The Power of Darkness (Absolute Classics) [Paperback]

Leo Tolstoy (Author), Anthony Clark (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1993 | Series: Absolute Classics

The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Drama / Continental European; Drama / General; Drama / Continental European;

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Oberon Books (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0948230207
• ISBN-13: 978-0948230202
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,881,537 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tolstoy's Memorable "Peasant Tragedy" Of Poverty, Ignorance, and Murder, September 21, 2006

By 

Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Power of Darkness (Absolute Classics) (Paperback)

Today Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) is best known for his novels WAR AND PEACE and ANNA KARENINA; during his lifetime, however, he was also noted as a playwright, and in this direction he is best recalled for the dramas REDEMPTION (also known as THE LIVING CORPSE) and THE POWER OF DARKNESS. Of the two, REDEMPTION continues to be performed to present day; while it is occasionally performed in fine art and academic circles, THE POWER OF DARKNESS is more often read than staged.

Written in 1886, DARKNESS was and is considered remarkably gruesome, and it was almost instantly banned in Russia. It fell to the New York stage to give the drama its best known success, first in a 1904 Yiddish version and then in a 1920 English translation. The story, usually described as "a peasant tragedy," concerns Nikita, who works as a hired man for a wealthy peasant and who has an affair with his employer's wife, Anisya. Frustrated by her husband's task-master attitude and stinginess, Anisya poisons her husband, assuming that she and Nikita will enjoy the future together. But Anisya has miscalculated in her estimation of Nikita's character; she has merely traded one unpleasant husband for another, and when Nikita seduces Anisya's stepdaughter another murder--a particularly ghastly one--is the result.

Tolstoy's portrait of poverty, ignorance, and cruelty foreshadows two plays which would cast a very long shadow over western theatre: Gorky's THE LOWER DEPTHS and, most particularly, Eugene O'Neill's DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS. As might be expected of Tolstoy, who was something of a philospher and whose writings tended toward the diadactic, a good portion of the play deals in issues of right and wrong, Godly and ungodly, and the need for personal repudiation of evil, redemption, and forgiveness. But while heavenly forgiveness might be a possibility for the characters of the play, human forgiveness is not, and the play ends on the darkest note imaginable.

THE POWER OF DARKNESS is generally thought of as one of Tolstoy's minor works, and truly it pales in comparison with his obvious masterpeices; it is also worth pointing out that Tolstoy's great gift was no so much for dramatic literature as it was for the narrative form. Nonetheless, THE POWER OF DARKNESS is a memorable playscript; any one interested in Russian literature, dramatic literature, or Tolstoy in general will find it compelling.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "One must not forget God", February 22, 2010

By 

Keris Nine - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Power of Darkness (Dodo Press) (Paperback)

Tolstoy's 1886 drama is true to the nature of the later works which adhere to his own particular reading of Christian thought and his interest in educational reform, but, typically for Tolstoy, that doesn't mean that there is anything at all comforting or idealized about the events that take place in The Power of Darkness, a drama that recounts the corrupt and depraved activities of one godless family.

The wife of the family, Anisya, has been carrying on with one of the servants, Nikita, who is a bit of a ladies man. Nikita's father knows however that his son has been seeing a girl who works as a cook at an inn, and wants to marry him off to do the decent thing and "cover the sin". Nikita's mother however knows of his dealings with Anisya and knowing that there is money and a rise in position if her son can take the place of her husband. Knowing Anisya's weakness for Nikita, she provides her with some powders to add to his tea to clear the way towards this end. There are however worse horrors to be enacted as the sins become compounded by other perverse unions.

Tolstoy doesn't hold back from depicting the kind of corruption that occurs in those who have forgotten God - lust, debauchery, drunkenness, usury (the denunciation of bankers and their ill-gotten gains is tackled here long before it became fashionable to do so in the current economic climate) - all of it leading to the most heinous of murders and crimes. The worst transgressions however are those that are instigated by women, their lusts and machinations truly knowing no bounds. The fault, Tolstoy would seem to say, lies not in their nature, but in their poverty, upbringing, lack of education and the absence of God in their lives. The depths of depravity that follow from this lack of moral direction is depicted in a way that is realistic and true (one need only look at the recent press for many similar shocking child abuse and mortality cases), but Tolstoy offers the hope that the cycle can be broken and forgiveness can be achieved.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One sin leads to another, such is the power of darkness, April 8, 2010

By 

Israel Drazin (Boca Raton, Florida) - See all my reviews
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The women in this five act morality play have problems with their men and are determined to outwit them and get their ways by any means. (1) Ansya is married to Peter who is much older than she, is sickly, and unable to work. She is in love with their laborer Nikta, who does not work hard because he knows that he is protected because his mistress loves him, but he plays around with other women, and has gotten a girl, Marna, pregnant. (2) Nikta's mother knows about his relationship with Ansya and wants it to continue, figuring that Peter will soon die and her son will marry Ansya and become master of Peter's large estate. She gives Ansya pills to kill Peter. Nikta's mother detests her husband Akm who is mentally challenged, who works with manure, and smells badly. Her husband believes that Nikta impregnated Marna and wants Nikta to marry her. Nikta denies he did anything wrong. (3) Marna is hurt and angry because Nikta abandoned her for Ansya. (4) Ansya step-daughter, Peter's daughter Akoulna also wants to marry Nikta and is also angry with Ansya because of Nikta's relationship with her.

As Tolstoy likes to say, One sin draws another. This is what he meant by the "Power of Darkness," the title of the play. Peter dies from the pills and Ansya marries Nikta. Nikta's mother tells him how to control Ansya's inheritance. Nikta turns into a drunken brute who beats or ignores his wife, takes up with her step daughter Akoulna, buys Akoulna expensive clothing and says he loves her. Meanwhile, Marna, who was carrying Nikta's baby and who did nothing wrong, other than being seduced by Nikta, marries a rich landowner and is happy.

In the fourth act, about a year later, Akoulna has a baby by Nikta. His mother and Ansya decide to kill it so that Akoulna's reputation would not be ruined and she could marry another man and be taken away from Nikta. Tolstoy tells about the murder of the baby in two versions; one reads like Edgar Allan Poe's Tell Tale Heart. The fifth act describes more about the horror-filled "darkness" into which Nikta fell.