Hadji Murad (Modern Library Classics)
by Leo Tolstoy
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 244)
Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
People who are interested in the clash of differing cultures
This is an amazing story; it's took me forever because I read it in Russian (with the help of the English translation). Tolstoy shows how the events effect every aspect of society, the Tsar, Chechens, officers and peasants.
My favorite parts are the ones that follow Tsar Nikolai Pavlovich. The way Tolstoy describes his rule mirrors in many ways the horrific and ignorant ways of the Bush administration. This is my favorite passage so far, it's just teeming with beautiful sarcasm:
"God,...more
My favorite parts are the ones that follow Tsar Nikolai Pavlovich. The way Tolstoy describes his rule mirrors in many ways the horrific and ignorant ways of the Bush administration. This is my favorite passage so far, it's just teeming with beautiful sarcasm:
"God,...more
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Read in March, 2008
When considering Tolstoy it is hard to think beyond the long form, the novels that make his general reputation today such as War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Hadji Murat is from the other side of the spectrum, an astonishing piece of short fiction, a form that Tolstoy was also a master of. Hadji Murat was the last fiction that Tolstoy wrote and it was not published in his lifetime. In the Hesperus edition it runs to 123 pages but within those pages Tolstoy captures a world and the soul of a man....more
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Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
fans of Tolstoy
A fictionalized account of a real event that occurred during the Russian/Chechen conflict in the Caucasus in the late 1800's. Hadji Murad was a great chieftain, both feared and revered. He breaks with the Chechen leader, and attempts to negotiate with the Russians for assistance to rescue his family. As the political events play out, he is unable to trust either side, and is killed in a final battle.
This book may initially be more difficult for many to appreciate than Anna Karenina or Res...more
This book may initially be more difficult for many to appreciate than Anna Karenina or Res...more
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Read in April, 2008
Published posthumously, Hadji Murad in some ways is a fascinating bookend to The Cossacks, one of Tolstoy's early novels. Both are set in the Caucasus, Russia's imperial frontier and home to various ethnic groups hostile to Russian rule. But while The Cossacks takes the view of a young, naive Russian officer living among ethnic Russian settlers, Hadji Murad tells the story of a Chechen rebel leader caught between fellow Chechens who want to kill him in a power struggl...more
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Read in October, 2005
Fortunately, Hadji Murat is a fraction of the size of 'War & Peace' or 'Anna Karenina' but despite the brevity it propels Tolstoy to the foreground of my literary perspective.
Hadji Murat chronicles the life of the eponymous hero who came to personify the resistance of the Caucasus to Russian imperialism. The work was published posthumously and reflects an anger and disillusionment with Czarism that perhaps explains why Tolstoy chose not to make the manuscript public.
What follows is ...more
Hadji Murat chronicles the life of the eponymous hero who came to personify the resistance of the Caucasus to Russian imperialism. The work was published posthumously and reflects an anger and disillusionment with Czarism that perhaps explains why Tolstoy chose not to make the manuscript public.
What follows is ...more
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Read in April, 2008
Other than the title character, the other dudes didn't really come to life for me, other than a red-haired orge of a henchman who soon after disappeared. The last few pages are worth the trip though, as visceral and vivid as anything, but the other 130 or so, for the most part and compared to LT's other fiction, just didn't really do it for me, though they apparently did do it for Harold Bloom and other critics. Maybe I missed something entirely. Entirely possible. Maybe I had trouble following ...more
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Read in June, 2008
I read this book out of curiosity (Harold Bloom, in his Western Canon, said of it, "my personal touchstone for the sublime of prose fiction, to me the best story in the world, or at least the best I have ever read." It didn't quite reach that pinnacle for me, but the writing was fine, very pure and distilled. The simple story of a brave man caught between his Russian oppressors (Tsar Nicholas) and Muslim religious fanatics and who has, as the intro says, only the freedom to die heroica...more
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Read in May, 2007
Great short novel by Leo Tolstoy and a breeze to read compared to "War and Peace" (not that I ever read "War and Peace" except for maybe the first 75 pages or so). Harold Bloom described it as "The greatest work of Literature in History" or something like that, but I thought it was quite good anyway. It is the story of a Muslim who is a separatist guerilla, who then falls out with his own commander and eventually sides with the Russians in hope of saving his famil...more
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Read in June, 2007
Not Tolstoy's best short work, in my opinion, but it was certainly a unique portrayal of a man whose sole duty is to his own interests and freedom, and of the incapatibility of that with the world. Neither the Chechens nor the Russians are portrayed positively in this book, and one can certainly sense Tolstoy's pacific philosophy at work in the narration. It is also provides a unique insight into the lesser known way of life of the Chechens, among whom Tolstoy served while in the Russian army.
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recommended to Henry by:
My stepdad
recommends it for: anyone
recommends it for: anyone
I have read and re-read this book since I was 13. It is an amazingly enduring story, about a Chechen Muslim who fights against the Russians but becomes the target of his own superiors. As a novella, it swings across tsarist Russia, writing about Muslim rebels and the czar himself. Tolstoy combines the story, which is quite exciting, with his usual touches of realistic detail and characterization. It reads very fast and best of all is based on a true story.
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Read in January, 2006
recommends it for:
Russian war book fans
If you can get past the sexism (the multiple wives, the way in which women are treated during this period in Russian history), I suppose the story of Hadji Murad, who actually lived and died during the Chechen-Russian war in the 1850s, is somewhat interesting. To me, however, there are far more persuasive anti-war tales with superior stories and more likeable characters. Gets only two stars from me.
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Buku ini memberikan cerita lain tentang Islam, heroisme dan romantik. Terlepas dari kebenaran fakta secara detail, aku bisa hanyut dalam buku ini.
Yang kubaca adalah versi terjemahannya..
Sementara ini itu dulu, nanti setelah kubaca ulang..aku akan coba mencatat beberapa hal yang patut di share..
Yang kubaca adalah versi terjemahannya..
Sementara ini itu dulu, nanti setelah kubaca ulang..aku akan coba mencatat beberapa hal yang patut di share..
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Read in April, 2008
Tolstoy's last "novel" is an epic in under 200 pages. While initially I thought Tolstoy's previous moral absolutes were not present in Hadji Murat, I am currently doubting this idea. There is definitely the same indictment of superficiality and interactions that take place for egocentric reasons.
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Read in January, 2006
If you have any doubt that history repeats itself, or that change comes slowly, read this tale of Muslim rebels in the neighborhood of today's Chechnya, struggling against the Russian empire of the 19th Century. Sound familiar? One of Tolstoy's last works, and a great one.
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A hero’s myth and a trenchant satire of war with a great caste of characters and lean, cinematic writing (ironically I doubt Tolstoy ever saw a movie…slim chance though I guess it's possible).
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Want some insight into the conflict in Chechnya? Read this enthralling short novel (150 pg) written about experiences Tolstoy had there in 1851.
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recommends it for:
sabeel
Two brief books one wishes the right people had read at the right time: "Hadji Murad" and "The Quiet American." Both novels are nearly perfect.
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I loved this book and want to read up more on the history of the Russian-Chechen conflict before writing more about it.
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سال ها پیش با نام "سرگذشت حاجی مراد" توسط عبدالله بهرامی ترجمه شده
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Read in January, 2008
The beauty of the shape of Tolstoy stories breaks one's heart. When Avdeev the soldier dies, the reader crumbles.
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