186 Kata Tentang Mahakarya Leo Tolstoy di Ulangtahunnya yang Ke-186

9 September 2014 ini, dunia memperingati hari kelahiran sastrawan Rusia, Leo Tolstoy ke-186. Bahkan, Google menjadikan perayaan ini sebagai logo di halaman depan mesin pencariannya.

Tolstoy secara luas dianggap sebagai salah seorang novelis yang terbesar dalam sejarah, khususnya karena adi karyanya War and Peace.

Bagi anda yang tidak sempat membaca 561.093 kata dalam maha karya ini, The Independent telah merangkumnya dalam 186 kata saja, sebagai kado instimewa di ulangtahunnya yang ke-186:

Petersburg, 1805: glitzy party at Anna Scherer’s. Napoleon is on the march. Kuragins? Flashy, dodgy crowd, especially minx Helene. Rostovs? Nice, penniless Moscow clan, with headstrong son, Nikolai.

Gauche, thoughtful Pierre Bezukhov: a count’s bastard, super-rich (when dad dies) but adrift. Unhappily wed Andrey Bolkonsky’s the real warrior toff, but those dark nights of the soul! Pierre marries flighty Helene.

Catastrophe! Rows, affair, duel, break-up (and Helene’s bad end) guaranteed. Andrey, Nikolai confront Napoleon at Austerlitz: Russian debacle. Widowed, Andrey falls for blooming Natasha, who’s ensnared by married cad Anatol Kuragin.

Do-gooding Pierre tries to save the world: fails.

1812: here’s fateful Napoleon again, making history (but what is history?), invading Russia. Bloody slaughter at Borodino; Russia resists. Andrey’s injured, Pierre a fugitive, then PoW. Rostovs flee as Moscow fall.

Amid the misery, Natasha grows up fast; Pierre too, helped by saintly peasant. Nikolai rescues Maria, the dying Andrey’s sister. Napoleon retreats. Hurrah!

Liberated, Pierre bonds with Natasha; Nikolai and Maria spliced. Poor cousin Sonya, Nikolai’s long-suffering intended! Two new families: happily ever after?

Almost but what does it all (time, history, freedom, destiny) really mean?

Selain War and Peace, Tolstoy terkenal dengan karyanya yang lain seperti Anna Karenina, A Confession, The Kingdom of God Is Within You, dan Resurrection.

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