Sevastopol Tales

Crimea, 1854: residents in the besieged city of Sevastopol look out over a harbor punctured by the masts of scuttled ships, and taunt the French forces that keep them trapped behind defensive walls. So begins Leo Tolstoy`s account of nine months of shelling, destruction, courage, vanity, glory and death. Based on his own experiences as an artillery officer in the Crimean War, Tolstoy uses a kaleidoscopic range of narrative techniques to build up a picture of the conflict, wheeling from officer to soldier, cannon to barracks. The first tale, `Sevastopol in December`, takes us on a tour of the besieged city, where spirits are high, but defenses are crumbling. In `Sevastopol in May` we enter the fray with a group of officers, some honorable and brave, some foolish, vain and shallowly preoccupied with status - and some all of these at once. `Sevastopol in August` brings the story to a close, following the fates of two brothers in the final battle for the city. Communicated in prose marked by vivid sensation and profound irony, Tolstoy`s questions - about the nature of truth and heroism, and about why we choose to pay the high human price of conflict - are as relevant as ever.