The Forged Coupon, Leo Tolstoy
The Forged Coupon, Leo Tolstoy
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The Forged Coupon

Author: Leo Tolstoy

Narrator: Michael Ward

Unabridged: 2 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/06/2019

Categories: Fiction, Classic, Drama

Synopsis

When a troubled schoolboy forges a cash coupon to pay off a debt, his deed starts off a chain reaction of tragedies that effects the lives of dozens, leading to thefts, imprisonments, murders, and in the end redemption. Originally published posthumously, this was one of the last works of Tolstoy, now excommunicated and raging against the hypocrisies of the Russian state and church.

Narrated by Michael Ward

About Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 at Yasnaya Polyana in central Russia and educated privately. He studied Oriental languages and law at the University of Kazan, then led a life of dissipation until 1851, when he went to the Caucasus and joined an artillery regiment. He took part in the Crimean War, and on the basis of this experience wrote The Sevastopol Stories, which confirmed his tenuous reputation as a writer.

After a period in St. Petersburg and abroad, where he studied educational methods for use in his school for peasant children at Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy married Sofya Behrs in 1862. The next fifteen years was a period of great happiness: the couple had thirteen children, and Tolstoy managed his estates, continued his educational projects, and wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

A Confession marked a spiritual crisis in Tolstoy's life; he became an extreme moralist, and in a series of pamphlets written after 1880, he expressed his rejection of state and church, indictment of the weaknesses of the flesh, and denunciation of private property. He published his last novel, Resurrection, in 1900.

Tolstoy's teaching earned him many followers at home and abroad, but also much opposition, and in 1901 he was excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church. He died in 1910.

Reviews

Goodreads review by B. P. on December 23, 2017

My last review of the year, just in time for Christmas! I had to make it Tolstoy. I read this novella chiefly because it (part 1 to be exact) is the basis for the movie L'Argent that I planned to watch, it is also a Tolstoyian moral tale, which always goes well with Christmas/Easter. Also this story......more

Goodreads review by Viv on December 05, 2016

Of all the Tolstoy short stories/novellas in the collection I have read, this is one of my favourites. It begins when a hard up student uses a forged coupon to pay for goods in a shop. This begins a cascade of deceptions and wrongdoings, affecting more and more people, and leading to ever more heino......more

Goodreads review by Gabrielė on May 22, 2024

I'm neither disappointed nor satisfied. Although the novel is engaging and portrays subtle criticism of 19th-century Russian society, I can't say I loved it. I didn't indulge; I only finished what I started. Something isn't right when reading resembles a tolerable responsibility instead of an exciti......more

Goodreads review by Sara on February 23, 2018

"تربيتُ عَلى أنَ السمواتِ تُفتَح وقتَ المطر، فَصليتُ وكان اللهُ يستجيب، كَبِرتُ وقرأت، فعرِفتُ أن المطرَ ما هو إلا سحابٍ مُتَكثِف، وأنَ السَمَوات لا تُفتَح، مُجرد طَبقة لا تصِل حَتى للفضاءِ الخارجي، فأصبحَت صلاتي هزيلة ومهتزة، وأصبَحَت الإستجابةَ ضعيفةٍ لأن الصلاةَ فَقدت الإيمان، يَومِها فَقَط أدركت......more

Goodreads review by Graham “Smell the Ink” on May 31, 2024

How such an event of a forgery has a dramatic effect on others and the subsequent chain of events is definitely thought provoking for any actions that we undertake. Tolstoy as a master at getting his point across and this short Novella packs a punch. There are many different Characters here from dif......more

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