Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian writer regarded as one of the greatest authors of realist fiction.
His parents died during his infancy, and he was brought up by relatives. As a young man he drank and gambled heavily, and failed at university. In 1851 he joined the army and fought during the Crimean War, and began to write. In 1862, at age 34, he married Sofiya (Sonya) Behrs, aged 18, who bore him 13 children, eight of whom survived childhood. Their early married life was happy, and she acted as his secretary, proofreader, and financial manager. In the 1870s he experienced spiritual conversion, and renounced many of his previous beliefs in favour of ascetic religious beliefs including pacifism and celibacy. His marriage deteriorated, and shortly before his death at age 82 he absconded from the family home in the depths of winter, and died soon after of pneumonia.
The Kreutzer Sonata was published in 1889. In the first chapter a group of people on a train share their various opinions about marriage. Then a pathologically jealous man tells of his unhappy marriage and how he eventually murdered his wife because of his suspicion that she was having an an affair with a violinist with whom she had played the piano part of Beethoven's violin sonata 9.
The source text was the translation by Louise and Aylmer Maude from the Tolstoy Library OnLine, checked against Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy introduced by John Bayley. I have silently corrected typos, curled quotes, replaced italics, used British English, made changes to spelling and hyphenation using oxforddictionaries.com, and provided endnotes based on The Kreutzer Sonata Variations edited by Michael R. Katz.
Many thanks to Diap Dealer for help with a reference, and a link to the fascinating The Kreutzer Variations ebook
His parents died during his infancy, and he was brought up by relatives. As a young man he drank and gambled heavily, and failed at university. In 1851 he joined the army and fought during the Crimean War, and began to write. In 1862, at age 34, he married Sofiya (Sonya) Behrs, aged 18, who bore him 13 children, eight of whom survived childhood. Their early married life was happy, and she acted as his secretary, proofreader, and financial manager. In the 1870s he experienced spiritual conversion, and renounced many of his previous beliefs in favour of ascetic religious beliefs including pacifism and celibacy. His marriage deteriorated, and shortly before his death at age 82 he absconded from the family home in the depths of winter, and died soon after of pneumonia.
The Kreutzer Sonata was published in 1889. In the first chapter a group of people on a train share their various opinions about marriage. Then a pathologically jealous man tells of his unhappy marriage and how he eventually murdered his wife because of his suspicion that she was having an an affair with a violinist with whom she had played the piano part of Beethoven's violin sonata 9.
The source text was the translation by Louise and Aylmer Maude from the Tolstoy Library OnLine, checked against Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy introduced by John Bayley. I have silently corrected typos, curled quotes, replaced italics, used British English, made changes to spelling and hyphenation using oxforddictionaries.com, and provided endnotes based on The Kreutzer Sonata Variations edited by Michael R. Katz.
Many thanks to Diap Dealer for help with a reference, and a link to the fascinating The Kreutzer Variations ebook
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