Hadji Murad - Softcover

Tolstoy, Leo; Maude, Aylmer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0914061542 ISBN 13: 9780914061540

Publisher: Orchises Pr, 1996

Synopsis

Tolstoy's novella blends fiction and historical fact to portray a legendary Avar chieftain who switched sides in the nineteenth-century Russo-Caucasian war. Inspired by the author's military service, Hadji Murád offers riveting views of warfare and treason, murder and vengeance, and behind-the-scenes political plotting. An uncharacteristically brief story by the creator of War and Peace, it voices Tolstoy's pacifist beliefs. 
This novella also provides a compelling depiction of the Caucasus, a mountainous territory between the Black Sea and the Caspian, prized for its strategic location and natural resources. Located at the crossroads of three empires — Turkey, Persia, and Russia — the region has long struggled with incursions by its neighbors and remains a troubled corner of the world to this day. Tolstoy's realistic pictures of life in a war zone raise enduringly relevant issues of life and death.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

In 1851 Leo Tolstoy enlisted in the Russian army and was sent to the Caucasus to help defeat the Chechens. During this war a great Avar chieftain, Hadji Murad, broke with the Chechen leader Shamil and fled to the Russians for safety. Months later, while attempting to rescue his family from Shamil's prison, Hadji Murad was pursued by those he had betrayed and, after fighting the most heroic battle of his life, was killed.
Tolstoy, witness to many of the events leading to Hadji Murad's death, set down this story with painstaking accuracy to preserve for future generations the horror, nobility, and destruction inherent in war.

From the Back Cover:

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

About this edition

• Publisher: Orchises Pr
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0914061542
• ISBN 13: 9780914061540
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 128