The Cause of it All

Alcohol abuse is one of societies great levellers.It does not matter whether you are a prince or a peasant, when the demon drink controls you, you are the same.That is the message at the heart of Leo Tolstoy's 'The Cause of it All' - a warning against over-imbibing.It features Mihayla, the apparently respectable head of a rural Russian family.Then there is the vagrant who has been given shelter in their home for a night.Both get drunk, with Mihayla trying to bite his wife before the vagrant stops him.In the morning, the vagrant has gone - along with some of their belongings.Mihayla pursues him. But will this violent alcoholic choose revenge - or realise that they are both controlled by the same demon?It is a theme that has never - and probably will never - be outdated.The scourge of alcohol abuse features in Anne Bronte's 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall', Patricia Highsmith's 'Strangers on a Train' and 'Angela's Ashes' by Frank McCourt.