Two Hussars

“ Two Hussars,” written in the author’s first decade of creative work, was published in 1856, at the same time as the “Sevastopol Stories,” but it differs noticeably from them. The first part of the novella takes place in the 1800s, in the romantic era of Pushkin and Davydov, duels, and narrow waists in ladies’ fashion. At this time, the count Túrbin—widely known hussar, a rake and a wanderer—stops in the county town of K. by chance. The local “former cavalryman,” Zavalshchevsky, recognizes him and tries to make friends, lending him 100 rubles to support his legend. Zavalshchevsky himself only dreamed once of serving in the cavalry, but gradually he also started to believe in his fantasies.

At the same time, in K., there is a young uhlan, Ilyin, whom Zavalshchevsky accidentally introduces to the card-sharp Lukhnov. The young man, detained by the watchman under the pretext of the lack of horses, has been playing cards in honor of Turbin’s arrival for the fourth day already and not only has lost all his money, but also lost part of the money belonging to the state. Seeing Lukhnov’s game, the invited to the game Turbin warns the young man about his cheating, but the latter doesn’t heed the advice and loses all of his own and the state money.

Turbin’s entertainments include dancing at a ball, where he goes after watching Lukhnov’s cheating and where he meets the sister of Zavalshchevsky, Anna Fyodorovna, a young widow. Her beauty and innocence captivate the count, who begins courting her insistently, encountering little resistance from her side. And by the end of the ball, the hussar is waiting for the young widow in her carriage. Then follows a spree with the gypsies, the rescue of the disgraced Ilyin, who had already decided to end his life, and his return partway back simply for a farewell kiss with Anna Fyodorovna.

The action of the second part takes place closer to the middle of the 19th century. The son of the already familiar Count Turbin stops for the night with his hussar squadron at Morozovka, Anna Fyodorovna’s estate. Here they remembered his father well and gave the younger Turbin a warm welcome. Tolstoy describes the son in the same situations as the father (card debt, relationships with a fellow officer and a servant, meeting a beautiful girl, a duel challenge), but each time the hero makes opposite decisions and looks quite unworthy—like a boor or a coward. Yet the main heroine of the second part is not him but his contemporary, Anna Fyodorovna’s daughter, Lisa.

Meeting of both heroes with Anna Fyodorovna and her family becomes for the author a way to show his admiration for the departed era and to demonstrate the vices of the modern era. The figure of Turbin-the-father, a man of the Pushkin era, is drawn by Tolstoy in the most positive light. Even his rash acts look attractive against the backdrop of his generosity, his sense of justice, and nobility, while his reckless temperament, debauched tendencies, daring, and directness appear as the best human qualities. The prototype of this hero was a real person—F.I. Tolstoy “the American,” known from Pushkin’s biography: with him the poet nearly ended up in a duel, and he was distinguished by a pleasant and open appearance, as well as a daring spirit without boundaries.

Turbin-the-son, who has his father’s wild temper and inclination for adventures, is presented as a negative character because of his own calculation and consumer-like attitude toward people. The other heroes of the novella— the timid cornet Ilyin, the card-sharp Lukhnov, the supposed cavalryman Zavalshchevsky, the pretty but rather foolish Anna Fyodorovna—are depicted with overt irony and not very appealingly.

The audiobook “Two Hussars” is narrated by professional narrator Stanislav Ivanov. All the heroes of the novella, through his delivery, gained vivid, three-dimensional characters, and his expressive reading and engaging content do not let listeners detach from the book for even a minute.