7 h 11 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 11 minPaperback · 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
This book suits readers who love confessions told in one sitting, folk tales with a moral edge, and stories of Russian village life. It rewards anyone who enjoys Tolstoy's questions about love, forgiveness and work.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Strangers on a train argue about love
- He lived badly while dreaming of pure love
- Hatred arrives within days of the wedding
- A violinist and a sonata inflame his jealousy
- The author answers his readers with five points
- Three brothers part in peace and devils take offense
- Ivan rules a kingdom where only fools remain
- One lost egg grows into a six-year feud
- A trusted thief and a lit candle test two men
- Pride, forgiveness, work and the way the tales are told
Who’s who
- PosdnicheffA landowner who tells a stranger how love, marriage and jealousy wore down his life, and what he came to understand.
- TroukhatchevskyA polished Paris-trained violinist who plays duets with Posdnicheff's wife and stirs his jealousy.
- Ivan the FoolA kind, hardworking peasant who laughs at insults, shares what he has and wants no part in war or greed.
- The Old DevilThe chief devil, who sends his helpers and then comes himself to make three brothers quarrel and fall.
- Ivan ScherbakoffA strong, hardworking peasant drawn into a bitter feud with his neighbor Gavryl, and urged by his father to forgive.
- PolikeyA court servant with a thief's reputation who wants to prove himself when his mistress trusts him with fifteen hundred rubles.
- Peter MikhayeffA peaceful serf who refuses to answer evil with evil and plows on Easter Monday with a candle burning.
- Michael SimeonovitchA cruel superintendent, once a serf himself, who drives the peasants to despair.
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories
by Leo Tolstoy
A stranger on a night train tells why he thinks love and marriage ruin lives, and what it cost him.
Medium level5–10 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
What would you do if a stranger on a night train told you that love is a lie and marriage a trap, then offered the story of his own life as proof? That is the start of The Kreutzer Sonata, the tale that gives this collection its name.
The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h3 h 10 min fast, 4 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 57,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Strangers on a train argue about love
The Kreutzer Sonata opens in a railway carriage at dusk. Travelers share it: a lawyer, a talkative woman who smokes, a young clerk, an old merchant and a short, nervous man who keeps to himself. Soon they argue about why couples split apart so often.
The merchant says a wife must first learn fear. The woman answers that nobody can be forced to love. Then the silent man asks what this love is that makes a marriage holy, and how long it lasts. A preference for one person, he says, lasts weeks or days, and only novels promise a lifetime. His face reddens and the others fall uneasy.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 40 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Tolstoy, Leo. The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-kreutzer-sonata-and-other-stories.
Tolstoy, L. (2026). The Kreutzer Sonata and other stories. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-kreutzer-sonata-and-other-stories
Tolstoy, Leo. The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-kreutzer-sonata-and-other-stories.
@book{tolstoy2026kreutzer,
author = {Tolstoy, Leo},
title = {The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-kreutzer-sonata-and-other-stories}
}
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What is The Kreutzer Sonata about?
It is a confession told on a train by a man named Posdnicheff. He describes his youth, his marriage, his growing hatred and jealousy, and the arrival of a violinist who plays Beethoven's sonata with his wife.
What stories are in The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories?
Besides the Kreutzer Sonata and its afterword, the book holds Ivan the Fool, A Lost Opportunity, Polikushka and The Candle. They share concerns of forgiveness, work, pride and what makes a good life.
Why is it called The Kreutzer Sonata?
The title comes from a violin sonata by Beethoven that Posdnicheff's wife plays with a violinist. Posdnicheff says music like it stirs strong feelings with nowhere to go, and it becomes the spark of the story.
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.
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