The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories

Our ambitious program of new Tolstoy editions continues with two collections of powerful stories The violent spiritual crisis in Tolstoy’s life that inspired his last period of creativity produced the stories in this compelling and startling collection. They portray the multifaceted nature of desire, from idealistic romance to sexual jealousy, from desperate lust to relentless longing. The K reutzer Sonata” caused a public sensation with its indictment of so-called Christian marriage, a theme echoed in Family Happiness.” In The Devil,” a young man finds it impossible to resist a beautiful peasant woman with whom he had an affair before his marriage. And Father Sergius” shows a man going to increasingly desperate ends in order to avoid the temptations of the flesh.

Anthony Briggs is the translator of the acclaimed new Penguin Classics edition of Tolstoy-'s War and Peace. Dav id McDuff -'s translations for Penguin Classics include Tolstoy-'s The Cossacks and Other Stories and Dostoyevsky-'s Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. Ronald Wilks-'s translations for Penguin Classics include four volumes of Chekhov-'s stories. Paul Foot e -'s translations for Penguin Classics include Tolstoy-'s The Cossacks and Other Stories. Donna Orwin is the president of the North American Tolstoy Society.