Word: pozdnyshev
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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After 25 years of marriage, Tolstoy repaid her by publishing The Kreutzer Sonata, a combination novel of manners, tract against sexual relations, and confession. On the surface, there is nothing in The Kreutzer Sonata to link Tolstoy and Pozdnyshev, the protagonist. But Tolstoy did reveal many incidents of their private lives-the young bride being shocked at his frankly lustful diary, a quarrel about whether or not to move to Moscow, his resentment over her refusal to nurse their babies. More important, Pozdnyshev's theories and feelings reflected Tolstoy's. Having exalted marriage and condemned adultery in Anna...
Some trivial incident involving Pozdnyshev's wife-like drinking her tea too noisily-makes him "loathe her as though she were committing some hideous crime." In passage after passage, The Kreutzer Sonata reveals Tolstoy's disgust with marriage, which he felt was Sonya's way of gaining power over him. It is nothing but "legalized prostitution," says Pozdnyshev. Sonya's anger and humiliation were compounded by the fact that she had just borne her 13th child...
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