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A review by claireclements
The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Short Stories by Leo Tolstoy
3.0
3.5 Stars!
Tolstoy wrote this several years after Anna Karenina, which is the only other work by him I have read. If I am not mistaken, The Kreutzer Sonata is, to a certain extent, a reflection of Tolstoy's unhappiness with his marriage, and the development of rather peculiar views on sex, love, marriage, and children. I think this explains why I was rather surprised whilst reading this, considering some of the points that he made, as well as his further analysis at the end.
This novella follows the story of Posdnicheff as he spirals into a sphere of jealousy and unhappiness within his marriage, while analyzing women, marriage, and children in Russian society. Tolstoy straddles a fine line of disclosing a story and explaining his own philosophy, which I believe was done adequately enough (although I will not dive into that).
First, he examines the advantages that women seem to hold over men. While women lacked political and economic rights and mobility at this time, he emphasizes this idea that the world sort of caters to women. Obviously, this is not true, however if one further analyzes the reasoning behind this, one can see his perspective lol.
I believe what really spoke to me was the discussion of the unhappiness that marriage entails. While Tolstoy is ultimately arguing that marriage does not inherently follow the ideals of Christianity (which I obviously disagree with), I believe that he made some valid points that are incredibly relevant today... "The whole difference is that to one it comes sooner, to the other later. It is only in stupid novels that it is written that 'they loved each other all their lives.' And none but children can believe it. To talk of loving a man or woman for life is like saying that a can can burn forever." Maybe it's because I've always found marriage constraining and ridiculous (at least for myself, I'm not trying to be preachy here lol), but I enjoyed the point that is largely asserted: that a truly happy marriage is incredibly rare.
The Kreutzer Sonata is obviously a novella, and is much shorter than many of his other works, however it fell short for me in some aspects. Primarily, I found that this story did not come alive as I expected it to. It was rather dull in many areas despite that it had extreme potential to be utterly vivid. However, I will note that the days leading up to the murder were full of compelling writing, especially regarding music..."Music makes me forget my real situation. It transports me into a state which is not my own. Under the influence of music I really seem to feel what I do not feel, to understand what I do not understand, to have powers which I cannot have." I would really love to read Tolstoy discussing music all day!
It was definitely intersting to read about Tolstoy's views on these subjects, and while many of them I disagreed with, in general I enjoyed this novella :)
Tolstoy wrote this several years after Anna Karenina, which is the only other work by him I have read. If I am not mistaken, The Kreutzer Sonata is, to a certain extent, a reflection of Tolstoy's unhappiness with his marriage, and the development of rather peculiar views on sex, love, marriage, and children. I think this explains why I was rather surprised whilst reading this, considering some of the points that he made, as well as his further analysis at the end.
This novella follows the story of Posdnicheff as he spirals into a sphere of jealousy and unhappiness within his marriage, while analyzing women, marriage, and children in Russian society. Tolstoy straddles a fine line of disclosing a story and explaining his own philosophy, which I believe was done adequately enough (although I will not dive into that).
First, he examines the advantages that women seem to hold over men. While women lacked political and economic rights and mobility at this time, he emphasizes this idea that the world sort of caters to women. Obviously, this is not true, however if one further analyzes the reasoning behind this, one can see his perspective lol.
I believe what really spoke to me was the discussion of the unhappiness that marriage entails. While Tolstoy is ultimately arguing that marriage does not inherently follow the ideals of Christianity (which I obviously disagree with), I believe that he made some valid points that are incredibly relevant today... "The whole difference is that to one it comes sooner, to the other later. It is only in stupid novels that it is written that 'they loved each other all their lives.' And none but children can believe it. To talk of loving a man or woman for life is like saying that a can can burn forever." Maybe it's because I've always found marriage constraining and ridiculous (at least for myself, I'm not trying to be preachy here lol), but I enjoyed the point that is largely asserted: that a truly happy marriage is incredibly rare.
The Kreutzer Sonata is obviously a novella, and is much shorter than many of his other works, however it fell short for me in some aspects. Primarily, I found that this story did not come alive as I expected it to. It was rather dull in many areas despite that it had extreme potential to be utterly vivid. However, I will note that the days leading up to the murder were full of compelling writing, especially regarding music..."Music makes me forget my real situation. It transports me into a state which is not my own. Under the influence of music I really seem to feel what I do not feel, to understand what I do not understand, to have powers which I cannot have." I would really love to read Tolstoy discussing music all day!
It was definitely intersting to read about Tolstoy's views on these subjects, and while many of them I disagreed with, in general I enjoyed this novella :)