Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District

Nikolai Leskov

Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, bored and unfulfilled in her merchant husband's household, begins a passionate affair with a laborer and commits a series of murders to protect and maintain the relationship. Leskov's 1865 novella was banned in the Soviet Union after Stalin attended and was infuriated by Shostakovich's 1934 opera adaptation; it was condemned in a 1936 Pravda editorial titled "Muddle Instead of Music."