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Hadji Murat
- Narrated by: Chris Blair
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
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Hadji Murat
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Summary
Hadji Murat is a short novel by Leo Tolstoy which was published posthumously in 1912. It tells the story of Hadji Murat, a separatist guerrilla in the Caucasus who falls out with his own commander and eventually sides with the Russians in the hope of saving his family.
Hadji Murat differs from the other works Tolstoy produced in this period: In The Devil (1889), The Kreutzer Sonata (1890), "Father Sergius" (1898), Resurrection (1899), "Master and Man" (1895), and The Forged Coupon (1905), the theme is man's moral duty, which is not the case in Hadji Murat, a realist narrative based on actual people and events. It was written about 50 years after the events described, and Tolstoy used archival material, including Murad's own account of his life.
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What listeners say about Hadji Murat
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Andrew
- 29-08-23
bizarre reading
This is one of Tolstoy's masterworks, an utterly gripping story of a thoughtless, cruel imperialist enterprise in what is now Chechnya and echoes still in Russian history, told from all points of view -- Russian commanders, Chechen tribal leaders and imams, and ordinary sufferers among the peasants and the downtrodden Russian soldiery. High politics and diplomatic intrigue are also deftly portrayed. The parallels with other foreign ventures, from British imperialist conquests to the idiocy and blindness of the invasion of Afghanistan in this century, are astonishing.
Like other reviewers, I was mystified by the accent, which is not all that Russian, nor anything else really, since even Russian words were mispronounced throughout. It took me a while to realise that 'kawk-ass-ee-an" was "Caucasian" and that the city of "teef-al-ee-ass" was Tiflis. And one key character (and real figure in history) Prince Vorontsov was pronounced "voronstov" throughout. One got used to it after a while, but the accent interfered with what was otherwise a decently performed narration.
I haven't heard it (it may be great but why would I listen to it twice?) but the reading by the other actor is probably better, though I do hope it is not shorter because it has been abridged.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Vedran Perse
- 27-02-23
Accent killed it
I could not understand the logic behind the accent. It was so annoying that I almost stopped listening to it.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- B.
- 26-11-20
A great story undermined by a fake accent.
Hadji Murat is a late Tolstoy classic, a book I've waited many years to find as an audiobook. And while the story, which is as sweeping in scope as War and Peace but condensed to its essence, remains worth hearing again, this performance is ill-advised and undermines the value. For some unfathomable reason, Chris Blair, an American, chose to read the book in a fake accent—something that hovers ambiguously between Russian and Middle Eastern and belongs nowhere but the dustbin. It's bearable, but it made me resent wasting a credit.
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4 people found this helpful