Reviews for Plays

The average rating for Plays based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-08-17 00:00:00 John Valandingham I have read a few Tolstoy novels, but I thought the Literary Birthday Challenge I am participating in would be a good time to try one of his plays, which I had never known about. The Live Corpse (also listed as The Living Corpse) is a six act play that was written around 1900 but not published until after Tolstoy's death, according to Wiki. It seems he never felt it was 'finished', and the edition I read at Project Gutenberg had footnotes not only to translate the French phrases one character was fond of using but to mention certain areas Tolstoy may have clarified had he lived. At first I was a bit intimidated: the cast of characters, listed at the beginning of the play, has 43 names in it! But it is fairly easy to keep them all straight, and to understand what is happening during each scene. We meet Lisa, whose husband Fedya has abandoned her and her baby. Fedya is a drinker, a gambler, an all-around no-good guy, but she loves him. Victor is a childhood friend of hers who was also a fellow student at university with her husband, and has always loved Lisa. He comes to her aid when she asks him to take Fedya a letter begging him to return home. Fedya refuses, preferring to spend his days drinking and listening to the gypsies singing, especially a certain lovely girl named Masha. However, he wants Lisa to be happy, so he comes up with a plan that will make it possible for her to marry Victor without going through the horrors of a divorce. But can he go through with his plan or will he decide on a different angle? And how do his actions affect Lisa and Victor? I cannot say I liked the characters in this play: they all seemed so selfish, with nearly everyone having their own reasons for wanting this that or the other to happen and trying to make it so. But then I got to thinking that most people are like that in real life, just not quite so openly as here. I was caught completely off guard by the dramatic ending of this play, and I can imagine what a surprise it would be in a live performance. I was so engrossed in the action by then that I had never considered the move which made perfect sense to Fedya. So now I can say I have read a play by Tolstoy, and I am certainly looking forward to the others that are available on Gutenberg.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-12-22 00:00:00 Diego Coronel نقد طلاق در مسحیت.