Not abstinence before marriage: abstinence period. What did he think was the solution to this hypersexual conflict between men and women, a conflict that spills over too often into violent rage? Abstinence. What's most peculiar, though, is Tolstoy's afterword, included here. Everything seems to arouse him, either to rage or sexual passion: the rocking motion of a train, the 'artificial' climax of a piece of music (Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata most specifically). His monologue alternates between suprisingly modern-sounding observations on human sexuality and a prudish disgust with what, to him, seems more like a meat market than an elegant society. Only when he sees her, a few days later, lying dead in the coffin does he realize the enormity of what he's done. Was his wife really having an affair with a musician? It doesn't look good, but it's ambiguous he doesn't actually catch them in the act, but he satisfies himself that he has enough evidence to plunge a dagger into her side.

Jonathan Oliver narrates the story well, but it's a tough listen, and the little bit I've read about its publication history makes it sound like it was a tough read from the beginning. He tells his story in the first person, to a fellow-traveller in a railway carriage: he killed his wife in a fit of jealous rage and was acquitted because it was a crime of passion. His main character is a bitter, violent man filled with morbid jealousy and analyzing every action and motive with a stifling level of self-consciousness. In 'The Kreutzer Sonata,' Tolstoy seems to be wanting to go Dostoevsky one better.

The kreutzer sonata by leo tolstoy