The Kreutzer Sonata Variations: Lev Tolstoy's Novella and Counterstories by Sofiya Tolstaya and Lev Lvovich Tolstoy

by Michael R. Katz (Editor), Ekaterina Tolstaya (Foreword by), Andrey Tolstoy (Afterword)

Overview

A work unprecedented in world literature, this unique volume contains a new translation of Lev Tolstoy’s controversial novella The Kreutzer Sonata, which was initially banned by Russian censors. In addition, available to English readers for the first time is a fascinating and previously neglected constellation of counterstories written by the author’s wife and son in direct response to Tolstoy’s provocative tale, each a passionate attempt to undo the message of the original work. These radically conflicting tales, accompanied by excerpts from family letters, diaries, notes, and memoirs, provide readers with a vivid and highly revealing case study of the powerful disputes concerning sexuality and gender roles that erupted within the cultural context of late-nineteenth-century Russian, as well as European, society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300189940
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	08/26/2014
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Michael Katz is the C.V. Starr Professor Emeritus of Russian and Eastern European Studies at Middlebury College. He is the author of two previous books on Russian literature and the translator of more than a dozen Russian novels into English, including major works by Herzen, Chernyshevsky, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Jabotinsky, and S. Ansky.

Table of Contents

Foreword Ekaterina Tolstaya vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: The Tolstoy Family Story Contest Michael R. Katz xi

Part 1 The Story and Counterstories

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy

The Kreutzer Sonata 3

Sofiya Andreevna Tolstaya

Whose Fault? 71

Song Without Words 165

Lev Lvovich Tolstoy

Chopin's Prelude 255

Part 2 Reflections

Ruminations on Tolstoy's The Kreuzter Sonata 295

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy

Epilogue to The Kreutzer Sonata 297

"The Wife Murderer": A Fragment 309

Letters (Excerpts) 313

Diary Entries (Excerpts) 315

Sofiya Andreevna Tolstaya

Diary Entries (Excerpts) 321

My Life (Excerpts) 329

Lev Lvovich Tolstoy

The Truth About My Father (Excerpt) 343

Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya

Tolstoy: A Life of My Father (Excerpt) 347

Afterword: Andrey Tolstoy 353

Selected Bibliography of Works in English by and About Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy and Sofiya Andreevna Tolstaya 355

Editorial Reviews

The Kreutzer Sonata Variations has been assembled as a kind of dossier. Mr. Katz provides a new translation of Tolstoy’s story and surrounds it with material that sheds light on the furor that it touched off . . . The book adds momentum to a revisionist view of Sophia [Tolstoy] that has gathered speed recently.”—William Grimes, New York Times

New York Times - William Grimes

Fictive words with the bite of reality to them were weapons of choice not only for Tolstoy, but for his wife and children. In this fascinating assemblage of stories and counterstories against one of the late great tales, Michael Katz shows us the family fighting back.”—Caryl Emerson, A. Watson Armour III University Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Princeton University 

Caryl Emerson Caryl Emerson

For anyone interested in Tolstoy or the modern understanding of marriage and sexuality, this volume will be indispensable. Containing fiction and commentary by Tolstoy, his wife and son that has never before been translated and only recently become known, it changes our understanding of one of Tolstoy’s most important works. This volume is an event in the understanding of Russian literature.” —Gary Morson, Frances Hooper Professor of the Arts and Humanities , Northwestern University

Gary Saul Morson

The Kreutzer Sonata Variations . . . pairs Tolstoy’s controversial novella with the stories his wife and son wrote in pointed response, adding further shadings to the Russian author’s final chapter.”—Megan O’Grady, Vogue

Vogue - Megan O’Grady

Sofiya Tolstoy can write! . . . [She] pulls off a remarkable structural feat in mirroring Kreutzer’s wife-murder plot from the point of view of the murdered wife. . . . Graceful, emotionally intuitive, and heartbreaking . . . a deeply affecting defense of love . . . Sofiya lives on in [her] astonishingly skillful novella.”—Ron Rosenbaum, Slate

Slate - Ron Rosenbaum

Over a hundred years after it was written The Kreutzer Sonata retains its ability to shock and disturb. Michael Katz’s superb introduction to the firestorm provoked by Tolstoy’s late novella includes a wealth of materials that were heretofore unavailable to English readers.”— William Mills Todd III, Harry Tuchman Levin Professor of Literature, Harvard University

William Mills Todd III

"Congratulations to Michael Katz with his excellent work as a translator, editor, and compiler! It is really important for all interested in Tolstoy's work and life to have Kreutzer Sonata and S.A. Tolstaya's constellation of stories under one cover. It's a great accomplishment!"—Galina Alekseeva, Yasnaya Polyana

Galina Alekseeva

Fictive words with the bite of reality to them were weapons of choice not only for Tolstoy, but for his wife and children. In this fascinating assemblage of stories and counterstories against one of the late great tales, Michael Katz shows us the family fighting back.”—Caryl Emerson, A. Watson Armour III University Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Princeton University 

Caryl Emerson

The Kreutzer Sonata Variations . . . pairs Tolstoy’s controversial novella with the stories his wife and son wrote in pointed response, adding further shadings to the Russian author’s final chapter.”—Megan O’Grady, Vogue

Vogue - Megan O’Grady