It is generally supposed that Conservatives are usually old people, and those in favour of change are the Young. That is not quite correct. Usually Conservatives are young people: those who want to live but who do not think about how to live, and have not time to think, and therefore take as a model for themselves a way of life that they have seen.Eugene is a young man of this sort, and very anxious too. On the outside he appears like a perfectly normal man, but as the reader hears more of his thoughts, his anxiety becomes evident. As is the case for any anxious person, he mulls only over what is out of his control and pay very little attention to what is. Poor little anxious man, holding onto a goal, but without a plan. This book has two possible endings and both are dreadfully depressing.Feeling sorry for Eugene, I sat clutching the book against my chest and stretching my legs on the empty seat next to mine, when another anxious little woman walked up to me. Her phone was broken and she wished to make a call from mine. That wasn't the end of it and the lady, after a dozen more requests, sat on the vacant seat next to me. Twenty minutes after the whole episode started, I was cursing the woman for invading my little private sanctum and I really didn't care about anything she had to stay. Plotting what to do that might not be too rude but would keep her away, I grew restless and uneasy. I felt tormented by this woman's presence and then I thought of poor Eugene. I felt sorry for both of us. Was it not easier to accept that I had no entitlement to a vacant seat, and that it really is my annoyance that was doing more harm than the woman herself. Much like Eugene, whose sexual impulse he attributed to an external agent, instead of himself. In associating this devil outside of himself, he loses a the potential to tame it.In a world radically obsessed with the dichotomy of good and evil, each separate and distant from the other, is it possible to accept a little filth in ourselves without labelling ourselves as scum?
Tolstoy's "Whore and Peace."When he was fifty-two Tolstoy was mad with lust for a twenty-two years old beautiful servant girl named Domna who seemed very much willing to oblige his tormented desires. Apparently he was eventually able to overcome it, partly by accident and partly by willpower.In this story, the male protagonist is much younger, 26 years old and a bachelor. He feels the need to have sex, not for the sake of debauchery, but only for health's sake, so he tells himself. Through the help of someone he then arranges trysts with a willing woman, very attractive, and whose husband is away. The sex is satisfactory and he gives her money after each session. He asks her once why she does it with him and she says she knows her husband plays around when away from home so why can't she have fun too?Eventually the guy gets married. He cuts of his relationship with his whore. His business prospers and he has a daughter. But his whore keeps on popping up in his life and worse: he still has the hots for her. His problem now: how to find peace amidst the torments of his past and his unkillable desires. Tolstoy wrote two endings for this, both of them gruesome. A way, perhaps, to convince himself that he shouldn't really regret not tasting the sweetness of Domna.
What do You think about The Devil (2004)?
A thought provoking short story by Tolstoy which depicts a man and his struggles with lustful thoughts outside of his marriage in which he cannot control. The influence of Schopenhauer can be seen here (as in many, if not most, of his works) with themes regarding our unceasing will for, in this case, sexual satisfaction and the conflicts with morality that this causes.Tolstoy's portrayal of the character's inner monologue is so clear and it let's the reader feel as though they are looking into the "soul" or true essence of the character. The simplicity and clarity in which Tolstoy writes is, I feel, where his genius lies. His works, and this book being no exception, are so aesthetically pleasing as not only works of literature but works of art, it is no wonder Tolstoy has stood the test of time with such longevity.
—Nikki Mackenzie
C, you were right - this is an oddly compelling tale of a guy struggling with an internal moral conflict. The main character has an affair with a married peasant woman because he believes it will relieve some overwhelming physical necessity. Later, he himself gets married and believes that the peasant woman and those urges are part of the past. Unfortunately he keeps encountering the woman and those urges come storming back. He is tormented by what to do and his internal monologue - going through the pros and cons of infidelity, cursing himself for his weakness, struggling to resist the pull of temptation - all are really fascinating. Tolstoy wrote two different endings for this novella and it is really interesting to see them both there back to back.
—Kim
A young man moves to his country estate to run them after his father's death. There are a lot of debts and he has to buy out his brother, but he starts to deal with the financial problems and it looks as though he will succeed.This is a Tolstoy short story, so there is another problem, sex. It was considered bad for a man's health to be celibate, so young Evgeny arranges to meet an obliging peasant woman from time to time. He sees this as necessary, not romantic, and when he decides to marry he ends the relationship. A year or so later he finds he sees the woman everywhere and cannot stop thinking about her.Tolstoy gives two alternative endings to his story, two possible ways Evgeny might deal with the problem. Both are dramatic and excessive, and neither are good for Evgeny's health, sexual or otherwise.Tolstoy may have been writing out his own desire for a peasant woman or this may be pure invention, it makes a good short story either way.
—Val
