Path Forward Book Club: Family Happiness

Here is the text for Leo Tolstoy's "Family Happiness." It's a short story. And when it comes to NPD, excerpts from "War and Peace" as well as "Anna Karenina" would be suitable.

"Family Happiness" has LOTS of elements that speak to our experience.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/36340538/Family-Happiness-by-Leo-Tolstoy/

In Sergey's presence, the main character feels more like a daughter than an equal. She remembers her future husband making toys for her when she was a child. Early on, he makes a point of making her feel inferior to him.

At one point, the young wife thinks "is it a husband's right to humiliate&insult his innocent wife?" Tolstoy seems to think it's implicitly right to do so.

The story was inspired by an incident in Tolstoy's life. He was the guardian of a younger female ward. *SHE* rejected him because she found him too controlling. As some have commented, "Tolstoy's formula for family happiness made for an unhappy Mrs. Tolstoy."

This story is a tearjerker. And it does show the NPD in Sergey's case.