Our Notes & References

The first edition of the play “The Power of Darkness”, which was forbidden by the tsarist censorship for the stage until 1895. The only play by Tolstoy in Lesman’s great literature collection.

The play was based on the criminal case of a peasant from the Tula province, Efrem Koloskov, whom Tolstoy visited in prison. According to the materials of the criminal case, considered in the Tula district court, Koloskov was convicted for the murder of the baby whom he had from his own stepdaughter. Alexander III, after hearing the play being read for the Royal family, called it “A marvellous piece!”. In 1888, before the play was staged in Russia, it appeared in major European theatres, including “Theatre libre” in Paris, under the title “La Puissance des Tenebres”. The social focus of the play links it to the exploration of working classes by Hugo and Zola, the writers Tolstoy greatly admired.

Provenance

‘Pomerantsev’ (owner’s ink stamp to flyleaf and title); Robert Eden Martin (b. 1940; American lawyer and noted collector of Russian, British and American literature works).

Bibliography

Lesman 2252.