"The Live Corpse" by Leo Tolstoy is a play written around 1900. Fedor Protasov believes his wife never truly chose him over another suitor, driving him to abandon his life and fall into despair. When his wife remarries, believing him dead, Protasov's reappearance triggers a bigamy charge that forces an impossible choice. This unfinished work explores guilt, escape, and the devastating consequences of self-destruction. First performed in 1911 after Tolstoy's death, it became an immediate success worldwide. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
These books are free to read. Each is in the public domain in the United States; check your own country's rules before you copy or share one.
