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Hi there! I'm thinking about starting to post book reviews on a weekly basis in here.
So, friends, buckle up! We'll start this journey with The Kreutzer Sonata by Lev Tolstoj.
There have been very few books that pushed me to groan aloud and lie down to stare at the ceiling as much as The Kreutzer Sonata did.
Great style, great ability to involve the reader despite the whole book being a case of “tell, don’t show”, completely captured me when by the end of the book he started describing the night he actually killed his wife.
But by the end of the book I’m really not sure if we were meant to shake our head at this guy or if we were meant to sympathize with him and see the death of that woman as the only possible endgame to their marriage.
Probably the second. Which, hey, it’s actually crazy.
The protagonist of the story is almost invisible in the book, since all he does is sit down and listen to the story of this man - Pozdnyšev - who is known for having not only killed his wife, but getting away with it because the court decided he had good reason. Since the wife cheated on him. No matter the fact that she didn’t, and he told them, they decided it was just him trying to restore his wife’s reputation.
No, it was just him being crazy jealous. But alright.
We learn that he had a dissolute life - he fucked around - before marriage and then he married a girl - with whom he had basically nothing to talk about - and was loyal to her - so he felt very proud of himself - but then they started fighting furiously. They would get in a cycle of sex-vicious fights-sex that lasted years, while she got pregnant with numerous kids. Until doctors - all bad people in Pozdnyšev’s opinion - told her she couldn’t have more kids. That was apparently the start of the end, since she started getting better and better and looking more sensual than before.
So Pozdnyšev started living in a constant state of jealousy, figuring her cheating on him was just a matter of time, that everybody looked with desire to her. He did want to fuck her constantly. But at the same time he would belittle her constantly and still they didn’t talk much, and he reproached how worried she had been for years about their kids’ health and upbringing. Until she started relaxing and slowly went back to playing the piano.
And that’s the start of the end for her.
Honestly, the only thing I was glad about while reading this was that they didn’t leave him the custody of the kids.
Through the mouth of this character we learn Tolstoj’s opinion on how wrong it’s that society lives and breathes around sex. This brings back to my first “I’m not sure if we’re meant to sympathize with him” since, in the notes after the ending, Tolstoj himself takes the floor to explain his point of view.
At first he deplores how society condones and actually approves of sex as a natural need for men, and how this pushes towards the exploitation of women as sex workers. Then he goes on to say that since there is a widespread belief that making love is pleasurable and noble then of course cheating becomes the norm.
He thinks people should just abstein. Because also trying not to get pregnant is wrong, and using pills and condoms are basically like committing murder.
But then again the children are “raised like pups of animals” since the parents care so much about feeding them well, keep them clean and pretty. This is what brings in his opinion to “an irresistible inclination to sensuality, cause of terrible agonies during the adolescence”.
“Titillating clothes, readings, shows, music, dancing, sweets and every aspects of life, from pictures on boxes to novels, tales and poems, excite all the more this sensuality, and consequently the most horrible vices and sexual diseases become the natural condition in which children of both sexes grew up and often times remain the same even in their adult years.”
Look at me, staring at my ceiling.
He’s apparently not alright with women seeking love and devolving their energies to find love and a good marriage.
And let’s remember that even sex inside the marriage is a bad thing. Sex is a bad thing full stop.
Abstinence is the ideal.
He believes marriage to be against what Christ taught and also that other religions are inferior.
So be aware, reading this book you might want to repeatedly punch the guy talking.
So, friends, buckle up! We'll start this journey with The Kreutzer Sonata by Lev Tolstoj.
There have been very few books that pushed me to groan aloud and lie down to stare at the ceiling as much as The Kreutzer Sonata did.
Great style, great ability to involve the reader despite the whole book being a case of “tell, don’t show”, completely captured me when by the end of the book he started describing the night he actually killed his wife.
But by the end of the book I’m really not sure if we were meant to shake our head at this guy or if we were meant to sympathize with him and see the death of that woman as the only possible endgame to their marriage.
Probably the second. Which, hey, it’s actually crazy.
The protagonist of the story is almost invisible in the book, since all he does is sit down and listen to the story of this man - Pozdnyšev - who is known for having not only killed his wife, but getting away with it because the court decided he had good reason. Since the wife cheated on him. No matter the fact that she didn’t, and he told them, they decided it was just him trying to restore his wife’s reputation.
No, it was just him being crazy jealous. But alright.
We learn that he had a dissolute life - he fucked around - before marriage and then he married a girl - with whom he had basically nothing to talk about - and was loyal to her - so he felt very proud of himself - but then they started fighting furiously. They would get in a cycle of sex-vicious fights-sex that lasted years, while she got pregnant with numerous kids. Until doctors - all bad people in Pozdnyšev’s opinion - told her she couldn’t have more kids. That was apparently the start of the end, since she started getting better and better and looking more sensual than before.
So Pozdnyšev started living in a constant state of jealousy, figuring her cheating on him was just a matter of time, that everybody looked with desire to her. He did want to fuck her constantly. But at the same time he would belittle her constantly and still they didn’t talk much, and he reproached how worried she had been for years about their kids’ health and upbringing. Until she started relaxing and slowly went back to playing the piano.
And that’s the start of the end for her.
Honestly, the only thing I was glad about while reading this was that they didn’t leave him the custody of the kids.
Through the mouth of this character we learn Tolstoj’s opinion on how wrong it’s that society lives and breathes around sex. This brings back to my first “I’m not sure if we’re meant to sympathize with him” since, in the notes after the ending, Tolstoj himself takes the floor to explain his point of view.
At first he deplores how society condones and actually approves of sex as a natural need for men, and how this pushes towards the exploitation of women as sex workers. Then he goes on to say that since there is a widespread belief that making love is pleasurable and noble then of course cheating becomes the norm.
He thinks people should just abstein. Because also trying not to get pregnant is wrong, and using pills and condoms are basically like committing murder.
But then again the children are “raised like pups of animals” since the parents care so much about feeding them well, keep them clean and pretty. This is what brings in his opinion to “an irresistible inclination to sensuality, cause of terrible agonies during the adolescence”.
“Titillating clothes, readings, shows, music, dancing, sweets and every aspects of life, from pictures on boxes to novels, tales and poems, excite all the more this sensuality, and consequently the most horrible vices and sexual diseases become the natural condition in which children of both sexes grew up and often times remain the same even in their adult years.”
Look at me, staring at my ceiling.
He’s apparently not alright with women seeking love and devolving their energies to find love and a good marriage.
And let’s remember that even sex inside the marriage is a bad thing. Sex is a bad thing full stop.
Abstinence is the ideal.
He believes marriage to be against what Christ taught and also that other religions are inferior.
So be aware, reading this book you might want to repeatedly punch the guy talking.
