The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories

Leo Tolstoy known to the world for his famous novels also created throughout his sixty-year career as a writer a significant body of works of shorter ficiton. These fictions like his novels tend toward a uniqueness in form even as they explore a set of themes common in the longer works. The Kreutzer Sonata (1891) is a penetrating study of jealousy as well as a splenetic complaint about the way in which society educates young men and women in matters of sex. In The Death of Ivan Ilych (1886) a symbolic Everyman discovers the inner light of faith and love only when confronted by death. How Much Land Does a Man Need? (1886) is a simple didactic story of peasant life written by Tolstoy in the wake of a spiritual crisis. All three tales offer readers a splendid introduction to Tolstoys work as well as the focused delights of the short story form brought to a pinnacle in the hands of a master.