[NTN]≫ Read Gratis Taras Bulba Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol 9781406946161 Books

Taras Bulba Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol 9781406946161 Books

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Taras Bulba Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol 9781406946161 Books

The story lives up to its lore: it is Homeric. It's worth your time to read it. You'll know a little more of the Ukraine, of the steppes, and of the Cossacks. You'll know a little more about Russian literature. If you're like me, you'll have poured thimblefuls into an abyss of ignorance. And have had fun pouring.


Tags : Taras Bulba [Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>The First New Translation in Forty Years</b> Set sometime between the mid-sixteenth and early-seventeenth century,Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol,Taras Bulba,Hard Press,1406946168

Taras Bulba Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol 9781406946161 Books Reviews

This book was presented as Taras Bulba by Gogol. It shows up to be a collection of stories printed in the cheapest way possible. It does not mention who translated the stories to English. It looks like some college student made a hasty compendium for his Gogol class.
This is not only cheap it is much too cheap.
Good
Eugene Hutz is a fun and talented guy. But Eugene will also admit to you that his Ukrainian identity is "Russified." I know this because he told me. So, when Eugene gives you his authorative view on what Taras Bulba is or means, keep that in mind. For example, Eugene tells us that the Zaprozhian Sich, was really only marginally Ukrainian. So, claiming that this enterprise is some sort of paen to Ukrainian history and identity strikes me as an odd thing to say. Eugene is also a very articulate and bright guy, but his forward reads exactly like he talks animated, self indulgent,possibly half lit, and with an accent that predictably excludes articles of speech. If a folksy, direct from me to you effect was the point in this straight transcription, well, in my opinion it just distracts from the points he is making, and ultimately just comes off sounding affected. He's an exceptionally fine lyricist, but even on the occasions where he lapses into mildly mangled English when singing with Gogol Bordello there it works well as a texture, giving the song a sweaty rough hewn urgency. Here, however, it reads like barbed wire.
Okay, the meat of the matter the actual story. The translation is a chore to read. It is lumbering and stilted. Hurts the eyes and the head. I put the book down after about 4 pages. If the attempt was to create a tongue in cheek pulp fiction than this should have been served up as a graphic novel. Look, I know these larger than life characters are about as subtle as scimitar, but if you're going for a cartoon angle, make the thing into a comic book - or get a better translator.
I like Gogol's style.
Peter Constantine's translation of Nikolai Gogol's Taras Bulba is the best version I've read. All previous translations seem to be lacking in verve and energy.

Constantine's version of Taras Bulba seems to differ also from other translations in that Constantine translates Taras Bulba's sons as sporting 'chub', a scalplock on an otherwise shaven head. All other translations (at least the ones I've read) translate 'chub' as sidelocks or "... long locks of hair on the temples...", much like the jewish peyots. Considering that 'chub' in Ukrainian means 'crest' it seems Constantine has got it right.

Anyway, I digress...

I recommend this version of Gogol's Taras Bulba to anyone interested in those land-pirates, the Cossacks, Ukrainian history and storytelling, and to anyone who doesn't believe religion can be made an excuse for thuggery and war.
The characters in Russian literature have never been known for being truth-seekers, but they are never passive and are always self-aware. They seem to always want to prove a point, and if they wrestle with circumstances it is only because they enjoy the challenges that such circumstances offer. Gogol's Taras Bulba is no exception to this generalization, and if he were judged by modern terminology he might be classified as a terrorist. But as John Cournos, who wrote the introduction to this collection of stories reminds the reader, it was geography, it was the absence of mountain ranges to guard the steppe that made its inhabitants war-like. Debates on morality were to be trumped by personal and collective survival.

So yes the Cossacks, as represented by Taras Bulba were Dionysians, as proven by their revelries, womanizing, and their predilection for the drunken stupor. Nietzsche would have loved them, in spite of the traces of Greek Orthodoxy that polluted their minds. One can't help but admire them, and reading Taras Bulba is in itself an act of rebellion a way of relishing the Cossack freedom. And the gray Polish cities full of petty, ineffectual, cowardly bureaucrats reminds one of the governments, corporate leaders and managers of today. The social and political hierarchies in both times are exceedingly fragile however, and it does not really take a Cossack sword to cut them down. One does not need to "live dangerously" to do so being "true to life" will.

Gogol writes that Taras Bulba was headstrong, which he says could only happen in the "fierce" fifteenth century. This may be the case, but certainly his story has relevance for today's reader, namely that one should not submit to authority and regimentation. As Andrii did, one needs to take off the gabardines of the Royal Seminary of Kiev, and not deprive oneself of the experiences of rowing swiftly and stoutly through life.
Great book! Comparable and compared by great authors and poets to be very near to and even an equivalent of the great epics of Homer, The Iliad and Odyssey. That is how good the book is! Great for understanding cossack life in Ukraine, but do your research so you can understand the actual history as it can be confusing when almost everything is called russian instead of ukrainian!
The story lives up to its lore it is Homeric. It's worth your time to read it. You'll know a little more of the Ukraine, of the steppes, and of the Cossacks. You'll know a little more about Russian literature. If you're like me, you'll have poured thimblefuls into an abyss of ignorance. And have had fun pouring.