May 25, 2018—The Kreutzer Sonata, by Leo Tolstoy

The next meeting of Great Books KC group will be May 25, 2018. We'll be discussing The Kreutzer Sonata, by Leo Tolstoy.

Meeting Information:

Location: Plaza Branch Kansas City Public Library

Small Meeting Room (reserved for our group)

Date: May 25, 2018

Time: 7:00 pm

Address: 4801 Main Street

Kansas City, MO

Description of Book:

The Kreutzer 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 his wife: in his analysis, the root causes for the deed were the "animal excesses" and "swinish connection" governing the relation between the sexes.