"As one needs nothing oneself, why not live for others?": Olenin's epiphany

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	• The Cossacks (Modern Library Classics) Leo Tolstoy Modern Library, 2006 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 8 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good Introduction to Tolstoy

This is a good first read of Tolstoy's material. It is not nearly as long as _War and Peace_, but is still a good first exposure to the great works of Leo Tolstoy.

Wonderful tale

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.

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Excellent But A Bit Slow to Start: A Pivotal Work for Tolstoy

Tolstoy is recognized as one of the leading writer of novels, and he was a leading Russian writer of the 19th century. He wrote three monumental works including War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and the novella The Death of Ivan Ilych." Two were written by Tolstoy at his peak around 1865 to 1980, and Ilych was written in 1886 before Tolstoy started to lose his interest in fiction.

Based on his younger days as a soldier, he wrote four novels or novellas: The Raid (1835), Wood-Felling (1855), The Cossacks (1863), and the last was Hadji Murat, written between 1896 to 1904.

The Cossacks was written just before Tolstoy's peak as a fictional writer or artist, and the writing is acknowledged as an important work for Tolstoy and an important work of Western literature, marking the rise of an important new writer.

The story is about a young and wealthy Russian nobleman, Olenin, who joins the army as an officer cadet and goes to the Caucasus, leaving Moscow life behind. In this story Tolstoy explores the universal theme of a young man falling in love with a woman of a different cultural background. The young woman is called Marianka, and the mystery of the story is will the relationship develop? Will they get married and will he settle in the Caucasus. Will Marianka and her family accept him, or is he simply a short term novelty in the community?

Olenin, who is an army officer, lives in a Cossack community with a Cossack family. He spends a lot of his spare time hunting in the local woods, having discussions with the natives, going to parties with the natives, drinking, etc. It gives Tolstoy the framework to explore his well known themes: "man, society, and nature." The novel contains many beautiful descriptions of the forests and the plants and animals, along with descriptions of the native people and their social customs.

This is an excellent novel. It has some good characters and they display a range of emotions. The first third of the novel is a bit slow and contains many non-fictional comments on the Caucasus, but then as the story develops, the reading becomes much more compelling and the element of drama increases. This is a good novel but it is far less complex and shorter than Anna Karenina.

The Penguin version comes with two other stories: "The Sevastopol Sketches" and "Hadji Murat." I was somewhat neutral about the last story - although it is based on real events - because it lacks a strong central protagonist. Because of that weakness, I preferred the more complex novel, The Cossacks, which has the strong character Olenin.

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A real find

Here's a book that not many people know about which should be read by all. It was really just what I needed to read, having just dropped out of university myself. Also, does anyone else think that this book must have greatly influenced Hemingway? It sounds just like him, and he says in A Moveable Feast that he was reading lots of Russian stuff at the start of his career. I realize it might just be that the translator liked Hemingway, but even so it's amazing how much it ends up reading like one of his novels and is so unlike the rest of Tolstoy.

"As one needs nothing oneself, why not live for others?": Olenin's epiphany

In the middle of _The Cossacks_, Dmitri Olenin, a young Russian cadet reflects joyfully, "Happiness is to live for others. How clear it is!," while being mercilessly bitten by mosquitos during a deer hunt. Despite the fact that his "whole body [is] consumed by a consuming itch," Olenin revels in the beauties of bountiful nature. It is almost as if he gives himself up to the mosquitos, whom he imagines are yelling out to each other, "Over here, boys! Here's someone we can devour!" Tolstoy develops the scene with such skill. We see Olenin's joy quickly turn into confusion and mortal terror.

Leo Tolstoy's _The Cossacks_ (begun in 1852 and published in 1862) is about a young aristocrat's quest for happiness and his uncertainty about what will make him happy--whether a life given up to the senses or a life devoted to others. The novel begins with a late night discussion in a Moscow alehouse about Olenin's relationship with a wealthy Moscow woman whom he is about to abandon. One of his friends responds, "You have not yet loved, and you don't know what love is!" Dmitri bids his friends adieu and sets out by carriage for a military assignment in the faraway Caucasus to start life anew and to find out what love means (ironically, while serving as a military cadet in a war).

The novel contrasts Dmitri Olenin with Lukashka the Snatcher, a young fearless Cossack soldier admired by everyone in his village. While Dmitri's life lacks purpose and direction, Lukashka is driven to become an ideal Cossack warrior. Lukashka is a carouser who is a brave fighter. Dmitri envies Lukashka's life and, in particular, the defined Cossack traditions to which Lukashka devotes himself.

In an incredible early scene, Tolstoy introduces Lukashka on duty at a military look-out point that protects the Cossack village from Chechen "marauders." The tension of the scene and the philosophical undertones also reminded me immediately of Hemingway--as another reviewer commented. In a brilliant transition, Tolstoy revisits this scene later in the novel as seen through Olenin's eyes.

The novel, while mythic in its discussions of love and youthful idealism, takes place in a background of ethnic conflict and suspicion. The Russian troops are quartered in a Cossack village, and the Russians, Cossacks, and Chechens are all in conflict, either in outright war or deep distrust. One of the most endearing characters of the novel, Uncle Eroksha, a rogish seventy year old villager and hunter, suggests the pointlessness of all this division. Uncle Eroksha, who is "a blood brother to all," maintains that "Everyone has his own rules. But if you ask me, it's all the same."

For the contemporary reader, the book also offers some historical context to the current conflict in Chechnia, between the Chechens and the Russians. Cynthia Ozick's introduction provides useful historical background information and challenges Tolstoy's romanticized depiction of Cossack society. Ozick discusses a history of ethnic cleansing in the region that goes back many centuries. The fierce pride in culture and clan often has dangerous effects, a subject that Tolstoy does not really address.

The novel is steeped in sensuous passages, of nature, war, and physical attraction, which are unforgettable. Over the course of the novel, Dmitri becomes obsessed with a Cossack peasant woman named Maryanka. The passages describing his infatuation are intense. The narrator describes Dmitri's first long look at Maryanka as follows: "With the quick and hungry curiosity of youth, he noticed despite himself the strong virginal lines that stood out beneath the thin calico smock, and her beautiful eyes were fixed on him with childish terror and wild curiousity." This gives a taste of the vividness of Tolstoy's writing and the wonderful skill of the translator, Peter Constantine.

This is a truly excellent novel. I agree with the reviewer who says that it is a great novel to introduce Tolstoy to new readers since it is short and accessible. I would recommend this edition in particular because the translation is great and Ozick's introduction is astute. Many of the major themes in Tolstoy's work are evident here, particularly the conflict between sensual and spiritual impulses.

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reviews: page 1, 2

This 1862 novel, in a vibrant new translation by Peter Constantine, is Tolstoy?s semiautobiographical story of young Olenin, a wealthy, disaffected Muscovite who joins the Russian army and travels to the untamed frontier of the Caucasus in search of a more authentic life. While striving to adopt the rough and ready lifestyle of the local Cossacks, Olenin falls in love with a free-spirited girl whose fiancé turns out to be a formidable opponent. Showcasing the philosophical insight that would characterize Tolstoy?s later masterpieces, this long overdue translation is a revelation.

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