The Sebastopol Sketches (Penguin Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Tolstoy's War
Review: "The Sebastopol Sketches" comprises three pieces describing the experiences of Russian soldiers during the siege of Sebastopol in the Crimean War. Tolstoy served in the army at Sebastopol, and I got a feeling of authenticity in his writing.

Tolstoy's view of the war undergoes a change during the three sketches. In the first (and shortest) sketch, Tolstoy is patriotic, describing the soldiers, their cause and Russia as a whole in grand, heroic terms. By the end of the third sketch, the reader has been taken through the horrors of war, and Tolstoy is much more despairing, even disgusted at the whole sorry affair.

There are some constants, however: Tolstoy's descriptive writing is fine throughout - convincingly setting the scene against which the characters play out their parts. As the second and third sketches develop, Tolstoy becomes more interested in the human side of the war - that is to say, its impact upon the emotions and behaviour of individuals. These range through humour, excitement, stupidity, cupidity, heroism, cowardice and so on. When the reader gets to the story of Volodya Kozeltsov, the loss of innocence and idealism which war brings is exposed in full.

Fine, gripping stuff.

G Rodgers

Rating:
Summary: a witness to many atrocities.
Review: In 1855, Tolstoy was a soldier in the Crimean War and a witness to many atrocities. One that would stay with him was the image of two children killed in a shelling. His experiences during the war made up the contents of his work The Sebastopol Sketches, many of which he drafted on the battlefield.

The book is divide in three short stories stem from Tolstoy's military experience during the Crimean War: "Sebastopol in December," "Sebastopol in May," and "Sebastopol in August 1855."

During this time, the young Tolstoy gave himself over to the decadent life that was common for men of his class, catching a venereal disease as well as drinking heavily and sustaining enormous gambling debts which included the loss of some of his prized property at Yasnaya.

I really enjoy reading this book,Tolstoy's reactions to the fighting at Sebastopol are really crude, if you are interesting in The Crimean War but from the Russian side you may find what you are looking for in this great book

Rating:
Summary: Tolstoy at War
Review: The young Tolstoy took part in the defence of Sebastopol (1854-55) during the Crimean War, and these sketches (parts of which were written under fire) record his impressions of the drama and tumult of war. The first sketch, "Sebastopol in December" was published anonymously and attracted the attention of Tsar Alexander II and Turgenev. It is a short, emotionally patriotic piece recording the author's empathetic reaction to the bravery of the ordinary soldiers and sailors during the siege. "Sebastopol in May" is more ambitious and more ambiguous, recording the experiences of a group of Russian officers during an attack by the Allies on the 4th bastion of the defences, a position dreaded by everyone on the Russian side. There are no heroes in this piece, says Tolstoy, except "truth," as he depicts flawed human beings struggle to reconcile their petty vanities with the "higher" duties that have brought them to that terrible place. The final sketch, "Sebastopol in August," records the fall of Sebastopol through the eyes of the doomed Kozeltsov brothers and features some of the finest battle descriptions I have ever read. Tolstoy published it openly under his own name, and it seems to have helped him finally to choose literature rather than the army for his future career. "The Sebastopol Sketches" is a marvellous book not only for its own merits but also for the insight it gives us into a literary master trying out his wings for the first time.