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The Kreutzer Sonata

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The Kreutzer Sonata

Written by: Leo Tolstoy
Narrated by: Simon Prebble
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One of the world’s greatest novelists, Leo Tolstoy was also the author of a number of superb short stories, one of his best-known being “The Kreutzer Sonata.” This macabre story involves the murder of a wife by her husband. It is a penetrating study of jealousy as well as a piercing complaint about the way in which society educates men and women in matters of sex—a serious condemnation of the mores and attitudes of the wealthy, educated class.

(P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Anthologies & Short Stories Classics Short Stories
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Critic Reviews

“Moments of dramatic genius: a wracking vision of marriage as jealousy nourished, hatred voluptuously fed, rage taken for breakfast.”

(New York Review of Books)

“Prebble succeeds admirably at presenting Pozdnyshev as both an astute social critic and an overprivileged and slightly unhinged egomaniac who misinterprets everything he sees.”

(Audiofile)
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Simon Prebble is an excellent narrator with great diction and expression. The novella itself is extremely controversial, and I have mixed feelings. The character narrating the story is so wildly, deeply, violently misogynistic, that any sympathetic portrayal of him in the novel is distasteful to me. From saying that women should be banned from dressing beautifully because their sole purpose is to ensnare men (a very common conservative argument) to murdering his wife in cold blood, the character is despicable. I'm not sure what Tolstoy's purpose was in writing this, whether to endorse the man's views or whether to berate him.

Story full of misogyny. narrator is excellent

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Ramblings of a mad jealous man who is attempting to invoke big ideas to justify his crime. The story just that. the character reflects Tolstoy's own religious extremism at many points. but that said it still manages to occasionally make a feminist argument i.e. that men should stop seeing women as a source of pleasure but as beings.
one of Tolsty's shorter works this might be a good starting point for someone getting to know his writing.

Rambling of a jealous mad man

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