Description

The story follows a young landowner, Eugene Irtenev, who seemingly has everything: a thriving estate, a high social standing, and a loving wife. However, a past affair with a peasant woman named Stepanida turns into an uncontrollable obsession that begins to consume his mind. This work is a profound exploration of the struggle between moral duty and animal instinct, showing how a man’s past can become his undoing.

The novella reflected Tolstoy’s personal experiences related to his infatuation in his youth with a Yasnaya Polyana peasant woman, Aksinya Bazykina, and at the age of 49, with a cook, Domna, against his feelings for whom he struggled. The plot basis of the novella reflects real events from the life of a Tula judicial investigator, N. N. Friederichs, who, three months after marrying a noblewoman, killed a peasant woman, Stepanida Munitsyna, with whom he previously had a relationship, with a revolver shot. Later, two months later, he himself was found crushed by a train.