Kreutzer Sonata

"Kreutzer Sonata," known in Russian as "Крейцерова соната," was written between 1887 and 1889 and first published in 1890, immediately facing censorship by tsarist authorities. The work proclaims an ideal of abstinence and describes the rage of jealousy from a first-person perspective, taking its title from Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata No. 9 for violin and piano. The protagonist, Vasily Pozdnyshev, recounts his unhappy marriage, his escalating jealousy, and the eventual murder of his wife. He intervenes in a train conversation about love, lamenting his dissolute youth and asserting that women will never achieve equal rights as long as men view them as objects of passion, while also describing women's power over men.

The composition explores the transformation of initial passion into corrosive jealousy and misunderstanding within the marital bond. Pozdnyshev's jealousy reaches its peak when his wife performs Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata with a violinist friend, interpreting the music's emotional intensity as proof of an affair. Driven by unbearable jealousy, he kills his wife. Post-act, he is consumed by guilt and remorse, yet he justifies his actions by critiquing human nature and societal structures. This work can be interpreted as a sharp critique of the institution of marriage and the role of sexuality in society, delving into themes of possessiveness and violence, and questioning the possibility of spiritual purity in a world driven by physical desires. Tolstoy later provided a postscript in 1890 to clarify his thoughts on the subject, where he interpreted Christ's teachings as a rejection of marriage, distinguishing between the Christian ideal of chastity and mere moral laws.

This critical reader's edition presents a modern translation of the original manuscript, crafted for the modern reader with clean, contemporary language and simplified sentence structures that clarify his complex Russian phrasing and specific antiquated references. Supplementary material enriches the text with autobiographical, historical, and linguistic context, including an afterword by the translator on Tolstoy’s personal history, impact, and intellectual legacy, an index of the philosophical concepts he employs—emphasizing Existentialism and influence by Schopenhauer—a comprehensive chronological list of his published writings, and a detailed timeline of his life, highlighting the personal relationships that shaped his philosophy.