Product Description

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) commonly referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer - novelist, essayist, dramatist and philosopher - as well as pacifist Christian anarchist and educational reformer. He was the most influential member of the aristocratic Tolstoy family. His first publications were three autobiographical novels, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852-1856). They tell of a rich landowner's son and his slow realization of the differences between him and his peasants. As a fiction writer Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all novelists, particularly noted for his masterpieces War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). In their scope, breadth and realistic depiction of 19th-century Russian life, the two books stand at the peak of realist fiction. As a moral philosopher Tolstoy was notable for his ideas on nonviolent resistance through works such as The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1266909 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 168 pages

Review
“[Tolstoy is the] greatest of all novelists.” —Virginia Woolf

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian

From the Back Cover
“[Tolstoy is the] greatest of all novelists.” —Virginia Woolf

Customer Reviews

Between a rock and a hard place
This is the partially fictionalized account of the last days of Hadji Murad, a renowned and feared Chechen -more precisely, Avar- warrior in 1851-52. Feared by the ruthless Imam Shamil, ruler of Chechens and other Caucasians, Murad is forced to defect yet again to the Russians, who recieve him warmly but suspiciously (he has switched sides before). Murad keeps telling the Russians he won't be of much help unless they support him in getting his family safe and back from the cruel Shamil. Some of them incline to do so, but others fear he might be just spying on them. The action drags on, with no resolution arrived at, until Murad makes his final dash.

As literature, the story is incredibly well written; as background information on the origins of the still-going-on Chechen war, it is priceless. Tolstoi show here his very literary genius: in only 125 pages, he conveys a portrait of many characters, each and every one with his/her own full personality. It is marvelous how Tolstoi can give a whole personality to even the minor characters in a short work.

The depictions of landscapes and circumstances are also masterful, and you can really feel the cold wind and see the wooded mountains of that magnetic and troublesome corner, neither fully European nor Asian.

It is, then, the story of a real man who got caught between the despised Russians and the murderous Chechen leader, really a tragic figure in the sense that he has to make decisiones in front of certain death for him and for his family, whom he deeply loves. Great literature tends to be that which posts credible and appealing characters in limit-situations, and this is clearly one of the best. Refreshing to read an action-packed, well-written, historically interesting story with compelling characters.

An excellent story.
Even though this was published shortly after Tolstoy's death in 1910 and with the Chechen war still raging today it is easy to imagine the events that unfold before Hadji Murad occurring recently. Tolstoy's flavorful writing is such that you can almost smell the smoke of the cigarettes and burning wood from the forts and aouls. I will not go over what this book is about since so many other reviews have already done a fine job, but one thing I would like to mention is the excellent introduction by Azar Nafisi. Azar Nafisi, the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, outlines and provides a compact analysis of Hadji Murad as well as some historical information. It is worth reading the introduction before AND after you finish Hadji Murad.

"War? War, indeed!...Cutthroats and nothing else!" HM, 118
Tolstoy's brilliant but quiet and cold-eyed satire of war-makers, both Russian and Chechen, from the lordly heights of the Tsar's Winter Palace to the scattered villages of Muslim fighters at the Caucasian edge of empire, and all players between. A "war story," yes, but in a league with For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Naked and the Dead, The Things They Carried, all of which it surpasses I think. Hard to convey the power of this little book. Much is in the structure: 25 chapters in 125 pages, the action alternating between the Russian and the Chechen sides, and from one place to another within each side, this alternation itself effecting a kind of commentary on the plot. (The brief, parallel glimpses of the Russian and Chechen homefronts in chapters 8 and 17, which show how differently, but how horribly in both cases, the war is brought home, are especially keen.) Also a meditation on the nature of true heroism, and on what it means to live one's life with a true awareness of death, of which attitude the title character, Hadji Murad, becomes the doomed and blessed embodiment. Perhaps not (pace Bloom) the greatest single narrative in the Western canon, but Perfect, in its own formidable terms.