Scan barcode
A review by bucket
The Kreutzer Sonata: and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy
5.0
In each of these four stories, written over the course of fifty years, Tolstoy's themes are what love really is and the discovery of that meaning over the course of life.
In the Cossacks, written first, Dmitri learns that love is even more than self-sacrifice for the sake of others, it's about loving "the whole of God's world."
In The Kreutzer Sonata and Family Happiness, two stories written around the same time, the "truth" about love (that it changes with time, cannot be based on lust and sex, and that it must go beyond romance with one person and be shared with everyone) is revealed.
For Masha in Family Happiness, she learns the truth and misses the romance she once had with her husband, but is able to change her perspective and move forward, loving her children and enjoying her life. For Pozdnyshev in The Kreutzer Sonata, this lesson is learned much too late.
The final story, writting six years before Tolstoy's death, is the story of Hadji Murad, a resilient warrior who survives and wins many battles based on his strength, intelligence, and willingness to to switch sides as needed. In the end, he makes his own sacrifice for his imprisoned family.
I enjoyed all four stories, though my favorite was The Cossacks. It was nice to read Tolstoy in short form (before this I'd read War and Peace, and Anna Karenina) as his style is still there, yet he still succeeds in bringing a theme full circle in far fewer pages. It's also interesting to have learned more about his religious inclinations in the introduction to this book and to see how his themes progressed over the course of his life.
In the Cossacks, written first, Dmitri learns that love is even more than self-sacrifice for the sake of others, it's about loving "the whole of God's world."
In The Kreutzer Sonata and Family Happiness, two stories written around the same time, the "truth" about love (that it changes with time, cannot be based on lust and sex, and that it must go beyond romance with one person and be shared with everyone) is revealed.
For Masha in Family Happiness, she learns the truth and misses the romance she once had with her husband, but is able to change her perspective and move forward, loving her children and enjoying her life. For Pozdnyshev in The Kreutzer Sonata, this lesson is learned much too late.
The final story, writting six years before Tolstoy's death, is the story of Hadji Murad, a resilient warrior who survives and wins many battles based on his strength, intelligence, and willingness to to switch sides as needed. In the end, he makes his own sacrifice for his imprisoned family.
I enjoyed all four stories, though my favorite was The Cossacks. It was nice to read Tolstoy in short form (before this I'd read War and Peace, and Anna Karenina) as his style is still there, yet he still succeeds in bringing a theme full circle in far fewer pages. It's also interesting to have learned more about his religious inclinations in the introduction to this book and to see how his themes progressed over the course of his life.