![]() Taras takes his sons to a place known as “the Setch”, a male-only Cossack village where the men feast, hunt, and make merry whenever there are no wars to fight. The novel opens with both sons returning home from their studies, ready to cast aside their academic mannerisms and be reshaped anew into Cossack warriors under the watchful eye of their father. The titular character is a rough old Cossack warrior in Ukraine, shrewd and battle-hardened, who has two sons: Ostap and Andrei. ![]() Taras Bulba is a strange little novel about war and honour. All the same, Taras Bulba gives us an interesting look at some of the mystique that surrounds the Cossacks in Russian literature - and occasionally even dares to challenge it. The other reason for its neglect may be that it is a rather uneven reading experience in both tone and style. The iconic stature that Dead Souls has since achieved in the canon of 19th-century Russian literature may explain why Taras Bulba is relatively neglected by English readers in comparison. ![]() First published in 1835, it was later revised and re-published in 1842, the same year that Dead Souls was released. Nikolai Gogol is still perhaps best known for his satirical masterpiece Dead Souls, but Taras Bulba presents Gogol in a rather different key. ![]() Kasova Hora steppe, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast region, Ukraine. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |