Tundraco's Daily Living Guide to Book Reviews
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Tundraco's Daily Living Guide to Book Reviews |
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The Live Corpse By Leo Tolstoy General Books (2010), 64 pages ISBN 10: 1153799383 ISBN 13: 978-1153799386 |
Reviewed by Israel Drazin - April 8, 2010
During Tolstoy's lifetime divorce was considered improper. People thought that divorce is a violation of the Gospel teachings, husbands and wives were expected to live together despite any wrongs committed by their spouse and despite their misery; yet divorces were allowed, but only if the adulterer admitted his adultery and witnesses saw him perform the act.
In this play in six acts a husband, Fdya, tells his wife he wants to separate from her. He feels that he is making her life wretched by his drinking and by being a spendthrift, and besides, he knows that his friend, Victor, loves his wife and feels that if he were not around his wife would love Victor, who she grew up with, and finally be happy. Fdya is being pursued by a gypsy who loves him, but Fdya has had no sex with her.
Fdya promises his wife and Victor that he will arrange that they can marry. However, he finds that he cannot lie and say that he had sex and pay witnesses to lie that he did so. He decides to keep his promise by killing himself, but discovers that he cannot do this either. So he decides to fake his death by drowning.
The final acts describe what happened as a result of this deceit, Fdya's feelings, the feelings of Victor and Fdya's wife and what they do, and how a blackmailer complicates matters, and about a trial and its outcome.
Dr. Israel Drazin is the author of fifteen books, including a series of five volumes on the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible, which he co-authors with Rabbi Dr. Stanley M. Wagner, and a series of four books on the twelfth century philosopher Moses Maimonides, the latest being Maimonides: Reason Above All, published by Gefen Publishing House, www.gefenpublishing.com. The Orthodox Union (OU) publishes daily samples of the Targum books on www.ouradio.org
