10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Three stories of despair, October 7, 2004
The highlight of this book for me had to be re-reading "The Death of Ivan Ilych" again after all these years. I read it for the first time years and years ago as required reading in middle school and this is the first time that I have come back to it since that time. I found myself unsurprisingly better equipped to read and appreciate this story now and was exceptionally pleased to have read it again.
This edition contains three short stories that were written after Tolstoy made his conversion to intense Christian beliefs. They are interesting to read together, particularly given the common theme about characters with mistaken ideas about what will bring them contentment.
"How Much Land Does a Man Need?" is a parable which examines greed and contentment through the story of a peasant who believes that he would be satisfied with his life if only he had a little bit more land.
"The Death of Ivan Ilych" tells the history of an outwardly prosperous but spiritually empty man who dies at the age of 45 after a fall in his home.
In "The Kreutzer Sonata" a man on a train relates to a fellow passenger what the circumstances were that led to the murder of his wife.
It is, at the very least, important to read these stories. The Kreutzer Sonata is particularly important in the history of literature. At its release, it was banned throughout much of Europe for indecency and has been inspiring debate about feminist issues and women characters in literature ever since that time.
The translation used in the Dover Thrift edition is competent, but has its awkward moments and is occasionally clunky and obtuse. I might personally recommend buying a different edition if you are planning a purchase.
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Story great, edition not, October 12, 1999
Just returned from Book Discussion Group. Found Dover translation to be far inferior to Penguin Classic.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Madness, but genius, August 14, 1999
Ibsen once described Tostoy as a supremely great writer, when he wasn't being mad. On the evidence of "The Kreutzer Sonata", Tolstoy was a supremely great writer EVEN when he was mad.
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