The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories

by Leo Tolstoy

Overview

The four stories selected here represent Tolstoy ar his creative best, exploring in a specific and detailed way his characteristic themes: life understood as a journey of the discovery of identity and vocation, the meaning of one's life in the face of death, and the redemptive role of suffering and compassion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781420967074
Publisher:	Digireads.com
Publication date:	02/10/2020
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.65(d)

About the Author

Count Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828, in Yasnaya Polyana, Russia. Orphaned at nine, he was brought up by an elderly aunt and educated by French tutors until he matriculated at Kazan University in 1844. In 1847, he gave up his studies and, after several aimless years, volunteered for military duty in the army, serving as a junior officer in the Crimean War before retiring in 1857. In 1862, Tolstoy married Sophie Behrs, a marriage that was to become, for him, bitterly unhappy. His diary, started in 1847, was used for self-study and self-criticism; it served as the source from which he drew much of the material that appeared not only in his great novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877), but also in his shorter works. Seeking religious justification for his life, Tolstoy evolved a new Christianity based upon his own interpretation of the Gospels. Yasnaya Polyana became a mecca for his many converts At the age of eighty-two, while away from home, the writer suffered a break down in his health in Astapovo, Riazan, and he died there on November 20, 1910.

David McDuff was educated at the University of Edinburgh and has translated a number of works for Penguin Classics, including Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov.

Paul Foote was, until his retirement, a university lecturer in Russian and fellow of The Queen’s College, Oxford.

Date of Birth:

September 9, 1828

Date of Death:

November 20, 1910

Place of Birth:

Tula Province, Russia

Place of Death:

Astapovo, Russia

Education:

Privately educated by French and German tutors; attended the University of Kazan, 1844-47

Table of Contents

Family HappinessThe CossacksThe Kreutzer SonataHadji Murád

Editorial Reviews

"Tolstoy is the greatest Russian writer of prose fiction." - Vladimir Nabokov

"It showcases the questioning, unsettling and perfectly crafted prose of the author of Anna Karenina and War and Peace." - The Good Book Guide

"In Roger Cockrell's fluid rendering in English, the story shines and glimmers beautifully." - RTÉ

From the Publisher