 Title page of the 1901 Geneve edition in Russian | |
| Author | Leo Tolstoy |
|---|---|
| Original title | Крейцерова соната |
| Translator | Frederic Lyster (1890) David McDuff & Paul Foote (2008) |
| Country | Russian Empire |
| Language | Russian |
| Genre | Philosophical fiction |
| Publisher | Bibliographic Office, Berlin |
Publication date | 1889 |
| Pages | 118 (Pollard's 1890 English edition) |
| ISBN | 978-0-14-044960-0 |
| 891.733 | |
| LC Class | PG3366 .K7 |
Original text | Крейцерова соната at Russian Wikisource |
| Translation | The Kreutzer Sonata at Wikisource |
The Kreutzer Sonata (Russian: Крейцерова соната, Kreitzerova Sonata) is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, named after Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata. The novella was published in 1889, and was promptly censored by the Russian authorities. The work is an argument for the ideal of sexual abstinence and an in-depth first-person description of jealous rage. The main character, Pozdnyshev, relates the events leading up to his killing of his wife: in his analysis, the root causes for the deed were the "animal excesses" and "swinish connection" governing the relation between the sexes.[1][2]
During a train ride, Pozdnyshev overhears a conversation concerning marriage, divorce and love. When a woman argues that marriage should not be arranged but based on true love, he asks "what is love?" and points out that, if understood as an exclusive preference for one person, it often passes quickly. Convention dictates that two married people stay together, and initial love can quickly turn into hatred. He then relates how he used to visit prostitutes when he was young, and complains that women's dresses are designed to arouse men's desires. He further states that women will never enjoy equal rights to men as long as men view them as objects of desire, yet describes their situation as a form of power over men, mentioning how much of society is geared towards their pleasure and well-being and how much sway they have over men's actions.
Pozdnyshev relates that after he meets and marries his wife, periods of passionate love and vicious fights alternate. She bears five children, and then receives contraceptives: "The last excuse for our swinish life – children – was then taken away, and life became viler than ever." His wife takes a liking to a violinist, Troukhatchevsky, and the two perform Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata (Sonata No. 9 in A Major for piano and violin, Op. 47) together. Pozdnyshev complains that some music is powerful enough to change one's internal state to a foreign one. He hides his raging jealousy and goes on a trip, thinking that the violinist was about to move away; however, he is made aware from his wife's letter that the musician has not left, and has visited her instead. Returning early, he finds Troukhatchevsky and his wife sitting at the table and kills his wife with a dagger. The violinist escapes; Pozdnyshev states, "I wanted to run after him, but remembered that it is ridiculous to run after one's wife's lover in one's socks; and I did not wish to be ridiculous but terrible." He realizes what he has done only a few days later, when he is led to his wife's funeral. He is acquitted of murder in light of his wife's apparent adultery. At the end of his tale, Pozdnyshev implores the narrator for forgiveness.
Due to the unusual and scandalous nature of the work for that time, the publication of the Kreutzer Sonata in a magazine or in a separate publication was prohibited by censorship. Only after a conversation between Countess Alexandra Andreevna Tolstoy (Leo Tolstoy's great-aunt, the famous Alexandrine (a girl, chambermaid, tutor of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna) with Emperor Alexander III, did the emperor allow the story to be published as part of the next volume of Tolstoy's collected works.[3][4] However, the censorship ban only increased the attractiveness of the story, which long before publication began to be distributed in lists and read in private homes.
In 1890, the United States Post Office Department prohibited the mailing of newspapers containing serialized installments of The Kreutzer Sonata. This was confirmed by the U.S. Attorney General in the same year. Some American publishing houses published excerpts from the story as a separate pamphlet to advertise the story and distributed them through street vendors in New York for a nominal price. Carts even appeared in the city, on which it was written in large letters: “Forbidden by the Russian government and the Postmaster General of the United States is Tolstoy’s best work, The Kreutzer Sonata.”[5] The ban on its sale was struck down in New York and Pennsylvania courts in 1890.[6][7]
President Theodore Roosevelt called Tolstoy a "sexual moral pervert."[8]
In the Epilogue To The Kreutzer Sonata, published in 1890, Tolstoy clarifies the intended message of the novella, writing:
Let us stop believing that carnal love is high and noble and understand that any end worth our pursuit – in service of humanity, our homeland, science, art, let alone God – any end, so long as we may count it worth our pursuit, is not attained by joining ourselves to the objects of our carnal love in marriage or outside it; that, in fact, infatuation and conjunction with the object of our carnal love (whatever the authors of romances and love poems claim to the contrary) will never help our worthwhile pursuits but only hinder them.[citation needed]
Countering the argument that widespread abstinence would lead to a cessation of the human race, he describes chastity as an ideal that provides guidance and direction, not as a firm rule. Writing from a position of deep religiosity (that he had explained in his Confession in 1882), he points out that not Christ, but the Church (which he despises) instituted marriage. "The Christian's ideal is love of God and his neighbor, self-renunciation in order to serve God and his neighbour; carnal love, marriage, means serving oneself, and therefore is, in any case, a hindrance in the service of God and men".[citation needed]
During the international celebration of Tolstoy's 80th birthday in 1908, G. K. Chesterton criticized this aspect of Tolstoy's thought in an article in the 19 September issue of Illustrated London News: "Tolstoy is not content with pitying humanity for its pains: such as poverty and prisons. He also pities humanity for its pleasures, such as music and patriotism. He weeps at the thought of hatred; but in The Kreutzer Sonata he weeps almost as much at the thought of love. He and all the humanitarians pity the joys of men." He went on to address Tolstoy directly: "What you dislike is being a man. You are at least next door to hating humanity, for you pity humanity because it is human."[citation needed]
The Kreutzer Sonata has been adapted for film well over a dozen times. Some of these include:[citation needed]
In 2000, the Carolina Ballet, with original choreography by Robert Weiss and combining the music of Beethoven, Janáček, and J. Mark Scearce, mounted an innovative production combining dance and drama, with a narrator/actor telling the story and flashbacks leading into the ballet segments.[16]
The novella inspired the 1901 painting The Kreutzer Sonata by René François Xavier Prinet, which shows a passionate kiss between the violinist and the pianist. The painting was used for years in Tabu perfume ads.[citation needed]
Arab Israeli author Sayed Kashua's 2010 novel Second Person Singular echoes The Kreutzer Sonata set in present-day Israel. A copy of The Kreutzer Sonata also functions as a major plot device.[17]
The Dutch author Margriet de Moor wrote a book called Kreutzersonate after Janáček's string quartet, which was inspired by the novella and Beethoven.
