Disclosure:I get this edition free of charge from the Providing website of Feedbooks I read in English with a nice quality of writing.My Plot:The Whole story was about the life and the death of a Cossack called Taras Bulba, This personality in fact reveals the true view of GOGOL to this kind of Population, anyway, Bulba was married and having two nice children ANDREJ and OSTAP. when they visited him fist after the end of their study in Kiev. Bulba goes with his fantasies back saying that his sons should be sent to ZAPOROZHYA, in order to learn the principles and ways of life of real cossacks. He went with them to the ZAPOROZHIAN village called Setch. where he met several of his acquaintances, his visit was aimed to make his children learn the fighting way of cossacks, so he suggest to the Kochevoi to make some war against the Turks or Tatars, so at least his children would have a chance to live the war within the Cossack's norm. The Elected Kochevoi refused the proposal saying that both Turks and Poles have an agreement, and they should not overcome these traditions. Thus Taras Bulba set another way to make his proposal of war became real, he gather all the cossacks and tell them to change the Current Kochevoi with another who have the real spirit of a the Cossacks. His idea was applied and the Kochevoi was replaced by another one. Hence they make their way toward the City where the Weiwode was ruling. Their first attempt to attack the city was failed, they retreated back to the campus letting the City dwellers out of any loads, and far from the city, the Weiwode daughter sent her maid to ANDREJ asking him some bread for her Grandmother who was dying from Hunger. The Weiwode daughter was the first lover of ANDREJ in fact, so He risk his life searching inside the camp for some bread at his lover request. He found the loafs of bread and get to the city through the secret door which the Maid had showed him. as the story goes ANDREJ become the leader of the Lyakhs as the army of Poles came to rescue the city. The war goes as hot as the Cossacks predict it. Finally Bulba killed his son ANDREJ and OSTAP was captured by the Poles Army. Bulba was rescued by his friends. after all Bulba decide to see his Son OSTAP who was captured inside the Polish Castle. with the help of the Jew YANKEL he accessed the Castle with the garments of a noble but the negotiations with the Guards were unsuccessful, in fact he got the chance to see his son executed outside. From hence revenge comes inside his veins, he meet all the cossacks ready from a big war against Lyakhs for the cause of their Catholic orientation. In fact the revenge that Bulba has lead was fruitful but the last blow was very difficult, The Polish General took over the troops of cossacks and captured Bulba burning him against an old tree. and thus was the end of Bulba and all his spirit.Positive and Negative aspects:This story really examine the nature of the native people of Ukraine, It was very positive to portray Cossacks as an entity that hung and look always for wars and Killings. and it was also nice to portray the brave nature of the Cossack city. in fact it was all fine. But what annoy me the most was the bad attitude that writer made toward Muslims including Tatars and Turks, the Bad portray of Catholics as betrayers, the Bad presentation of Jews as a weak creature that have nothing to live with but the money and commerce. Personally the writer stood against all these people presenting them badly as barbarians and as betrayers. Another unforgettable point was the depiction of woman as a useless object inside this life, starting from the treating nature of Bulba to his wife, without forgetting the position of woman inside the Cossack city. Woman were to be treated as dogs if they pass through the Setch. In fact it was another revealing of women position inside the cossacks life. My Personal Reaction:Personally I wasn't fond of the nature of the story so much, there was a description of wars and Cossacks, comic portraying of Death cossacks. like "lost his head" or "his head was sent in salt into Constantinople" all these inhuman presentation made me feel sorry about the life of these persons. they have nothing to love, nothing to earn. as if they were born to be dead. Even if the Book was considered as a master piece but the contents inside it were all inhuman. In general the human nature was considered negative at the last extent inside this story. Recommendations: I would recommend this book to every fan of Gogol's literature, to everyone who looks after the life and the death of cossacks and to everyone concerned with the real history of the Russian land. I don't recommend this story to weak persons who interfere with Horror and death descriptions.
My edition of “Taras Bulba” included two other stories along with the main novella. These stories were connected by the fact that Cossacks were the main characters in each, and each story gave some hints about Cossack culture (with a strong emphasis on religion) to different degrees.“Taras Bulba” is a one hundred and seven page novella. It focus on a powerful Cossack named Taras Bulba and his two grown sons as they go off to fight the Polish. Of course, things do not go as planned, and the younger of the sons falls in love with a Polish girl. This sets into motion a chain of events which leads to the death of all three. Of all the stories, “Taras Bulba” focuses the most on the Cossacks, their religion, culture, etc. However, of the three stories it is also the most generic. I was given the story without knowing its author, I doubt I would have guessed Gogol. There are hints of his sharp-wit here and there, but overall it feels like a story that could have been written by a number of authors. “Taras Bulba” is not a bad story, it is informative and interesting, it just is not quite as interesting as other Gogol stories. 3/5“The Lost Letter” was the second story in the book, and was eleven pages long. It is about a man who, in order to get a missing letter back, has to go into the woods and play cards against a group of witches in order to get it back. The story had all the trappings of a fairy-tale, and felt like it belonged in a Afanasyev collection. “The Lost Letter” was quite a charming and imaginative story – 4/5“The Fearful Vengeance” was the third story, and is forty pages long. In it Gogol plays around with how the information is given to the reader. First he tells a story about a Cossack chief whose father-in-law turns out to be an evil sorcerer who is haunting his daughter. After the main part of the story plays out, Gogol takes the reader back in time in order to show them the events that caused the main part of the story to happen. Like “The Lost Letter,” “The Fearful Vengeance” has some of the trappings that appear in Gogol’s better known work, and it was interesting to see how the two parts of the story connected. 3.5/53.5/5, down-graded to 3 since the longest story in the collection was, to me, the weakest.
What do You think about Taras Bulba (2006)?
Olen jostain syystä mieltynyt kasakoista kertoviin romaaneihin. Leo Tolstoin Kasakat on yksi vanhoja suosikkikirjojani. Taras Bulbassa on samaa pitelemätöntä kiihkeyttä. Kasakat karauttelevat pitkin aroja, käyvät raakaa sotaa ja tekevät huimia urotöitä, miehiä kun ovat. Mutta on kasakoissa erojakin. Tolstoi painottaa aron lasten sielunelämää ja luontosuhdetta, kun taas Gogol keskittyy tekojen ja sosiaalisten suhteitten yksityiskohtaiseen kuvaukseen. Kasakkapäällikkö Taras Bulballa on kaksi poikaa, Ostap ja Andrei. Pojat eivät ehdi pitkään kotona viihtyä, kun seminaarista päästyään he lähtevät isänsä kanssa pitkälle sotaretkelle. Kasakoitten luonnetta kuvaamaan valitsin seuraavan katkelman:Ei kasakka ole luotu vetelehtimään akkojen kanssa. Sinä [äiti] kyllä piilottaisit molemmat [pojat] hameesi alle ja istuisit sitten heidän päällään kuin hautova kana. Mene nyt ja pane pian pöytään kaikkea mitä on. Mutta ei mitään ohukaisia, hunajakakkuja, unikonsiemenleivoksia tai muuta makeata! Tuo pöytään kokonainen lammas, tuo vaikka vuohi ja vanhaa simaa! Ja paljon pontikkaa, muttei mitään sotkettua rusinoitten tai muiden mausteitten kanssa, vaan kirkasta, vaahtoavaa viinaa, joka poreilee ja kiehuu kuin vimmattu.Makea ja maistuva elämä saa siis jäädä taakse, kun kasakan mieli kuohahtaa ja vaatii käymään taistoon.Taitavin ja arvostetuin soturi Taras Bulba seuraa ylpeänä poikiensa menestystä taistoissa. Ostap on hänelle kunniaksi, mutta Andrei aiheuttaa häpeää sotkeuduttuaan hunajaiseen maailmaan: siirtyy, mokoma, vihollisen puolelle naisen takia! Taras Bulba on siitä raivoissaan. Gogolin kasakoitten viesti näyttäisi olevan, että maalliseen kiintyminen on turmioksi. Sekä Andrei että Taras Bulba menettävät henkensä siksi, että he yrittävät pelastaa jotain heille tärkeää ylellisyyttä. Se on selvästi väärin, koska todellinen kasakka ei tarvitse muuta kuin housut ja hevosen, ja niistäkin kahdesta voi vielä karsia toisen pois.
—Heli
I can't really make up my mind about this book. I like the heavy intertextuality that connects it to Slovo o polku igoreve and the Zadonshchina. I had no idea it was a book in the epic warrior style, but as soon as the falcons and all the other birds showed up, and the repetitive "for the Christian faith" was inserted somewhere on every page I felt like I was straight back reading the Zadonshchina (which was a feat accomplished with a lot of moaning and complaining). This was easily also the most difficult book I have ever read in Russian, and I had to navigate through it with both a Russian and a Ukrainian dictionary, still not being able to find all unknown words. It is probably also the first book where Old Church Slavonic knowledge and familiarity with Old Russian literature came in handy for me. So that's fun. What's not so much fun is the nauseating testosterone overdose, the brotherhood love and the stupidity of Taras. I liked the brutality, but the war-mongering for no obvious reason and constant glorifying of Christianity does get tiresome. That's not Gogol's fault though, that's the genre. And the poor Jews.
—Rebecka
A ridiculous adolescent fantasy with nationalist and racist themes, it is unclear to me why this is considered a classic. The fighting spirit of the Cossacks is absurdly romanticized and makes the book read more like propaganda than literature. The characters are without character, so to speak - flat, one-dimensional personalities. The gore and violence is only slightly effective, nothing that I can't get out of a round of "Mortal Kombat," and because it does not develop around a plot I can take seriously, it all pretty much goes to waste. I can't help but imagine some thirteen-year-old boy bored in middle school writing something quite similar to this. Too many pretenses to be fun pulp, too much laughably bad dialogue, and just overall not worth your time, even the time it takes to read 150 short pages. Go watch Braveheart if you want something similar done better.
—Andy
