Tolstoy v. 2; 1886-89: Plays

Although Tolstoy’s fame rests on his novels, he was also a prolific dramatist. Because his plays are satirical, didactic, and colored by complex peasant dialect, earlier translations have been seriously flawed. Now noted Slavic philologist Marvin Kantor and Tatiana Tulchinsky have prepared the first complete English translation of the great writer’s plays. Tolstoy: Plays, Volume II offers two long plays written during the years 1886-1889. The Realm of Darkness is Tolstoy’s best-known play, a treatment of moral issues within a community of Russian peasants. The lesser known The Fruits of Enlightenment, a comic portrait of an upper-class Russian family afflicted with various social diseases, was written to be performed for Tolstoy’s family, and not intended for publication. Andrew Baruch Wachtel has added an informative introduction on this aspect of Tolstoy’s art.