The Live Corpse (written 1900, published posthumously 1911) was Tolstoy’s last play. A man trapped in a marriage he cannot legally leave fakes his own death to free his wife and himself — but the consequences ripple outward in unexpected and tragic ways. Based loosely on a real court case, the play critiques the hypocrisy of Russian legal and social institutions around marriage with the ferocity of Tolstoy’s later moral vision.
Performed successfully around the world in the early 20th century and revived periodically ever since, The Live Corpse is available as a free EPUB download in this public-domain edition.