“Hadjí Murat” es una novela histórica escrita de primera mano, ya que Tolstói conoció a algunos de sus protagonistas durante su permanencia en el Cáucaso. La acción transcurre en torno a 1850, bajo el reinado del zar Nicolás I, que se caracterizó por llevar a cabo una política expansionista y de absolutismo represivo. De hecho, el retrato que del zar se hace en la obra nos le describe como un hombre arbitrario, poco justo y demasiado orgulloso. “Hadjí Murat”es la historia de un djiguit, término árabe para designar a un jinete y, por extensión, a un valiente. Es un musulmán del Cáucaso que lucha en contra de las tropas rusas que tratan de dominar Chechenia, Osetia, Daguestán. Un tema que, siglo y medio después, aún colea, como sabemos. Pero nuestro héroe tiene un conflicto con el fiero Shamil, el jefe de las tropas rebeldes, por lo que decide pasarse al bando de los rusos, donde es acogido con gran regocijo.
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Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was born about two hundred miles from Moscow. His mother died when he was two, his father when he was nine. His parents were of noble birth, and Tolstoy remained acutely aware of his aristocratic roots, even when he later embraced doctrines of equality and the brotherhood of man. After serving in the army in the Caucasus and Crimea, where he wrote his first stories, he traveled and studied educational theories. In 1862 he married Sophia Behrs and for the next fifteen years lived a tranquil, productive life, finishing War and Peace in 1869 and Anna Karenina in 1877. In 1879 he underwent a spiritual crisis; he sought to propagate his beliefs on faith, morality, and nonviolence, writing mostly parables, tracts, and morality plays. Tolstoy died of pneumonia in 1910 at the age of eighty-two.
Patrick O’Brian (1914–2000), a translator and author of biographies, was best known as the author of the highly acclaimed Aubrey–Maturin series of historical novels. Set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars ,this twenty-volume series centers on the enduring friendship between naval officer Jack Aubrey and physician and spy Stephen Maturin. The Far Side of the World, the tenth book in the series, was adapted into a 2003 film directed by Peter Weir and starring Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany. The film was nominated for ten Oscars, including Best Picture. He wrote acclaimed biographies of Pablo Picasso and Sir Joseph Banks. He also translated many works from the French, among them the novels and memoirs of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Lacouture’s biographies of Charles de Gaulle.