2024-02-09 07:00:45
In this new series, Mirco Canoci, our documentary information specialist, shares his reading recommendations. The objective is to introduce you to new authors, subjects or simply new stories, through the informed eye of our librarian. After tackling a subject of personal development, in this second article, Mirco looks at a classic of Russian literature by Tolstoy.
The Devil by Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy, best known for his work War and peace, also wrote a lesser-known short story, the title of which is short and chilling: The devil.
A subversive news
This short story, highly subversive for its time and probably considered pornographic, took ten years to be written by the writer.
This news came to Tolstoy’s mind through a news item relating the crime of a Tula government official who murdered his mistress. This work tells the story of Irtenev, a landowner with many qualities and a very good reputation. This man’s greatest difficulty lies in his sexuality and more precisely these sexual urges that he struggles to control. He is obsessed with the sexuality he might have with the beautiful peasant girl Stepanida. Irténiev is married to the young and sweet Lise. Being unfaithful to him is not an option for him. He will even go so far as to kill himself so as not to satisfy his desires for infidelity.
Between moral questioning and Russian humor
Through this story, the author leads us to questions concerning morality, fidelity, commitment, desire and guilt. However, the main question lies in this form: can we resist physical temptation? The author goes even further. To desire in thought is not already to have succumbed in a certain way to the desire of the flesh?
Through these questions, the story leads us to terribly sad scenes, but also surprisingly funny scenes that can sometimes resemble satire. There is also a typically Russian humor that we find particularly in the plays of this country. This story can easily be adapted on stage. The devil is a work to read or reread both for the quality of writing and for its timeless story.
From the same author, in the series “Mirco’s recommendations”:
12 New rules for a new life
Photo credit : jacqueline macou of Pixabay
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