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The Cossacks and Other Stories (Penguin Classics) |  | Author: Leo Tolstoy
Creators: David McDuff, Paul Foote
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
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Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 370329
Media: Paperback
Pages: 480
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0140449590
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780140449594
ASIN: 0140449590
Publication Date: January 19, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Tolstoys powerful semiautobiographical stories based on his time spent in the Russian armythe latest in our series of fresh new Tolstoy translations
In 1851, at the age of twenty-two, Tolstoy joined the Russian army. The four years he spent as a soldier were among the most significant in his life and inspired the tales collected here. In "The Cossacks," Tolstoy tells the story of Olenin, a cultured Russian whose experiences among the Cossack warriors of Central Asia leave him searching for a more authentic life. "The Sevastopol Sketches" bring into stark relief the realities of military life during the Crimean War. And "Hadji Murat" paints a portrait of a great leader torn apart by divided loyalties. In writing about individuals and societies in conflict, Tolstoy has penned some of the most brilliant stories about the nature of war.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
 Three Excellent pieces of fiction by the Russian master Tolstoy will bring you hours of reading pleasure October 16, 2009
C. M Mills (Knoxville Tennessee)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) is one of the world's greatest novelist producing such classics as "War and Peace"; "Anna Karenina" and "Resurrection." He was also a master of the novella and short story. Penguin has collected three of these shorter works in a handsomely published new paperback.
The stories are:
The Cossacks: In this semi-autobiographical story a young Moscow nobleman joins the army. He is posted to the distant Caucasus where he becomes friends with people living in a Cossack village. He is infatuated with a Cossack beauty and is involved in a romantic triangle. Olenin meets and befriends an old Cossack who imparts wisdom and the customs of his people to Olenin. The story is filled with information on the customs and lifestyles of the Cossacks. It also includes beautiful descriptions of nature and ponderings on life by Olenin. The Cossacks of Tsarist Russia were a strong,proud and fierce people who loved to drink, love and fight across the vast stretches of the steppes. When Olenin leaves the Cossacks he has grown in maturity.
Sevastopol Sketches is a story concerning the siege of that Crimean City by the French, English and Turks during the Crimean War of the 1850s. Tolstoy was himself present during the siege. The Russians were defeated. We experience in these pages the experience of bombardment, instant death from shells and see the horrific condition of the wounded. The lives and deaths of two brothers are described. This story provides excitement and shows Tolstoy's ability to draw characters and scenes with superb skill. There are three sketches which show us what it is like to be in a beseiged city during war. Tolstoy became a pacificist. This short work shows us the horror of warfare.
Hadji Murat is a tragic tale of a proud Chechen warrior who switches sides to fight with the Russians. In a classic chapter Tolstoy paints the Court of Nicholas I the cruel Czar of all the Russias. Hadji Murat is a man torn by political loyalties. He was a historical character.
Tolstoy wrote in a clear style easy to comphrehend. You will never forget these short works of fiction. Enjoy the words put on paper by a great author!
 Disappointing August 4, 2009
Mad Dog (Texas)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I love War&Peace, Anna Karenina and Tolstoy's non-fiction. This is my 3rd Tolstoy fiction and it just didn't work for me. There is a great setup, culminating with the main character's epiphany ("I have all I need so I'll dedicate myself to doing good for others") in the forest. After the epiphany, I was looking forward to something akin to Dostoevsky's 'The Idiot', with many of the lives of the Cossacks intermingling with the main character(Olenin). But Olenin does very little 'good', and a decent portion of the rest of the book is dedicated to the brooding of the main character over a neighboring peasant girl. I think for one to get much enjoyment out of this book, one would need to find this 'love story' (between Olenin and the peasant girl) to be interesting. It was boring to me.
The other main theme (that is not the 'love story') is the rich and cultured outsider(Olenin) living among the Cossack peasants. I found this theme to be interesting, but underdeveloped. It would have been more interesting if Olenin had interacted more with the peasants. I think one of Tolstoy's 'points' is that the interaction was too difficult, but that is a 'point' that doesn't pique my interest.
I guess this is a strange reference, but I found this book to be similar to We Can Build You by Philip K. Dick. Both books are by great authors, have great setups, but 'end up' spending a lot of time on a 'love story' that I found to be uninteresting.
High adventure and a cultural dilemma (book details) July 20, 2009
Patrick W. Crabtree (Lucasville, OH USA)
Originally published in 1863, this is one of Tolstoy's earlier novels, written prior to his two blockbusters War and Peace (Vintage Classics) (1865-1869) and Anna Karenina (Penguin Classics) (1875-1877).
I am reviewing here the "Everyman's Library" hardcover edition which I highly recommend, (published 1994). It's printed in a nice classic typeface on acid-free paper and the sturdy binding (dark burgundy in color) is of a full cloth, sewn-in type. This edition comes with an eye-catching dust jacket which looks attractive on the bookshelf.
The story: A carefree young nobleman, Dmitri (Mitya) Andreich Olenin, forsakes a dynamic Moscow for life in the wilds of the northern Caucasus Mountains where he seeks adventure as a military officer trainee. Once there, he encounters a Cossack mentor of sorts ("Daddy" Eroshka) and a worthy comrade in arms, Lukashka Gavrilov. He also eventually falls in love with Lukashka's betrothed, Maryanka, a tough-spirited gal who is the jewel of her Cossack village.
The exploit revolves around the Russian military tenoned in an uneasy alliance with the Cossacks, engaging in guerilla encounters against the Chechens during this mid-19th Century war of sorts. Lukashka kills a Chechen ("abrek") as the latter attempts to sneak across the Terek River, an incident which notably advances the Cossack's ranking among his fellow villagers. It is also this singular killing which becomes a central reference in the story.
Meanwhile, Olenin becomes emotionally caught up in the romance of life as a Cossack, a culture which manifests the very antithesis of his previous existence - Olenin is a bit of a Walter Mitty. He sees the Cossacks' intimate connections with the natural world and the routines of their simple lives as far superior in quality to his former urban, opulent way of life amongst his noble peers -- still, during his stay in the squalor of the Cossack village, he makes oblivious use of the many rubles which he periodically receives from his serf-driven estates. Life for Olenin becomes more and more complex when he falls in love with Maryanka and he's forced to balance this actuality with his comradeship with her fiancé, Lukashka.
The wallpaper here, the raids on the Chechens throughout the desolate countryside, is more akin to the Appalachian-American Hatfield-McCoy Feud than it is to more traditional wartime encounters. And the relationships (or lack thereof) between the regular Russian soldiers and their Cossack allies clearly convey the fiercely independent nature of the latter.
This tale is one of high adventure more so than of romance, although the love theme does maintain a nicely subtle secondary presence. And while some would say that this book is a good first-reading of Tolstoy (because it's short, 178 pages), I would counsel otherwise. If you read this one subsequent to Tolstoy's later works, you'll find "The Cossacks" to be refreshing in its raw and straightforward conveyance of Tolstoy's clear early-period literary talent.
Since so many works of early Russian literature focus upon the lives of the country's nobility, it's nice that this one ferrets out the intricacies of some subordinate elements of the numerous Russian cultures... the Cossacks, the Chechens, etcetera. One might compare this book in many ways to Nicolai Lyeskov's [The] Enchanted Wanderer since the two stories are both: fictional accounts of adventure; dealing with multi-cultural Russia, and; the tale is simply "told" without the slightest apparent concern for any commercial success that they might generate later for the respective author. The big difference between the two books is that one is related from the perspective of a nobleman while the other is the paradigm of a poverty-stricken serf-monk.
The translators for this edition, Louise and Aylmer Maude, were much attuned to Tolstoy's lyrical meter, resulting in smooth consumption for readers of the English language.
In summary, "The Cossacks" is a terrific story coupled with a glimpse at day-to-day life within unique society of the Cossacks. Highly recommended!
Very fine March 26, 2009
Avid reader (USA)
The Cossacks is one of the finest short novels ever written. Do read it.
Wonderful tale September 16, 2008
Glenn Miller (Minneapolis, MN USA)
Tolstoy's short novel is as relevant today as it was 150 years ago when originally written. It is a 19th centure Romantic novel -- Romantic with a capital R, not lower case -- meaning that it follows the adventures of a soul who embraces the land and a simpler, more rural-based life. It is also a novel of romance, in which the protaganist becomes involved in a love triangle, with two men interested in the same woman. Olenin, fresh from the parties of the Moscow high life, renounces this former life style, and falls in love with the adventure of life in the Caucasus, as well as the beautiful woman who, in his mind, represents that style. His friend and rival, Lukashka, is one impediment to his winning over Maryanka, but it's far more complicated than one man. Olenin is a stranger from a strange land. Although he embraces the romantic version of the Cossack lifestyle, he cannot truly become a Cossack and that realization is, for Olenin, the true tragedy of this tale. Although this basically can be considered a Romantic novel, it defies the form by avoiding a happy ending. The history of the Russian-Caucasus conflicts does not allow for happily-ever-afters.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
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