Tolstoy: The Cossacks

In my Tolstoy book club today, discussing The Cossacks. 

Leo Tolstoy began work on the short novel in August 1853. In August 1857, after having reread the Iliad, he vowed to completely rewrite The Cossacks. In February 1862, after having lost badly at cards he finished the novel to help pay his debts. The novel was published in 1863, in the popular literary magazine The Russian Messenger. 

Tolstoy in 1908

The Cossacks is believed to be somewhat autobiographical, partially based on Tolstoy's experiences in the Caucasus during the last stages of the Caucasian War. Tolstoy had a wild time in his youth, engaging in numerous promiscuous partners, heavy drinking and gambling problems; many argue Tolstoy used his own past as inspiration for the protagonist Olenin.

Overall, enjoying the discussion on this one. Lots on his descriptive language. 

From my hunt for articles on this work: 

Creation history and plot of Tolstoy’s story “The Cossacks”

Read about My Tolstoy Adventure. 

Alexander Litovchenko (1835-1890)
Portrait of a Cossack,
Wikipedia

I went hunting for a definition of the Cossacks: 

The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Orthodox Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. 

Historically, they were a semi-nomadic and semi-militarized people, who, while under the nominal suzerainty of various Eastern European states at the time, were allowed a great degree of self-governance in exchange for military service. 

The Cossack way of life persisted via both direct descendants and acquired ideals in other nations into the twentieth century, though the sweeping societal changes of the Russian Revolution disrupted Cossack society as much as any other part of Russia. 

Many Cossacks migrated to other parts of Europe following the establishment of the Soviet Union, while others remained and assimilated into the Communist state. Cohesive Cossack-based units were organized and many fought for both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II. (Wikipedia)

Tolstoy: Childhood

 

Tolstoy and his grandchildren, c. 1909

The first book in my Tolstoy book group is Childhood.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book! I listened to this Audible version:
The Leo Tolstoy Complete Collection

Childhood is the first in a series of three novels, followed by Boyhood and Youth. Published when Tolstoy was just twenty-three years old, the book was an immediate success. 

Today's discussion was great... and I'm grateful that it didn't go over my head! I was interested to learn that it was semi-autobiographical. 

We will be discussing Boyhood and Youth in the next two meetings. 

Childhood (Tolstoy novel) - Wikipedia

Read about My Tolstoy Adventure

My Tolstoy adventure

 I am embarking on an adventure: reading all the works of Leo Tolstoy. It's part of a Meetup group. We are meeting once or twice a month, so I think it will take about 2 years (!)...

I am reading via listening on Audible. This is the best collection I found:

The Leo Tolstoy Complete Collection
War and Peace; Anna Karenina; Resurrection; Short Stories; Novellas; and Non-Fiction
Written by: Leo Tolstoy
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble, Malk Williams, Emma Gregory
Length: 186 hrs and 39 mins
Public Domain (P)2023 SNR Audio

Includes:

Novels

• War and Peace - now started (my first post about it)
• Anna Karenina (read it, enjoyed it) (my post)
• Resurrection

Novellas and Short Stories

• The Death of Ivan Ilyich
• Childhood (read, my first Tolstoy, loved it!!!!) (my post)
• Boyhood (read, loved it)
• Youth (read, very good)
• Family Happiness (read it, pretty good)
• The Cossacks (read it, interesting insights to a way of life) (my post)
• The Kreutzer Sonata
• The Forged Coupon
• Hadji Murat
• Sevastopol Sketches (read - it was ok, war-heavy)
• The Coffee-House of Surat
• Master and Man (read, not remembering it)
• How Much Land Does a Man Need?
• Alyosha the Pot
• Ivan the Fool

Non-Fiction

• The Kingdom of God Is Within You
• A Confession
• The Inevitable Revolution
• What Is Art?

Also reading, from Kindle:

• Landowner's Morning (read, liked it)
• Two Hossars (missed this one, will come back to it)

Read about Tolstoy, but not by Tolstoy:

• The Hedgehog and The Fox (about Tolstoy, by Isaiah Berlin)

We are doing them in the sequence, in the order he wrote them. Childhood is up first. 

Resources: 

GREAT Leo Tolstoy website (leo-tolstoy.com) sections:

• Articles 
• Books
• Quotes
• Bio
• Gallery

Leo Tolstoy bibliography

Leo Tolstoy articles (another of my blog posts)

Update: adding notes for myself on what I've read so far...

Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea

Was just in a book club discussion about Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, so jotting a few notes for my own reference to come back to.

The Old Man and the Sea is a novella written by the American author Ernest Hemingway in 1951 in Cayo Blanco (Cuba), and published in 1952. It was the last major work of fiction written by Hemingway that was published during his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it tells the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cuba.

Written in 1951, The Old Man and the Sea is Hemingway's final work published during his lifetime. 

In 1953, The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and it was cited by the Nobel Committee as contributing to their awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Hemingway in 1954.

In 1954, Hemingway wanted to donate his Nobel Prize in Literature gold medal to the Cuban people. To avoid giving it to the Batista government, he donated it to the Catholic Church for display at the sanctuary at El Cobre, a small town outside Santiago de Cuba where the Marian image of Our Lady of Charity is located. 

I listened to the Audible version (narrated by Donald Sutherland!). I have a lot more Hemingway to read before I feel like I really know this author (why have I not read him more until now?).

Hemingway's works

• (1925) In Our Time
• (1926) The Sun Also Rises
• (1926) Torrents of Spring
• (1929) A Farewell to Arms - read, great
• (1937) To Have and Have Not
• (1940) For Whom the Bell Tolls
• (1950) Across the River and into the Trees
• (1952) The Old Man and the Sea - read, loved it
• (1970*) Islands in the Stream
• (1986*) The Garden of Eden

* = posthumous publication

Update: returning periodically to update what I have read

Book Club Edition Clues

If you sell or trade used books, you will want to know how to identify a "book club edition" book, as they are of lesser value. If you plan to make your fortune buting undervalued antiquarian books and reselling them (as I am*), you need to know this!

Today I found a great piece, Identifying Book Club Editions, courtesy of the International Online Booksellers Association. It has lots of example pictures, so is worth reading - and keeping handy for future reference.

* I am buying high value Picasso art books with a fantasy of knowing enough to turn a profit. While I get to enjoy them while in my custody, once I started getting duplicates, I realized I was hooked. 

Identifying Book Club Editions - International Online Booksellers Association
Can You Identify a Book Club Edition? - Biblio blog
Identifying Book Club Editions - One Girl Collecting blog