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strrygo's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
had a terrible time
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Infidelity
Minor: Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Animal death
toffishay's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This is a valuable collection, especially since I was interested in reading Russian classics and had never read Tolstoy before. As with all short story collections, some are going be better or more to your taste than others. This edition is brought down by "Hadji Murad", which I really did not enjoy. It is a 100+ page long biographical war story that I found to be very dry and just not to my taste. My favorite is the titular "The Death of Ivan Ilych". It was genuinely distressing, macabre, and honest about the fear of death and that you have lived your whole life wrong. The other two stories in this collection, "Family Happiness" and "The Kreutzer Sonata", were strong and interesting because of the way that they engaged with what was known at the time as the 'woman question', even if the ways that Tolstoy did it was limited. Woman are presented more as archetypes than as characters, even in "Family Happiness" were the story is from Masha's perspective. But it is interesting to read how marriage served as financial and social outlet from women who were limited in society, but was also one of the most emotionally and physically dangerous situations for them to be in. For that piece alone, I think that these two stories are valuable for a reader who is interested in engaging with conversations about marriage particularly as a Western construct that has such a base in oppression and how that continues to this day.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Sexism, Xenophobia, War, Infidelity, Misogyny, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Gun violence, and Sexual violence
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