GREAT LINE:

For the general and the court in Petersburg the episode presented itself as a happy turn of events, but for Hadji Murat it was the greatest crisis of his life.

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In his youth Tolstoy went to the Caucasus to observe and then join the Russian army as it fought another of its interminable frontier wars against the mountain tribes. In old age Tolstoy wrote a fictional account of how one tribal leader, Hadji Murat, had attempted to switch sides and join the Russians. As word of the attempt spreads first through the general’s ballroom and then up the ranks as far as the Tsar himself, the story reveals the absurdity and corruption of war. This short novel has distilled much of the insight and force of Tolstoy’s longer works, without all the unnecessary commentary.

Check the BPL catalog for this title: Hadji Murat