Search results
Sevastopol in August depicts the conclusion of the siege of Sevastopol and the eventual defeat and withdrawal of the Russian forces. The narrative focus alternates between Mikhail and Vladimir Kozeltsov, two brothers who both fight and eventually die for the Russian side.
- Leo Tolstoy
- 1855
- Overview
- Communication Failures
- Ways of Dying
- Conclusion
In the Sevastopol Sketches Tolstoy, who was writing only a few months after serving in Crimea as an officer – in fact, the first two stories were written while the siege was ongoing – was already formulating many of the basic ideas about war which would later mark his monumental book on the topic. What are these ideas? To begin with, we learn that ...
In the second story, “Sevastopol in May”, we begin to experience fighting first-hand. We follow an officer, Mikhailov, as he goes about his duties, before finally heading to the fortifications themselves. But these duties are not what we might have expected. An awful lot of his time is given over to considering the complete and utter vanity of the ...
In fiction, dying often reveals the truth of the life that death ends. A good life generally has a good end, while a bad one, such as Ivan Ilyich’s, tends to end slowly and painfully. There are three significant deaths in The Sevastopol Sketches. The first is in “Sevastopol in May”, while the other two are in “Sevastopol in August 1855”. Each of th...
I visited Sevastopol in 2020. In recent years the city has once again attracted international attention. Crossing over from the North to the South parts of the city by ferry – a route taken by many of the characters of The Sevastopol Sketches – I was left awestruck by the great grey mass of Russian Black Sea Fleet, moored inside the bay past the ol...
People also ask
What are Tolstoy's Sevastopol Sketches?
Why did Tolstoy use 'you' in Sevastopol?
What happens in Sevastopol in August by Tolstoy?
What is the purpose of the Sevastopol Sketches?
Three short, semi-fictional stories that belong to the first and perhaps at the same time the best pacifist literature in history. Tolstoy offers a description of the siege of the Crimean city of Sebastopol in 1855 by the French, a siege he participated in (on the Russian side) as a young man.
- (3.3K)
- Paperback
Between dodging enemy shells and continuing—despite his best intentions—to lose large sums of money at cards, Tolstoy roamed Sevastopol, storing up images of suffering, dismemberment and death that he conveyed to the reading public back home in a series of intense, vivid sketches.
Jul 1, 1986 · 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.
- (32)
- Leo Tolstoy
1: Sevastopol in December 1854. The flush of morning has but just begun to tinge the sky above Sapun Mountain; the dark blue surface of the sea has already cast aside the shades of night and awaits the first ray to begin a play of merry gleams; cold and mist are wafted from the bay; there is no snow—all is black, but the morning frost pinches ...
SEVASTOPOL SKETCHES by Leo TolstoyABOUT THE BOOK:The Sevastopol Sketches, called in English translations the Sebastopol Sketches, also published in English a...
- 295 min
- 1932
- AudioBookBuzz
