Tundraco's Daily Living Guide to Book Reviews

The Power of Darkness By Leo Tolstoy General Books (2010), 88 pages ISBN 10: 1153799367 ISBN 13: 978-1153799362

Reviewed by Israel Drazin - April 13, 2010

The women in this five act morality play have problems with their men and are determined to outwit them and get their ways by any means. (1) Ansya is married to Peter who is much older than she, is sickly, and unable to work. She is in love with their laborer Nikta, who does not work hard because he knows that he is protected because his mistress loves him, but he plays around with other women, and has gotten a girl, Marna, pregnant. (2) Nikta's mother knows about his relationship with Ansya and wants it to continue, figuring that Peter will soon die and her son will marry Ansya and become master of Peter's large estate. She gives Ansya pills to kill Peter. Nikta's mother detests her husband Akm who is mentally challenged, who works with manure, and smells badly. Her husband believes that Nikta impregnated Marna and wants Nikta to marry her. Nikta denies he did anything wrong. (3) Marna is hurt and angry because Nikta abandoned her for Ansya. (4) Ansya step-daughter, Peter's daughter Akoulna also wants to marry Nikta and is also angry with Ansya because of Nikta's relationship with her.

As Tolstoy likes to say, One sin draws another. This is what he meant by the "Power of Darkness," the title of the play. Peter dies from the pills and Ansya marries Nikta. Nikta's mother tells him how to control Ansya's inheritance. Nikta turns into a drunken brute who beats or ignores his wife, takes up with her step daughter Akoulna, buys Akoulna expensive clothing and says he loves her. Meanwhile, Marna, who was carrying Nikta's baby and who did nothing wrong, other than being seduced by Nikta, marries a rich landowner and is happy.

In the fourth act, about a year later, Akoulna has a baby by Nikta. His mother and Ansya decide to kill it so that Akoulna's reputation would not be ruined and she could marry another man and be taken away from Nikta. Tolstoy tells about the murder of the baby in two versions; one reads like Edgar Allan Poe's Tell Tale Heart. The fifth act describes more about the horror-filled "darkness" into which Nikta fell.

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

The Light Shines in Darkness, by Leo Tolstoy.
In this play in five unfinished acts, Tolstoy portrays the generally negative reactions of a man's family and friends to views that Tolstoy himself advocated.

The Live Corpse, by Leo Tolstoy.
A play in six parts that revolves around what happens when one man is presumed dead, his wife remarries, and then he returns - and the havoc his return causes.