The Kreutzer Sonata

E18589

The Kreutzer Sonata is a controversial novella by Leo Tolstoy that explores themes of jealousy, marriage, sexuality, and moral hypocrisy through a husband's confession of murdering his wife.

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Statements (46)

Predicate Object
instanceOf literary work
novella
adaptedAs films
operas
stage plays
author Leo Tolstoy
censorship subject to censorship in the Russian Empire
centralMotif marital infidelity
music
containsCharacter Pozdnyshev’s wife
a violinist friend of the couple
controversyReason frank treatment of sex and marriage
radical critique of marital relations
countryOfOrigin Russian Empire
criticizes bourgeois morality
institution of marriage
sexual double standards
genre controversial literature
novella
philosophical fiction
psychological fiction
hasForm prose fiction
inspiredBy Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47, by Ludwig van Beethoven
literaryInfluenceOn later discussions of marriage and sexuality in Russian literature
literaryPeriod late 19th century literature
literaryTechnique frame narrative
unreliable narrator
mainTheme jealousy
marriage
moral hypocrisy
sexuality
violence in marriage
moralPerspective ascetic view of sexuality
movement Tolstoyan moral philosophy
narrativeForm first-person confession
narrator Pozdnyshev
notableFor depiction of destructive jealousy
intense psychological monologue
originalLanguage Russian
philosophicalConcern relationship between love, sex, and morality
plotSummary A husband recounts how jealousy led him to murder his wife.
protagonist Pozdnyshev
publicationStatus controversial
setting Russian society in the 19th century
titleRefersTo Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata
workOf Leo Tolstoy

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Leo Tolstoy notableWork The Kreutzer Sonata