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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
The Diary of a Madman - I felt the despair of this narrative. In 11 pages and an unfinished work Tolstoy pulled me in and had me sat with bated breath. What does it to do a person to fear their own mortality? To be painfully aware of it? To turn to spiritual guidance only to look around and realise the society that rewards the rich is based on keeping the poor in poverty? 11 pages. This is why I love Tolstoy.
The Forged Coupon - this is extremely long for a short story, and honestly it lost my attention after a while. However, the storytelling, which moves from the forgers of a bank note and those who are fooled by taking it before detailing the lives of all those connected to the initial characters, is masterful. I don't know how a writer is able to give you such a sense of so many characters, their fundamental nature's and experiences of life, in such a short work.
Alyosha the Pot - this one was over before I knew it! This feels like an excellent exercise in writing a character. I did not anticipate the ending.
The Death of Ivan Ilyich - well, this extremely affecting story has me refusing to stand on the arm of the sofa to clip back on the end of the curtain which has come off the rail...Good lord this this spin out.
I looked it up, and Ivan Ilyich is more likely to have had pancreatic cancer than deathy by curtains but you just NEVER KNOW.
This novella pulls you in to the despair and suffering of Ivan Ilyich as he faces the hard truth that he won't recover from his mystery illness. I felt so deeply for Ivan and the lack of time he had to change his life if he wanted to. This story speaks so strongly to the sense of what people actually need out of life versus what society convines them to want and to chase.
Master and Man: I read this story about the harsh, life threatening nature of Russian winters genuinely unsure whether I was freezing and needed to put the heating on or if I had just been reading this story for too long. Honestly, that's how immersed I was, which is an incredible feat from any writer. It was definitely a little of both!
The story has a lot to say about the rich, the way servants or the poor are treated and about the work ethic and whether being rich or poor affects your outlook on life, your ability to get through tough situations and whether you have the will to survive it.
It will also make you feel like your extremities may have frostbite.
The Kreutzer Sonata: The tale of an acquitted, but blatantly guilty, murderer shouldn't be quite this morally unsure. Throughout this story the reader is asked to question women's rights, the societal role of marriage, what makes a happy marriage, whether divorce is a positive step for society, whether a woman was or was not having an affair and whether her husband should have been found guilty of murder.
It is a LOT. In 70 pages. I wish I had read this when I could concentrate better on it.
The Devil: I found this story very easy to read, I felt very invested in the fight for a peaceful family life which it represents. Which is what makes either of the proposed endings that are offered really shocking. The tone of the story takes a swift turn in the last couple of pages and as interesting as that is, it seemed very out of touch with the rest of the story.
Father Sergius: An interesting rumination on what it means to truly live a life in service of God, other people and not yourself. We watch as a man who has the option to work at being extremely well off and comfortable in life makes a series of decisions which result in exile to Siberia as a travelling peasant. It is a strange story, not in the least because I never felt I understood the protagonist's motivations, but certainly asks a lot of the reader.
The Prisoner of the Caucasus: I really enjoyed this one. The spirit of hope, the connections with people you find things in common with despite everything putting you at odds and the indication that Tolstoy was able to consider and write about other cultures. Yes, loved it.
After the Ball: a very short story describing being witness to military violence which changes the narrators opinion of going into military service and loving the daughter of a colonel - it is short but shows the ways in which events can impact the way we think about our lives irrevocably.
Hadji Murat: this is by far the longest story in this collection. It is absolutely just a really short novel. The story within this does feel the most reminiscent of War and Peace - there arent as many threads to try and follow but that balance between personal tales and characters representing whole political and military movements is right there.
The story really makes you respect Hadji Murat - I really, really wanted things to work out for him amongst absolutely everything being stacked against him. Read this when able to concentrate, but it is a brilliant story.
The Forged Coupon - this is extremely long for a short story, and honestly it lost my attention after a while. However, the storytelling, which moves from the forgers of a bank note and those who are fooled by taking it before detailing the lives of all those connected to the initial characters, is masterful. I don't know how a writer is able to give you such a sense of so many characters, their fundamental nature's and experiences of life, in such a short work.
Alyosha the Pot - this one was over before I knew it! This feels like an excellent exercise in writing a character. I did not anticipate the ending.
The Death of Ivan Ilyich - well, this extremely affecting story has me refusing to stand on the arm of the sofa to clip back on the end of the curtain which has come off the rail...Good lord this this spin out.
I looked it up, and Ivan Ilyich is more likely to have had pancreatic cancer than deathy by curtains but you just NEVER KNOW.
This novella pulls you in to the despair and suffering of Ivan Ilyich as he faces the hard truth that he won't recover from his mystery illness. I felt so deeply for Ivan and the lack of time he had to change his life if he wanted to. This story speaks so strongly to the sense of what people actually need out of life versus what society convines them to want and to chase.
Master and Man: I read this story about the harsh, life threatening nature of Russian winters genuinely unsure whether I was freezing and needed to put the heating on or if I had just been reading this story for too long. Honestly, that's how immersed I was, which is an incredible feat from any writer. It was definitely a little of both!
The story has a lot to say about the rich, the way servants or the poor are treated and about the work ethic and whether being rich or poor affects your outlook on life, your ability to get through tough situations and whether you have the will to survive it.
It will also make you feel like your extremities may have frostbite.
The Kreutzer Sonata: The tale of an acquitted, but blatantly guilty, murderer shouldn't be quite this morally unsure. Throughout this story the reader is asked to question women's rights, the societal role of marriage, what makes a happy marriage, whether divorce is a positive step for society, whether a woman was or was not having an affair and whether her husband should have been found guilty of murder.
It is a LOT. In 70 pages. I wish I had read this when I could concentrate better on it.
The Devil: I found this story very easy to read, I felt very invested in the fight for a peaceful family life which it represents. Which is what makes either of the proposed endings that are offered really shocking. The tone of the story takes a swift turn in the last couple of pages and as interesting as that is, it seemed very out of touch with the rest of the story.
Father Sergius: An interesting rumination on what it means to truly live a life in service of God, other people and not yourself. We watch as a man who has the option to work at being extremely well off and comfortable in life makes a series of decisions which result in exile to Siberia as a travelling peasant. It is a strange story, not in the least because I never felt I understood the protagonist's motivations, but certainly asks a lot of the reader.
The Prisoner of the Caucasus: I really enjoyed this one. The spirit of hope, the connections with people you find things in common with despite everything putting you at odds and the indication that Tolstoy was able to consider and write about other cultures. Yes, loved it.
After the Ball: a very short story describing being witness to military violence which changes the narrators opinion of going into military service and loving the daughter of a colonel - it is short but shows the ways in which events can impact the way we think about our lives irrevocably.
Hadji Murat: this is by far the longest story in this collection. It is absolutely just a really short novel. The story within this does feel the most reminiscent of War and Peace - there arent as many threads to try and follow but that balance between personal tales and characters representing whole political and military movements is right there.
The story really makes you respect Hadji Murat - I really, really wanted things to work out for him amongst absolutely everything being stacked against him. Read this when able to concentrate, but it is a brilliant story.
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Me costó bastante interesarme por el libro. Pero hacia el final lo disfruté más (curiosamente, con el sufrimiento de Iván)
Great collection of stories. And I am reminded how close I am to being a barefoot red-faced peasant
Favorite short stories:
The Diary of a Mad Man
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
The Forged Coupon
Alyosha The Pot
Hadji Murat
The Diary of a Mad Man
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
The Forged Coupon
Alyosha The Pot
Hadji Murat
Unhappy people live better in the city. In a city a man can live for a hundred years and not notice that he died and rotted long ago. There’s no time to sort things out for yourself, you’re always busy.
Before committing to one of Tolstoy’s epics, I thought I would peruse some of his short stories. Well, I thought they were short stories. Indeed, some of them were, but several are more properly categorized as novellas.
These were not exactly uplifting tales but most were rich stories with incredibly developed characters, deep emotion and weighty themes. The characters are especially compelling. In them I recognized the strengths, weaknesses and idiosyncrasies of people I interact with regularly and also traits within myself. Despite our evolution as a human race, not much, it seems, has changed.
I most enjoyed The Kreutzer Sonata but other favorites included The Death of I.I., The Forged Coupon and Hadji Murat. As an added bonus, I discovered Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata (Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47) by reading the story of the same name and I’ve very much enjoyed listening to the 2017 recording by James Ehnes.
Before committing to one of Tolstoy’s epics, I thought I would peruse some of his short stories. Well, I thought they were short stories. Indeed, some of them were, but several are more properly categorized as novellas.
These were not exactly uplifting tales but most were rich stories with incredibly developed characters, deep emotion and weighty themes. The characters are especially compelling. In them I recognized the strengths, weaknesses and idiosyncrasies of people I interact with regularly and also traits within myself. Despite our evolution as a human race, not much, it seems, has changed.
I most enjoyed The Kreutzer Sonata but other favorites included The Death of I.I., The Forged Coupon and Hadji Murat. As an added bonus, I discovered Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata (Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47) by reading the story of the same name and I’ve very much enjoyed listening to the 2017 recording by James Ehnes.
Honestly I'm not a fan of this collection. Besides The Death of Ivan Ilyich none of the other stories really engaged me from beginning to end. I found the use of narrative interesting, and sometimes the opening premise was intriguing, though they were not enough to carry the stories on their own. Considering that these are stories from Tolstoy I expected more.
challenging
dark
emotional
eh , enjoyed the Kreutzer Sonata but found the stories a bit repetitive after a while