"It does not matter much where you begin with him; you feel instantly that the man is mighty, and mighty through his conscience; that he is not trying to surprise or dazzle you with his art, but that he is trying to make you think clearly and feel rightly about vital things with which "art" has often dealt with diabolical indifference or diabolical malevolence." --William Dean Howells (Introduction to Sebastopol, 1887 edition)
I agree with W. D. Howells. Discovering Tolstoy has been one of the great joys in life for me. Tolstoy stirs the reader's moral sense without condescension, telling truths about human experience in a voice so powerful yet so personal and confiding. But I disagree with Howells on one point; It really does matter where one begins with Tolstoy. Instead of ripping right into the borscht-intensive main course that is War and Peace, there are several smaller but still rich and satisfying delicacies by Leo Tolstoy to graze upon.
My first taste of Tolstoy was the same book that introduced Howells to his work. The Cossacks (1863), is about a Russian socialite who, in an attempt to flee his from his social obligations (and a few outstanding gambling debts) to find meaning, joins the army and lives among the people in the Caucasus mountains at the beginning of the Crimean War. It was a revelation to me. Disarmed by the novel's enormous heart, I fell in love with it instantly. It is a novel that is sensitive, brutal and intensely personal in a way I hadn't encountered before in literature. When I was finished reading it, I felt a longing that I can't define. I felt so close to it that writing about it for the blog proved difficult. Only through reading have I been able to achieve such a heightened mental and emotional state. I was hooked and had to learn more.
In this series, we'll begin to explore Russian short stories with a look at two collections by Tolstoy written in the period between 1852 and 1859. I think modern readers will be pleasantly surprised by the tightness and even pacing of his prose. Though a towering giant in the world of literature, Tolstoy is very readable. Whatever knowledge of nineteenth century Russia you may lack will be answered by brief and helpful footnotes. The universality of the themes easily overshadows most of the historical and cultural particulars, and his compassionate voice draws our attention to haunting, uncomfortable truths about ourselves. Here are two very good places to start.
A Russian Proprietor and Other Stories (1888) by Leo Tolstoy
This volume collects some early short stories of the twentysomething Tolstoy. I know that I've warned readers of The Overleaf to avoid introductions in the past, but in this case, the preface by translator Nathan Haskell Dole is actually useful, giving us a few contextual clues without spoiling anything.
"A Russian Proprietor" is an unfinished novel that, as Dole points out, stands well on its own. It's the story of an idealistic young Russian landowner who drops out of college to manage his property and attend to his serfs' needs in the hopes of improving their lives. He soon discovers that his education and idealism have done little to prepare him for the reality of their conditions and temperament. The clash between his ideals and their reality makes for some awkward and often comic situations that force him to rethink his plans and to sort his altruistic intentions from his egotistic impulses. Dole tells us that these stories have many parallels with Tolstoy's own life, which explains much. The autobiographical character of his writing is perhaps what makes his words feel so intimate. One gets the sense that Tolstoy has learned many of the lessons in these stories for himself.
Breaking through social barriers in search of a genuine human connection is a theme shared by a few of these stories. "Lucerne" finds a well-to-do traveller at a Swiss resort, is irritated by the cold formality of English tourists and craves a real conversation with a real human being. He notices and befriends a street musician whose mere presence in the hotel drinking champagne causes a chain reaction of snobbery, from the rich hotel guests to the waiters and kitchen servants. In "Albert", an aristocratic man brings home a brilliant but troubled violinist from a party in the hopes of reforming him only to find that Albert is incapable of fitting in with his new friend's plans for him. "Three Deaths" tells of two consumptive people of different social classes who befall the same fate under markedly different circumstances. No spoiler from me on the third death, however.
There are two stories in which gambling and roguery figure prominently--subjects that Tolstoy knew of firsthand in his younger days. "Recollections of a Scorer" tells of a man's downfall from the perspective of a scorekeeper in a pool hall. In an almost naturalist narrative style (an extreme rarity for Tolstoy), the scorer relates without judgement a nobleman's pathetic demise and ruination from compulsive gambling.
"Two Hussars" is an engaging tale that contrasts two generations of cavalrymen. The elder Count Turbin, whose pleasing good looks, formidable dancing skills and penchant for wild times that costs him his life contrasts favorably with his more sensible but less remarkable son. It's interesting to see Tolstoy's developing style; The pacing of the first half is very effective, but the resolution in the second half is abrupt. One gets the feeling he's trying to apply various approaches to express the ideas in his head. Plenty of good stuff there, though.
"A Prisoner in the Caucasus" is an adventure story written for children about a Russian soldier who is captured and held for ransom by a group of Tartars. The simplicity of Tolstoy's prose and the quick-moving story can turn any willing reader into an eleven-year-old kid. A little violent by today's standards and the Tartars are certainly not treated as heroes, but a pretty gripping read.
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| The young soldier Leo Tolstoy in 1854 |
Sebastopol (1887) by Leo Tolstoy
Between 1853 and 1856, France and Britain waged war against Russia's Tsar Nicholas I, who attempted to salvage the bedraggled remains of the Ottoman Empire in an effort to control the Mediterranean Sea, the holy grail of European conquest and influence. Things did not go as planned. This book of three short stories gives us a view of the conflict from the point of view of Russian soldiers in the city of Sebastopol on the Black Sea in what is now the Ukraine where Tolstoy served in the army.
In the first piece, "Sebastopol in December, 1854", Tolstoy describes in vivid detail what he must have seen upon his arrival. We see a bubbling cauldron of human activity in the army encampment very close to the front lines, the piles of artillery, the horses, the tattered refugees trying to get passage away from the carnage by boat, and busy soldiers in transit. Tolstoy doesn't spare the reader the grim nightmare that is the makeshift hospital with its mutilated soldiers howling in dire agony, awaiting help as they lay on stretchers next to the corpses of their comrades. We see the town itself as soldiers and locals frequent restaurants and shops with the eerie pretense of normality. We hear the sound of gunfire and cannons of the fourth bastion where the fiercest fighting takes place. We see the trenches on the front lines where thousands of young men, full of courage and patriotism, met with their doom. The first of the three sketches is patriotic in tone, but underscored by chilling visions of the reality of war.
In "Sebastopol in May, 1855", we return to the battle scarred city and the tone changes from one of patriotism to one of disillusionment. Amidst the carnage, soldiers try to carry on with the business of warfare, focusing on their appointed jobs to keep the insanity of their situation at bay. We see white gloved officers putting on airs of gentility and asserting their civilian social status--one of many incongruities in a place where all men potentially face the same fate. The officers are to an extent detached from the reality of their surroundings yet still experience the horrors of war. Tolstoy criticizes their vanity and pettiness and notes an ambivalent mixture of good and evil in men. Truth, he concludes, is the true hero of the story of the war.
In "Sebastopol in August, 1855", the idealism and disillusionment of the two previous sketches are brought together. Volodiya Koseltzoff, a young ensign, volunteers to leave his quiet post at St. Petersburg to join his older brother Mikhail at Sebastopol. We follow him as he reunites with his brother and travels on to find his new post. He is filled with idyllic visions of fighting alongside his brother as they journey towards the front lines, but the sight of a ward full of gruesomely wounded soldiers and the sound of gun and cannon fire fill him with terror and dread. He is at first appalled by what he perceives as his own cowardliness, but as he meets the men with whom he will serve--apparently oblivious to the horror of their situation and more concerned with griping about their gambling debts--he begins to feel more at ease. The closer he gets to battle, the braver he becomes.
That's all I can tell you without being a rotten spoiler, so you'll have to find out for yourself the fate of these two brothers. Tolstoy's descriptions of war, his firsthand understanding of the psychology of war and the terror felt in men's hearts, and his moral outrage at the senseless loss of human life make these stories compelling and unforgettable. Technically, the writing becomes more focused as the stories progress. Not an easy read, but an excellent example of the young writer's growing talents. Very moving.
The short stories are a good way to get to know Tolstoy. In fact, short stories are a good way to become familiar with Russian literature. Don't forget to have a look at my piece on Turgenev's A Sportsman's Sketches, which is another superb collection of Russian short fiction. Next time, we'll look at some stories by Tolstoy written after War and Peace and Anna Karenina that reveal a very different voice.
By the way, if you read eBooks downloaded from Project Gutenberg, I'd like you to consider making a small donation to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. They're doing very important work by digitizing great literature and making untold volumes of human knowledge and expression available to everyone for free. That's worth a few bucks, surely.
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