'The Power of Darkness' is a play by Leo Tolstoy. It was written in 1886 and forbidden to be produced until 1902, but like a lot of other banned things, it found a way to be seen and read.

The play centers around a well-off peasant in poor health. Questions about what happens to his farm and family when he is gone are discussed. There is also family to marry off, and many dark secrets.

The characters are well rounded and the whole thing feels like a real discussion. I found it interesting, but still a bit dry. That could be because it is a play manuscript and not a narrative.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Dover Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

I wouldn't have imagined Tolstoy as a playwright but I should not have been surprised at his ability to continue to astonish and amaze me. There is something so unparalleled about the way he writes. He is able to transcribe the language of the soul into sentences that completely resonate with his readers. The fact that this play banned in Russia until 1902 makes it even more magical to hold in my hands. Tolstoy is able a special narrator of whatever story he crafts, he is able to shifts us back in time and truly live through the events, periods and people he writes about. The Power of Darkness is truly a must-read.

Tolstoy is not usually thought of as a playwright, but he did in fact write some plays and this 5-act drama is one of his better known. It was banned for many years. Written in 1886 it had to wait until 1902 to be performed, although there were some unofficial productions before that and it was widely read. I have a sneaking sympathy for the censor because it’s certainly a dark and shocking play. For all his avowed sympathy for the peasants and their place as the “true” representatives of Russia, here Tolstoy doesn’t shrink from portraying the sordid aspects of depraved peasant life. Poverty, drunkenness, adultery, murder and infanticide. Not a redeeming feature in sight. Ignorance and superstition, greed and violence are the downfall of the family depicted in this short, powerful and disturbing play.

📚I received an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review📚

"One sin holds on to another and pulls you along. Nikita, you are stuck in sins. You are stuck, I see, in sins. You are stuck fast, so to speak. I have heard that nowadays they pull fathers' beards, so to speak -- but this leads only to ruin, to ruin, so to speak.... There is your money. I will go and beg, so to speak, but I will not, so to speak, take your money.... Let me go! I will not stay! I would rather sleep near the fence than in your nastiness."
-Akim to Nikita

Such a story eh and it evokes my emotion as the reader. I have to praise Tolstoy for being able and being so brilliant in portraying his characters. They seem so real and alive! As a conclusion remarks I just want to highlight that The Power of Darkness is a terrible picture of poverty, ignorance and superstition. It takes a great writer to write this kind of story because it requires a deeply sympathetic human soul. Tolstoy possessed both because he excelled in writing them and wrapped them in this story. He understood that the tragedy of the peasants' life is because an oppression or viciousness of such mechanism that he allegorised as the power of darkness. A book that ones should try to read...at least once in their life time.

Full Review: https://literatureisliving.wordpress.com/2019/01/13/the-power-of-darkness-by-leo-tolstoy/

An all-absorbing drama that begins like a soap opera and suddenly becomes as real as a Greek Tragedy. The pacing is almost frantic, hurling the reader into an abyss of degradation and Dante-esque results. The Power of Darkness belongs in the annals alongside the family and community tragedies of Ibsen, Miller, and O’Neill. A true classic.