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The Power of Darkness

Leo Tolstoy

Peasant drama in five acts based on a real criminal case in Tula province. The labourer Nikita, seduced by his master's wife, is dragged from crime to crime — poisoning, adultery, infanticide — until he confesses publicly. Its subtitle is a proverb: "If a claw is caught, the bird is lost". Banned in Russia until 1895, it premiered at the Théâtre Libre in Paris in 1888.

Start readingAbout the book

English

Translated by Louise y Aylmer Maude · 41 chapters · 2 h reading

  1. 1The Power of Darkness1′
  2. 2CHARACTERS1′
  3. 3ACT I · 12′
  4. 4ACT I · 23′
  5. 5ACT I · 35′
  6. 6ACT I · 44′
  7. 7ACT I · 55′
  8. 8ACT I · 64′
  9. 9ACT I · 72′
  10. 10ACT I · 83′
  11. 11ACT I · 91′
  12. 12ACT II · 12′
  13. 13ACT II · 23′
  14. 14ACT II · 33′
  15. 15ACT II · 43′
  16. 16ACT II · 52′
  17. 17ACT II · 62′
  18. 18ACT II · 73′
  19. 19ACT II · 82′
  20. 20ACT III · 12′
  21. 21ACT III · 24′
  22. 22ACT III · 33′
  23. 23ACT III · 45′
  24. 24ACT III · 51′
  25. 25ACT III · 63′
  26. 26ACT III · 72′
  27. 27ACT III · 83′
  28. 28ACT III · 92′
  29. 29ACT IV · 14′
  30. 30ACT IV · 22′
  31. 31ACT IV · 33′
  32. 32ACT IV · 43′
  33. 33ACT IV · 53′
  34. 34VARIATION1′
  35. 35Scene 2. · 12′
  36. 36Scene 2. · 22′
  37. 37Scene 2. · 34′
  38. 38Scene 2. · 42′
  39. 39Scene 2. · 51′
  40. 40Scene 1.14′
  41. 41Scene 2.5′
The Power of Darkness by Leo Tolstoy — full text · The Conscious Library