On a train journey, Pozdnyshev tells his story to a stranger: how his relationsh
ip with his wife gradually deteriorated from one of love and passion to jealousy
and resentfulness, culminating in a mad act of desperation while she practised
Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata with her violin teacher. An uncompromising examinati
on of lust, suspicion and infidelity which was once forbidden by censors in Russ
ia and banned in the US due to its shocking content, Tolstoy's controversial nov
ella - here presented in a new translation, along with 'The Prisoner of the Cauc
asus', 'Master and Man' and 'After the Ball' - is now considered one of the mast
erpieces of Tolstoy's late period.
