Christians, crazy Russians, really dysfunctional families, or the debate over attachment vs free-range parenting, etc. ought to read it.

That said....good grief! Tolstoy is a nut (please keep in mind that Anna Karenina is arguably the best novel ever written, and I loved it, and liked War and Peace well enough, so Tolstoy being a nut should be understood in the context of my general fandom). Allow me to sum up the various plots here. TKS: sleazebag lustmonkey of a man marries woman young enough not to know better, is a total asshole to her for a decade or so, then murders her because she dares hang out with a guy who doesn't treat her like shit. Whose Fault: sleazebag lustmonkey of a man marries a woman young enough not to know better who is ever so shocked by (the spiritual impurity of) sex; he's a total asshole to her for a decade or so, then murders her because she dares hang out with a guy who doesn't treat her like shit and makes her think, just maybe, that being touched by a guy who isn't a total prick might be ok (though still fundamentally something nice girls just don't do). Song without Words: Ridiculous woman (married to a lovely guy) suffering grief past the point of credibility at her mother's death becomes obsessed with the musical outpourings of gay composer, only to accidentally fall in love with him, go crazy at the inevitable fact he can't love her back, and sinks into madness. This novella is a bit of the odd man out here—the husband isn't a slime; he's really quite nice—but it makes sense in the context of the larger work and relationship of the Tolstoys. Sofiya suffered enormous grief at the death of a young son, and she argues in her reflections (also here) that she was saved by the music of a friend and her resulting passion for music—or, since this is the 19th century, should I say Passion? Lev Tolstoy was bitterly jealous of her relationship with the man, even though she swore up and down that she remained pure throughout (and purity, folks, it’s all about purity). Since jealousy and purity are the obsessive themes of both the primary novellas, it makes sense to include this one. Meanwhile, the son's short addition to the family battle over the evils of sex vis-à-vis the human (well, male) desire for this evil thing, has a plot involving a young poor man who decides that the only solution to being a moral person is to get married young—to avoid turning into an evil lustmonkey like the men in his parents' stories. Then he can have a good Christian marriage, only having sex to reproduce, and have a moral relationship with his equally young wife.

So here's the deal: Tolstoy really means to argue, and frankly, I think his Afterward is critical to understanding what he means to argue, that men are inherently lustmonkeys who simply will go to bordellos, f$#@ any woman who moves, etc., and women...oh, where do I begin with his view of women? The highest calling of a woman is to raise her children (fine and dandy; Sofiya makes a neat little argument for attachment parenting in her version), and clearly no good woman would ever, ever like sex...but to win and retain one of these lustmonkey men, a young woman has to compromise her purity and get all sexed up, then...god forbid...when she is married with children, in order to keep him from straying, which of course he will do because he just can't help himself, she may even need to (close your eyes here if you are easily shocked!) have sex with him even while pregnant or nursing a baby. Oh dear god, the immorality of that! Since sex cannot ever be imagined as anything other than morally wrong when it isn’t for procreation, and nice girls obviously hate sex, having sex while pregnant or nursing is clearly horrendous. The one thing worse is when a woman is driven to keep her lustmonkey…er, sorry, husband...by having sex but using birth control. And women like prostitutes who have sex with no commitment and using birth control? The only thing worse is the men who use them. Pretty much, the spiritual purity of a woman is compromised the minute she gets near one of these men, and man's lusty nature makes it very, very hard for him to be a good person.

Well, except Lev in TKS essentially sets the murder out as the woman's fault—a man's desperate need for sex means that he can’t help but ignore a woman’s actual personality and interests—when she talks, he’s way too busy imagining her naked to listen to what she says—and ultimately, the very existence and presence of women compromises a man’s only chance at a real spiritual existence. Women separate men from God, and cannot be forgiven for this evil (Tolstoy’s husband in TKS says that in the future we will lament that women were allowed out in public or to show any skin at all). Don't get me wrong—Tolstoy is f@#*$ng brilliant, and he's got bits in here that are just inspired. His comments on coming out balls; his description of the difficulty of marriage when the children are little, men constantly undressing women in their minds, etc. are so clever, it's amazing. There are nuggets of what appear to be truths about marriage that cross time and space.

But taken as a whole, this is crazy land. One might naively think, “but isn’t the solution to these marriages actually having people marry someone they actually love?” No, according to Tolstoy—love is just a pretty story women tell themselves and men lie about to get women in the sack. It’s not real.

Tolstoy was apparently quite the lusty gentleman, but he wanted to be pure and spiritual and strive for the model of Jesus. The whole kit and kaboodle here is about his quest to be a good Christian and to teach others how to be a good Christian. Ultimately, he concludes that the only solution to this whole dilemma of lustmonkey men and poor women spiritually compromised by a man’s lust and the need to keep him home is that no one ever has sex again. Yeah, really. That’s the solution. I'm not kidding. That was his conclusion.

Sex is inherently evil because it is inherently self-serving, not serving God, so if we want to model ourselves after Christ, we should just not do it. Ever again. If you are thinking, "but, wouldn't humanity die out if no one had sex..." Yeah, he got that. That was ok if everyone lived like Jesus because that was obviously the point of life. Purity. Everyone had to be pure. A good Christian must avoid sex, even procreative sex: if a couple has children, then they must focus on raising the children (or she must, and he must complain about it because it cuts into his ready access to sex), which is inherently self-directed, not focused on God, and thus impure. So there is no such thing as a Christian marriage unless, basically, you agree not to have sex and love each other as brother and sister.

Sofiya wrote her own novella to counter Tolstoy’s—arguing that the jerk of a husband was responsible for the wife finding companionship elsewhere (in neither novella had she actually had sex with the guy), but I'm not sure if the difference between their perspectives really makes a difference—she argues that she wanted to have her say after TKS humiliated her in public, but since everyone felt sorry for her after it was published, I don't think anyone was blaming her for the state of their marriage (since everyone assumed the book reflected it). Basically, though, she too seems to completely believe that nice girls don't like sex, and sees no way out of this problem. She says in her later reflections that no woman is remotely interested in sex when she has young children—it’s only in her 30s that she starts to be interested. These people need a sexual revolution, stat! Sex in her story, too, is something impure, something forced on an innocent girl who is only interested in art and poetry and a meaningful spiritual existence by a base and low man who has no appreciation for purity and all of that stuff.

Their son thinks he's taken the radical tack by disagreeing with his father that sex and marriage are always bad, but his solution is to marry as quickly as possible, so the inevitable desire of a man to stray will be tamed by having a wife as young as possible—saving him from all the bordellos and from the risk of meeting women who, god forbid, are base and low and might like sex themselves (which, of course, simply destroys whatever innocence might still exist in the man). He argues that procreation is a legitimate reason for sex after all, so Christian marriage is possible (not that sex is legitimate for other reasons).

Ok, so I had to rant. Tolstoy would argue vociferously that people just justify having sex because they want to, and they’ll justify their lusts anyway they can to get what they want, but we shouldn’t confuse that with doing the right thing: sex separates you from God; it is always self-centered, not God-centered, so man must fight his baser instincts constantly, and that means no sex. I confess, I’m not all that concerned with living a pure Christian life—I’m more concerned about the obnoxious murdering lout of a character treating his wife like crap and the implicit argument that men are so obsessed with sex that we really can’t expect anything else of them; I’m concerned with the good girls don’t like sex thing. I just can’t get around thinking that no matter how much he wants to dress this up as a route to spiritual purity and being a good Christian, it’s pretty much misogynistic balderdash. Thus endeth my rant.

But, like, you should totally read it.

[Shy · Rating 4 out of 5]

سعادت زناشویی ★★★★☆
مرگ ایوان ایلیچ ★★★★★
سونات کرویتسر ★★★★☆
ارباب و بنده ★★★★☆
پدر سرگی ★★★★★
داستان یک کوپن جعلی ★★★★☆

[Tahoura · Rating 3 out of 5]

نمیدونم من توقع‌ام از ادبیات بالا رفته یا چی؟! اما خیلی یه جوری بود دیگه نوشته‌های جناب تولستوی؛ فکر میکردی رفتی کلیسا و یکی داره هی نصیحتت میکنه مخصوصا خانومارو، مضمون چندتا از داستانا این بود که زن خوبی باش شوهرت دوراشو میزنه برمیگرده:)
از بین داستان‌های این کتاب، مرگ ایوان ایلیچ که قبلا خونده بودم متفاوت از بقیه و درکل بنظرم بهتر بود.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such hatred in these disturbing stories. Although I first read this collection years ago at the request of a "friend," I can't put the book on my "re-read" shelf. I retained no memories of the stories themselves nor of the reason that person cherished them (at the time I didn't want to reflect on/contain either thing).

I had to hunt down the "Epilogue to The Kreutzer Sonata" online to confirm my assumption that the novella reflected Tolstoy's own later views on sexuality and love (yes, it does. And poor Sofia!). I just don't understand why this is one of Tolstoy's most read stories.Tolstoy scholar R. F. Christian on the appeal of the novella: "Few other novelists could have made compelling reading out of sentiments and arguments which are irritating and manifestly unjust. Few other novelists could have given pathos and poignancy to the ending of a story whose limits appear to be laid down by the advice proffered in its opening chapters: 'Do not trust your horse in the field, or your wife in the house'."

And here, in a summation which couldn't be said better, is Nabokov onThe Death of Ivan Ilych: "Ivan lived a bad life and since the bad life is nothing but the death of the soul, then Ivan lived a living death; and since beyond death is God's living light, then Ivan died into a new life – Life with a capital L."

[amin akbari · Rating 5 out of 5]

یک مجموعه داستان فوق العاده از یک رمان‌نویس بزرگ؛ داستان‌های مورد علاقه من:
1. مرگ ایوان ایلیچ
2. سونات کرویستر
3. پدر سرگی
4. ارباب و بنده

[Martina☽ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5🌟

[Mohammad Ramezanzadeh · Rating 4 out of 5]

«سونات کرویتسر» تک‌گویه‌های ذهن یک روانپریش که با جزئیات خاصی روایت شده است! من که خیلی عصبی شدم از خوندن این حجم از مونولوگهای جنسیت زده!
«کوپن جعلی» موضوعی آشنا دارد: از هر دست بدهی از همان دست پس میگیری! روایتی طولانی و پیچیده از چندین شخصیت متفاوت که هرکدام نماینده یک قشر جامعه هستند. روایت به طرز جالبی از روابط تصادفی شخصیت‌ها نشان می‌دهد که چگونه نتیجه یک عمل شر یا خیر کوچک در جامعه پخش می‌شود و کل جامعه را شر یا خیر می‌سازد.

[Moshtagh hosein · Rating 5 out of 5]

فارغ از اینکه تمام این رمانچه و یا داستان های این کتاب جذابیت خودشو داره
اما یکی سونات کرویتسر(کاظم انصاری موسیقی مرگ ترجمه کرده) اثری هست ضد ازدواج،چون خیلی بی پروا بمقوله ازدواج و مخصوصا زن می‌پردازد(بنظرم تا حالا به دست فمنیستا نیفتاده اگر نه سلاخیش میکردند).
دیگری داستان یک کوپن جعلی هست،داستانی با شیوه روایت خطی و خشونت بسیار و در پایان رستگاری(تنها موارد خشونت که من خوانده بودم در پولیکوشکا،حاجی مراد و نهایتا مرگ آناکارنینا بود) اما شدت و تنوع کشتار در این اثر بی‌سابقه ست!!!

[Missy J · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first story "How Much Land Does A Man Need?" is excellent. I highly recommend it.

The second story "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" was a story that I reread. I find it quite brilliant. Its message is still resonant to this day!

It's true what the doctor said, that Ivan Ilyich's physical sufferings were terrible, but worse than the physical sufferings were his mental sufferings, which tortured him even more.

His mental sufferings were due to the fact that one night he looked at Gerasim's sleepy, good-natured face with its prominent cheek-bones and the question suddenly emerged: "What if my whole life was wrong?"

It struck him that what had appeared perfectly impossible before, namely that he had not lived the way he should have, might after all be true. It occurred to him that his scarcely perceptible attempts to struggle against what was considered good by the elite, those scarcely noticeable impulses which he had immediately suppressed, might have been the real thing, and all the rest false. And his professional duties and the whole arrangement of his life and of his family, and all his social and official interests, might all have been false. He tried to defend all those things and suddenly realized there was nothing to defend.

And lastly, the "Kreutzersonata." Very disturbing and filled with hate. This story made me really sad. How jealousy can wreck and destroy us.

I wonder how Tolstoy would view today's society.

[Stephen Durrant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tolstoy wrote both the novella "The Kreutzer Sonata" and the short story "The Devil" in 1889 during the period when his marriage was floundering. Marital happiness, he seems to say in the first of these, is illusory and sure to crash on the shoals of sexuality. A "madman" rants on page after page about the impurity of marriage, or "long-term prostitution" as he calls it. Marital life alternates, the madman says, between bouts of sexual indulgence and mutual hate. The only hope, he seems to say, is for a man and woman to live as brother and sister in a spiritual union that precludes "bestial indulgence." Very Schopenhauerian . . . except that so few people will actually do this that we needn't fear humanity will perish! While Tolstoy was surely losing faith in his own marriage at this time, I am uncomfortable with the common critical gesture of turning this madman, who after all is a murderer, into a simple spokesperson for Tolstoy's own views (although I grant there must be some of this!). "The Devil" for me is a more powerful story. It concerns a young landowner who just wants to put his own "healthy" pre-marital affair with a young peasant woman behind and lead a happy life with his new wife. But it is not so simple. The enticements of the past have a way of coming back--and "The Devil" becomes a classic study of male obsession and self-destructiveness.

[Sierra Abrams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first little bit of Tolstoy that I’ve read. I’m a HUGE fan of Dostoevsky and I knew I would love all kinds of Russian literature, so I was quite excited to get into this. Each of the three stories was better than the last:

◦How Much Land Does A Man Need
◦The Death of Ivan Illych
◦The Kreutzer Sonata (favorite!!)
All were very impressive and brought their point across nicely. The day I finished it, I eyed my copy of War and Peace for a while, wondering when I should pick it up and hoping it would be very soon. I still am.

Recommended, most definitely, but not for everyone. The Kreutzer Sonata talks of a man who stabbed his wife to death, much due to jealousy; also underlying is the way beauty deceives and how easily we lie to ourselves. How Much Land Does a Man Need deals with greed and uses Satan to personify it…very accurate if I do say so myself. And The Death of Ivan Illych is about the life of a man who was ordinary, thought he was extraordinary, and when he died realized the truth about himself. There are a lot of struggles with hatred in these stories, which makes them more intense than I’d expected. Absolutely worth reading.

[Alireza Kherad mand nia · Rating 5 out of 5]

قبل از این کتاب فقط مرگ ایوان ایلیچ رو از تولستوی خونده بودم و البته ازش لذت برده بودم ولی الان که سونات تموم شد دوست دارم هر چیزی که از تولستوی میتونم رو بخونم ، درباره تولستوی باید بگم که حین خوندن داستانهای کوتاهش فقط با یک رمان برخورد نمیکنید بلکه با یک خطبه یا وعظ دلنشین مواجهین که شما رو درباره یک موضوع عمیق مثل عشق یا مرگ یا فقر وغنا درگیر میکنه ، یه آدم چجور میتونه یه ارزش رو بهتر از تولستوی بیان کنه
سعادت زناشویی چقد عمیق درباره عشق حرف میزنه ، مرگ ایوان ایلیچ چقدر زیبا مرگ رو به تصویر میکشه ، سونات حس حسادت و خیانت رو بهت میفهمونه ، ارباب و بنده ارزش گذاری آدمها با پول رو به باد انتقاد میگیره ، پدر سرگی رو که میخونی احساس میکنی عمیق ترین مضامینی که توی دینمون مثل اخلاص عمل هست رو برات روایت میکنه و در آخر سلطان تولستوی توی داستان یک کوپن جعلی برات از اثر وضعی یک گناه کوچیک برات میگه ، واقعا کی میتونه مث تولستوی اینجوری برات خطابه بخونه ، من نمیشناسم

[Sonya · Rating 4 out of 5]

اين مجموعه داستان حاوي شش اثر از تولستوي است كه هر داستان خود به تنهايي بسيار غني و حاوي نكات قابل تامل بسياري است، اين آثار عبارتند از:
١: سعادت زناشوئي
٢: مرگ ايوان ايليج
٣: سونات كرويستر
٤: ارباب و بنده
٥: پدرسرگي
٦: داستان يك كوپن جعلي
.
در اين داستان ها كه كاملا مستقل از هم هستند و بعد تحولات روحي نويسنده نوشته شده اند، در اكثر آنها بدبيني خاصي نسبت به زنان و وفاداري و نيروي تعقل آنها وجود دارد و همانطور كه مي دانيم خود تولستوي در آخرين سالهاي عمر با همسر واقعي خود نيز مشكلاتي داشت، تغيير ارزشهاي زندگي نويسنده و تغيير ديد او نسبت به خانواده و دين و مذهب در اين آثار نيز ديده مي شود.