Taras Bulba

The First New Translation in Forty YearsSet sometime between the midsixteenth and earlyseventeenth century Gogolsepic tale recounts both a bloody Cossack revolt... » 

The First New Translation in Forty YearsSet sometime between the midsixteenth and earlyseventeenth century Gogolsepic tale recounts both a bloody Cossack revolt against the Poles led by thebold Taras Bulba of Ukrainian folk mythology and the trials of Taras Bulbastwo sons.As Robert Kaplan writes in his Introduction Taras Bulba has a Kiplingesquegusto . . . that makes it a pleasure to read but central to its theme is anunredemptive darkly evil violence that is far beyond anything that Kiplingever touched on. We need more works like Taras Bulba to better understand theemotional wellsprings of the threat we face today in places like the MiddleEast and Central Asia. And the critic John Cournos has noted A clue to allRussian realism may be found in a Russian critics observation about GogolSeldom has nature created a man so romantic in bent yet so masterly inportraying all that is unromantic in life. But this statement does not coverthe whole ground for it is easy to see in almost all of Gogols work his freeCossack soul trying to break through the shell of sordid today like someancient demon essentially Dionysian. So that his works true though they areto our life are at once a reproach a protest and a challenge ever callingfor joy ancient joy that is no more with us. And they have all the joy andsadness of the Ukrainian songs he loved so much.From the Hardcover edition. «