7 h 11 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
On a train across Russia, a stranger turns talk of love into a fierce confession about marriage.
In Leo Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories, respectable lives come under painful pressure. Pozdnyshev tells a fellow traveler about his marriage, its early happiness, and the jealousy that enters it. His anger reaches beyond his own home. He attacks a society that, he claims, prepares men and women for desire and display rather than a shared life.
The Death of Ivan Ilyich follows a comfortable judge whose illness forces him to question what his life is worth. In Family Happiness, Masha discovers how love changes after marriage. The Devil brings Evgeny Irtenev’s wish for order into conflict with an old attachment, while Father Sergius follows Prince Stepan Kasatsky into a monastery in search of holiness.
What you’ll discover
- A confession in motion Listen as Pozdnyshev turns a train conversation into an attack on love and marriage.
- Comfort under pressure Face Ivan Ilyich’s fear as illness unsettles the comfortable life he has built.
- Love beyond its beginning Follow Masha as early hopes meet the slower changes of married life.
- Respectability and hidden conflict Look beneath outward respectability to the desires and doubts these characters struggle with.
- Kindness without easy comfort Meet Gerasim, whose simple care for Ivan Ilyich offers a different response to suffering.
Who will love it
Readers who like confessions, fairy tales and village stories told with a moral edge, and who enjoy short works that spark an argument about love, anger, forgiveness and how to live.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A train debate draws out a killer
- A respectable bachelor is not what he thinks
- Courtship is a market dressed as romance
- The honeymoon opens a long war
- Jealousy grows until a violinist arrives
- Music is a dangerous force
- Tolstoy answers his own story
- Ivan the Fool and the devils who fail
- Two feuds and a lost fortune
Who’s who
- PosdnicheffA landowner on a train who confesses the story of his marriage and the death of his wife.
- TroukhatchevskyA violinist with polished manners whom Posdnicheff both distrusts and keeps inviting to play with his wife.
- Ivan the FoolA peasant who works honestly, shares freely and turns aside every trap the devils set for him.
- The Old DevilThe master of three little devils, who wants the brothers to quarrel and takes the work into his own hands.
- Ivan ScherbakoffA strong, proud peasant who spends years in courts and quarrels with his neighbor Gavryl.
- PolikeyA household servant known as a thief, who longs to be trusted with a task by his mistress.
- Michael SimeonovitchA cruel overseer of serfs who orders his peasants to plow on a holy day.
- Peter MikhayeffA peaceful serf who urges his fellows not to answer evil with evil.
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories
by Leo Tolstoy
On a night train, a nervous stranger interrupts a talk about love and says he killed his own wife.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
A stranger on a night train hears a chat about marriage, grows pale, and says his name: he is the man who killed his wife. So begins The Kreutzer Sonata, the title tale of this collection by Leo Tolstoy.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A train debate draws out a killer
The title story opens on a train, where passengers argue about marriage. An old merchant says a wife must fear her husband. A lady answers that only love makes a marriage holy, and a lawyer keeps the talk going.
A restless man cannot stay silent. He asks the lady to say exactly what love is, and for how long it lasts. He says it fades in months, days or hours, and that marriage today is violence and lies. When the lawyer mentions a famous case of a husband who killed his wife from jealousy, the man gives his name. He is Posdnicheff, the husband in that case.
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What is The Kreutzer Sonata about?
A man on a train tells a stranger the story of his marriage, his jealousy and the death of his wife. He argues that love and marriage built on desire lead to hatred.
Why is it called The Kreutzer Sonata?
The name comes from a violin and piano sonata by Beethoven. In the story the wife and a violinist play it at a dinner party, and the narrator describes its powerful effect on him.
What other stories are in this collection?
Besides the title novella, it holds Ivan the Fool, A Lost Opportunity, Polikushka, and The Candle. They are shorter tales about forgiveness, greed, trust and nonviolence.
The author
Leo Tolstoy
1828–1910 · Russian novelist and moral philosopher
Leo Tolstoy was a Russian author born in 1828 at Yasnaya Polyana, where he lived for much of his life. He wrote novels, stories, and essays. War and Peace appeared in 1865–1869 and Anna Karenina in 1875–1877. He died in 1910 at Astapovo, Russia.
More by Leo Tolstoy
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