The Storm
by Alexander Ostrovsky

Name: The Storm
Brand: Alexander Ostrovsky
SKU: 9780571246687
Rating: 3.64 (3820 reviews)

Highlights

Russian

What readers are saying

Readers have mixed feelings about this play. While many praise its emotional depth and character development, some find the story bleak and unsatisfying. The portrayal of Katerina generates strong opinions, with some readers appreciating her complexity while others label her as hypocritical. Overall, it is recognized as a classic yet divisive work of Russian drama.

Emotional depth and complexityWell-written dialoguesEngaging charactersThought-provoking themesBleak and depressive endingDivisive character portrayal

Synopsis

One of Ostrovsky's most poetical works, The Storm is set in Kalinov, a provincial town on the banks of the Upper Volga.

Trapped in an unhappy marriage, Katerína is tormented by her widowed mother-in-law, Marfa Kabanova.

Katerína seeks solace in an affair with a similarly toermented young lover, and the confession of this affair to her husband leads ultimately to tragedy.

The Storm was a great success on its first performance the Maly Theatre, Moscow, in November 1859, and continues to be critically regarded as one of Ostrovsky's best plays.

It inspired Janácek's opera Katia Kabanova.