The Kreutzer Sonata

The Kreutzer Sonata is a novella written by Leo Tolstoy and first published in 1891.

The story begins during a night train journey. Marshal of the nobility Pozdnyshev is one of the passengers. In the middle of the night he confesses to another passenger in the carriage that he has murdered his wife out of jealousy.

He believes that she is having an affair with his music partner and jealousy clouds him completely, leading him to commit such a heinous act.

It was very controversial in Russia in the late 19th century and was even censored. The novel exposes Tolstoy's deeply Christian ideals against lust and the hypocrisies of nineteenth-century marriage. It also reflects on the role of art and music in society.

This edition of The Kreutzer Sonata uses the English translation by Isabel Florence Hapgood.

"Travellers left and entered our car at every stopping of the train. Three persons, however, remained, bound, like myself, for the farthest station: a lady neither young nor pretty, smoking cigarettes, with a thin face, a cap on her head, and wearing a semi-masculine outer garment;..."