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Welcome back to The Invisible College, my series of literature courses for paid subscribers. The introduction to and schedule for the 2025 season is here. The 2024 archive is here. This episode, the seventh in a sequence on modern western world literature, concerns three of Tolstoy’s short novels: The Death of Ivan Ilych, The Kreutzer Sonata, and Hadji Murad. I discuss many things but mostly my latter-day aversion to the Count. First 10 minutes are free, the following two-plus hours are for paid subscribers. Next week: we return to drama with Chekhov and Ibsen. Please like, share, comment, and subscribe! The slideshow corresponding to the episode can be downloaded behind the paywall: