Taras Bulba

Soft cover. Fair. State Publishing House of Fiction, Moscow, 1956; 8vo, 125 x 200mm; unpaginated; pictorial paper wrappers rather soiled and the foot of the book somewhat curled at the front; printed on wood-heavy paper and consequently now rather browned throughout; each chapter headed with a drawing of a relevant incident; the text, in Russian, is from the six volume edition of Gogol's works printed in Moscow 1952 ... ... ... ... First printed in 1835 in a collection of stories, later reissued in a revised form and structure in 1842, Taras Bulba is now one of Gogol's most famous stories. It's a historic novella set in Ukraine, the eponymous central character being an old Cossack drawn back into battle against his region's perceived enemies, the Poles, the story given complexity through the characters of his two sons and the related incidents involving them and bringing tension to the various relationships.