From the Author books Like · Anna Karenina · War and Peace · The Death of Ivan Ilych · The Kreutzer Sonata · Resurrection · İnsan Ne İle Yaşar? · A Confession · Hadji Murád · How Much Land Does a Man Need? · Family Happiness · Childhood, Boyhood, Youth · The Cossacks · Master and Man · The Kingdom of God Is Within You · The Devil · Father Sergius · What Is Art? ABOUT THE BOOK: The Power of Darkness (Russian: Власть тьмы, Vlast' t'my) is a five-act drama by Leo Tolstoy. Written in 1886, the play's production was forbidden to be produced in Russia until 1902, mainly through the influence of Konstantin Pobedonostsev. In spite of the ban, the play was unofficially produced and read numerous times. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой; most appropriately used Liev Tolstoy; commonly Leo Tolstoy in Anglophone countries) was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist fiction. Many consider Tolstoy to have been one of the world's greatest novelists. Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer. His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Reproduction of the original: The Power of Darkness by Leo Tolstoi

"[...]of horses' feet and the creaking of the gate are heard]. PETER. Bragging, that's what he's good at. I'd like to sack him, I would indeed. ANÍSYA [mimicking him] "Like to sack him." You buckle to yourself, and then talk. AKOULÍNA [enters] It's all I could do to drive 'em in. That piebald always will ... PETER. And where's Nikíta? AKOULÍNA. Where's Nikíta? Why, standing out there in the street. PETER. What's he standing there for?[...]".

Rare edition with unique illustrations. Tolstoy is best known for his two longest works, War and Peace (1865-69) and Anna Karenina (1875-77), which are commonly regarded as among the finest novels ever written. This anthology is a thorough introduction to classic literature for those who have not yet experienced these literary masterworks. For those who have known and loved these works in the past, this is an invitation to reunite with old friends in a fresh new format. From Shakespeare's finesse to Oscar Wilde's wit, this unique collection brings together works as diverse and influential as The Pilgrim's Progress and Othello. As an anthology that invites readers to immerse themselves in the masterpieces of the literary giants, it is must-have addition to any library.

Best known today as the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Count Leo Tolstoy also is acknowledged as a skilled playwright. His five-act drama The Power of Darkness offers a cold and unsparing look at Russian peasant life that illustrates the costs of pursuing personal desires rather than the dictates of morality. The grimly realistic tragedy is based on a real incident, centering on a peasant's confession to a party of wedding guests of his participation in a series of horrific crimes that range from adultery and murder to infanticide. Tolstoy's moving portrait of a class enslaved by poverty and ignorance was written in 1886, but its performance was suppressed by Russian authorities until 1902. A 1904 version, performed in New York in Yiddish, marked the first successful production of a play by Tolstoy in the United States.

Extract:THE POWER OF DARKNESS ACT I The Act takes place in autumn in a large village. The Scene represents Peter's roomy hut. Peter is sitting on a wooden bench, mending a horse-collar. An�sya and Akoul�na are spinning, and singing a part-song. PETER [looking out of the window] The horses have got loose again. If we don't look out they'll be killing the colt. Nik�ta! Hey, Nik�ta! Is the fellow deaf? [Listens. To the women] Shut up, one can't hear anything. NIK�TA [from outside] What? PETER. Drive the horses in. NIK�TA. We'll drive 'em in. All in good time. PETER [shaking his head] Ah, these labourers! If I were well, I'd not keep one on no account. There's nothing but bother with 'em. [Rises and sits down again] Nik�ta!... It's no good shouting. One of you'd better go. Go, Ako�l, drive 'em in. AKOUL�NA. What? The horses? PETER. What else? AKOUL�NA. All right. [Exit]. PETER. Ah, but he's a loafer, that lad ... no good at all. Won't stir a finger if he can help it. AN�SYA. You're so mighty brisk yourself. When you're not sprawling on the top of the oven you're squatting on the bench. To goad others to work is all you're fit for. PETER. If one weren't to goad you on a bit, one'd have no roof left over one's head before the year's out. Oh what people! AN�SYA. You go shoving a dozen jobs on to one's shoulders, and then do nothing but scold. It's easy to lie on the oven and give orders. PETER [sighing] Oh, if 'twere not for this sickness that's got hold of me, I'd not keep him on another day. AKOUL�NA [off the scene] Gee up, gee, woo. [A colt neighs, the stamping of horses' feet and the creaking of the gate are heard]. PETER. Bragging, that's what he's good at. I'd like to sack him, I would indeed. AN�SYA [mimicking him] "Like to sack him." You buckle to yourself, and then talk. AKOUL�NA [enters] It's all I could do to drive 'em in. That piebald always will ... PETER. And where's Nik�ta? AKOUL�NA. Where's Nik�ta? Why, standing out there in the street. PETER. What's he standing there for? AKOUL�NA. What's he standing there for? He stands there jabbering. PETER. One can't get any sense out of her! Who's he jabbering with? AKOUL�NA [does not hear] Eh, what? Peter waves her off. She sits down to her spinning. NAN [running in to her mother] Nik�ta's father and mother have come. They're going to take him away. It's true! AN�SYA. Nonsense!........

The Power of Darkness (1886) is a play by Leo Tolstoy. Forbidden for decades in Tolstoy's native Russia, the five-act play was first staged in Paris, where it earned praise from some of France's leading critics. Noted for its brutal depiction of violence and desperation, the play is concerned with the universal religious and philosophical themes that inspired such masterpieces as War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Peasant life is often portrayed in art as peaceful and romantic, in touch with the rhythms of the natural world and coursing with spirituality. In The Power of Darkness, Tolstoy refuses such empty symbolism, choosing instead to tell a story of greed, murder, and betrayal that has everything to do with the political reality faced by its impoverished characters. Fearful of what will happen to their farm when her aging husband Peter dies, Anisya seduces her farmhand Nikita, whose lack of education and opportunity-as well as a moral emptiness-make him a willing accomplice. Betraying Marinka, a young orphan girl he manipulates for pleasure, Nikita joins Anisya in dispossessing her stubborn husband. Tragic and disturbing, The Power of Darkness is a story of man at war with nature, and therefore at war with himself.