The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories


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"You imagine that I am wandering from my story. Not at all. I am always  
giving you an account of the events that led to the murder of my wife.  
The imbeciles! They think that I killed my wife on the 5th of October.  
It was long before that that I immolated her, just as they all kill now.  
Understand well that in our society there is an idea shared by all  
that woman procures man pleasure (and vice versa, probably, but I know  
nothing of that, I only know my own case). Wein, Weiber und Gesang. So  
say the poets in their verses: Wine, women, and song!  
"If it were only that! Take all the poetry, the painting, the sculpture,  
beginning with Pouschkine's 'Little Feet,' with 'Venus and Phryne,' and  
you will see that woman is only a means of enjoyment. That is what she  
is at Trouba,* at Gratchevka, and in a court ball-room. And think of  
this diabolical trick: if she were a thing without moral value, it might  
be said that woman is a fine morsel; but, in the first place, these  
knights assure us that they adore woman (they adore her and look upon  
her, however, as a means of enjoyment), then all assure us that they  
esteem woman. Some give up their seats to her, pick up her handkerchief;  
others recognize in her a right to fill all offices, participate in  
government, etc., but, in spite of all that, the essential point remains  
the same. She is, she remains, an object of sensual desire, and  
she knows it. It is slavery, for slavery is nothing else than the  
utilization of the labor of some for the enjoyment of others. That  
slavery may not exist people must refuse to enjoy the labor of others,  
and look upon it as a shameful act and as a sin.  
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59 60 61 62 63

Quick Jump
1 73 145 218 290