Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
![Loading indicator](/images/ajax-loader-bar.gif)
In this short novel, Tolstoy fictionalizes the final days of Hadji Murád, a legendary Avar separatist who fought against, and later with, Russia, as the Russian Empire was struggling to annex Chechnya and the surrounding land in the late 1840s.
The novel opens with the narrator finding a thistle crushed in a blooming field, which reminds him of Hadji Murád and his tragic tale. As the narrator recounts the story, the reader is quickly thrust into the rich, colorful history of the Caucuses, and its people’s fight against Russian imperialism.
Hadji Murád is portrayed as a legendary and imposing, yet friendly and approachable figure. Despite his reputation, it seems that his best days are behind him; as the novel opens, Murád is fleeing Shamil, a powerful imam who has captured Murád’s family. Murád finds himself thrust between the invading Russians on one side, and Shamil’s vengeance on the other.
As Murád and his tiny but loyal group of warriors try to forge alliances in their attempt to rescue Murád’s family, they quickly find themselves politically outclassed. The Russians are Murád’s enemies, yet only they can help him in his struggle against Shamil; and after years of losses incurred by Murád’s guerrilla tactics, the Russians would like his help but cannot trust him. Shamil, on the other hand, is a deep link to the region’s complex web of tribal blood feuds, vengeances, reprisals, and quarrels over honor. He’s one of the few powers left standing between the Russians and their control of the Caucuses, but Murád, having crossed him, can’t rescue his family from Shamil’s clutches without the help of the Russians.
Murád’s impossible position, the contradiction between his legendary past and his limping, dignified, and ultimately powerless present, and the struggle against a mighty empire by a people torn by internecine conflict, form the major thematic threads of the novel.
The novel was one of the last that Tolstoy finished before his death, and was only published posthumously in 1912. Tolstoy himself served in the Crimean War, and the war scenes portrayed in the novel echo his personal experiences. As the story progresses, Tolstoy characterizes various real-life historical personalities besides Hadji Murád and Shamil, including Emperor Nicholas I, Mikhail Loris-Melikov, and Count Vorontsov-Dashkov, making this a fascinating piece of historical fiction. Despite this being such a late entry in Tolstoy’s corpus, it has been highly praised by critics both contemporary and modern, with the famous critic Harold Bloom going so far as to say that Hadji Murád is “my personal touchstone for the sublime of prose fiction, to me the best story in the world, or at least the best I have ever read.”
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
![Loading indicator](/images/ajax-loader-bar.gif)
Previews available in: English Undetermined Czech French
Subjects
Continental european fiction (fictional works by one author), Fiction, Muslims, Civil war, History, Fiction, historical, general, Slavic philology, Russia, fiction, Fiction, general, Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910, Khadzhi-murat , -1852, Muslims--russia (federation)--chechni︠a︡--fiction, Civil war--russia--fiction, Pg3365 .k513 2012, 891.73/3People
Khadzhi-Murat (-1852)Places
Russia (Federation), Chechnya, Russia, Chechnya (Russia)Times
19th centuryEdition | Availability |
---|---|
01 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
02 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
03 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
04 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
05
Hadji Murad: Eine Kurzgeschichte Voller Interessanter Abenteuer des Großen Russischen Autors Leo Tolstoi
2021, Independently Published
in German
9798462274534
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
06 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
07
Hadji Murad: Un Racconto Ricco Di Avventure Interessanti, Del Grande Autore Russo Lev Tolstoj
2021, Independently Published
in Italian
9798462320262
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
08
Hadji Mourad: Une Courte Histoire Pleine d'aventures Intéressantes
2021, Independently Published
in French
9798461972363
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
09 |
aaaa
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
10 |
zzzz
|
11 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
12 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
13 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
14
Hadji Murad
2017, Independently Published
in English and Russian
- Bilingual Edition
1549995219 9781549995217
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
15 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
16 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
17 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
18 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
19 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
20 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
21
Hadji Murad
Jul 13, 2016, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
paperback
153526120X 9781535261203
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
22
Hadji Murad
Jul 19, 2015, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
paperback
1515138259 9781515138259
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
23 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
24
Hadji Murad: A Short Novel
Nov 28, 2015, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
paperback
1519576315 9781519576316
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
25 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
26 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
27 |
eeee
|
28 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
29 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
30 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
31 |
eeee
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
32 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
33 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
34 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
35 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
36 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
37 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
38 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
39 |
eeee
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
40 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
41
Hadji Murat
June 30, 2005, Ediciones Catedra
Paperback
in Spanish
- 3 Tra edition
8437614988 9788437614984
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
42
HADJI MURAT; TRANS. BY HUGH APLIN.
2003-01-01, HESPERUS PRESS, Hesperus Press
in Undetermined
1843910330 9781843910336
|
eeee
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
43
Hadji Murat (Hesperus Classics)
February 1, 2003, Hesperus Press
Paperback
in English
- New Ed edition
1843910330 9781843910336
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
44
Hadji Murád
2003, Modern Library
in English
- Modern Library paperback ed.
0812967119 9780812967111
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
45 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
46 |
cccc
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
47 |
cccc
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
48 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
49 |
zzzz
|
50
Qaji mu̇rat
1980, Ȯbu̇r Mongġul-un Surġan Ku̇mu̇jil-u̇n Keblel-u̇n Qoriy-a
in Mongolian
- Angqaduġar keb.
|
zzzz
|
51 |
zzzz
|
52 |
zzzz
|
53 |
zzzz
|
54 |
zzzz
|
55 |
zzzz
|
56 |
zzzz
|
57 |
zzzz
|
58 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
59 |
zzzz
|
60 |
zzzz
|
61 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
62 |
zzzz
|
63 |
zzzz
|
64 |
bbbb
|
65 |
zzzz
|
66 |
zzzz
|
67 |
zzzz
|
68
Khadzhi-Murat
Publisher unknown
- Leningrad : Gosudarstvennoe Izdatelstvo Khudozhestvennoi Literatury, 1931.
|
zzzz
|
Community Reviews (0)
Feedback?History
- Created June 19, 2022
- 5 revisions
Wikipedia citation
×CloseCopy and paste this code into your Wikipedia page. Need help?
May 17, 2024 | Edited by bitnapper | merge authors |
May 27, 2023 | Edited by OnFrATa | Merge works (MRID: 59025) |
May 27, 2023 | Edited by LeadSongDog | Edited without comment. |
May 22, 2023 | Edited by bitnapper | merge authors |
June 19, 2022 | Created by ImportBot | Imported from Better World Books record |