Customer Reviews

And Quiet Flows the Don: A Novel in Four Books

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I read Sholokhov's 'And Quiet Flows the Don', Pasternak's 'Doctor Zhivago', Tolstoi's 'War and Peace', and Solzhenitsyn's 'First Circle' in the early 1970s.

The others were indeed memorable, but 'the Don' is burned into my mind's eye.

It paints a searing portrait of a vast, unforgiving steppe--then tears across it on horseback, leaving great waves of ethnic, political and personal upheaval in its wake.

I still smell the wheatfields in the wind and taste the black dust on my lips from the opening chapter.

I see villagers storm the home of one of their own and destroy his outlander wife for her foreignness.

I see an unhorsed cavalryman struggling to remove his bright blue Cossack breeches before capture in one of the Great War's opening battles with Austria, only to be plucked from danger at the last moment by the young Cossack who had stolen his wife before the war.

I hear the stolen woman, now become a fiery mistress, sobbing her heart out when the man whose child she bore leaves her at last for his own wife.

And after the firing squad's last volley in the closing chapter, I see a proud, condemned Cossack biting fiercely into his own shoulder, to make no sound as his blood pours out and stains the black steppe red.

In a quarter of a century, I still have not read a more powerful novel.

Hailed as the best war novel to emerge from the Soviet, Sholokhov's epic has indeed solidified its position in world literature as a must read for those interested in the art of war. Yet, far more than a mere war novel, And Quiet Flows the Don, just as War and Peace had done, masterfully combines the men's martial vigor with the delicate sentimentalities that question war. The blend of peace fades into this gnawing passion in soldiers' bones as they march off to fight under some cause, a cause that has only become too hazy for name. Dedicated to the Cossacks who have resided by the Don for ages, Sholokhov follows a young Cossack's journey into the unknown terror of war. And Gregor Melekov's personal tragedy, blends w/ an array of Cossack characters: swindlers in love, Red Guards with a faith...the plot may appear too scattered at times, yet following Tolstoy's grand tradition to capture a supreme idea through the chasms of minute details, Sholokhov depicts the anguish of a people too wrapped up in honor, unable to cope with the nascent order of New Russia, regretful about allegiance to the Czar who ensured tensile peace, and ultimately lost to themselves as to "mistake each other for the enemies". We are taught that war does such to people, is peace to heal the wound then? I have yet to conclude this epic w/ The Don Flows Home to the Sea, but the glimpse of peace and yearning for tranquility have long glittered in the eyes of Gregor and his brothers/comrades, exhausted by struggles. A wonderful folk style book that brings one closer to the true picture of Cossack life--acquaint one w/ their lust, their yearning, their cowardice, and their courage.

I first read this magnificent epic in 1970 and have reread it at least three times since. Sholokhov captures the breath and sweep of the steppes of Russia as he draws the reader into maelstrom of the First World War, the Russian Revolution and Civil War. It is a time and a land that was caught between the modern industrialized West and the near medieval Russia- Cossack Calvary charging German machine guns, the slash of sabers, and the incongruity of machine guns mounted on ox carts.

But more than a story of war, this is a story of people. Sholokhov creates for us characters who we deeply care about. The doomed love affair between the protagonist Gregor and Aksinia is both filled with passion and heartache. We even come to care about Akisina husband, the brutal Stephen, We see them caught up in catastrophic events far beyond their control. Although often cited and an apologist for Stalin, I wondered as I read it why it was published in Soviet Union. Our hero Gregor is first swept up on one side of this conflict to the other- clearly he is not a dedicated revolutionary, but just a man trying to survive in a conflict he cannot comprehend. It is a story of survival, love, and revenge. Since my last reading of this novel probably fifteen years ago, I can still vividly picture in my mind the word images that Sholokhov crafted with his pen. Images as simple as the flies settling on the ceiling of the peasants hut, to Stephen brutally stomping his wife Aksinia. His description of the First World War is brutal, perhaps surpassing Remarques All is Quiet on the Western Front.

Russians write great novels and this is one of the best. If you are unfamiliar with Russian literature you would do well to read Quiet Flows the Don as your first Russian novel.

Sholokov's "And Quiet Flows the Don" is one of the best novels to come out of the milieu of the old Soviet Union. A truely Russian novel and well worth reading both for it's own sake and for the insight into the time of the First World War, the Revolution and the Civil War that followed. I've owned and enjoyed this book for many years.

However, when looking to pick up a copy of this book, CHECK THE PUBLISHER CAREFULLY and make sure you order a version that's what you think it is. The reason for this is....

Amazon associates reviews of a book with many different versions of the same book from different publishers. Unfortunately for us customers, Amazon is seeing a growing plague of new Print-On-Demand Publishers who are specialising in reprinting copyright-expired books. Such as "And Quiet Flows the Don." Some of these publishers produce quite good quality books, some do not. What you do need to do is check the publisher carefully for all these older "copyright expired" books.

A fine example of the "not good quality" is the imprint of "And Quiet Flows the Don" published by General Books LLC. The version published by General Books LLC is scanned in using OCR technology (and using pretty poor quality OCR scanning equipment and software from the look of their books), is overall of very poor print quality, uses automated reproduction with no index, no illustrations and an excessive number of typos.

To quote some specifics from the publisher's own web site:
"We created your book using OCR software that includes an automated spell check. Our OCR software is 99 percent accurate if the book is in good condition. However, with up to 3,500 characters per page, even one percent can be an annoying number of typos....

After we re-typeset and designed your book, the page numbers change so the old index and table of contents no longer work. Therefore, we usually remove them. Since many of our books only sell a couple of copies, manually creating a new index and table of contents could add more than a hundred dollars to the cover price....

Our OCR software can't distinguish between an illustration and a smudge or library stamp so it ignores everything except type. We would really like to manually scan and add the illustrations. But many of our books only sell a couple of copies....

We created your book using a robot who turned and photographed each page. Our robot is 99 percent accurate. But sometimes two pages stick together. And sometimes a page may even be missing from our copy of the book. We would really like to manually scan each page and buy multiple copies of each original. But many of our books only sell a couple of copies....."

General Books LLC are flooding Amazon with these low quality publications (450,000+ listed under General Books LLC so far) and, unfortunately, many of them have the reviews associated with the original or with better quality imprints associated with them. The For the buyer that's not aware of this publisher this can result in an unfortunate purchasing decision.

A good rule of thumb for these Print on Demand publishers is to take a look at the cover - if it's a good quality illustration that reflects the content, there's a table of contents, and when you do the Look Inside thing there's no disclaimer saying you're looking at another book, and they've used facsimile reproduction technology (rather than OCR), it's usually a pretty safe bet. Conversely, if any of these are missing, you're taking a chance on the quality. I've bought a few based on my selection criteria above and they've been good quality. General Books LLC however, is a publisher to steer clear of at all costs.

If you have been unfortunate enough to buy the General Books LLC version by mistake, you can return to Amazon for a full refund (but check Amazon's return policy and process first).

I am glad to see "And Quiet Flows the Don" is back in print! Sholokhov won the Nobel Prize for this novel of war and revolution among the Don Cossack host. Although painted across a backdrop of history, it is primarily the love story of Gregor and Aksinya. As much of great 20th century Russian literature, the style harks back to Tolstoy, but the subject matter is undeniably Soviet. Published in 1929, "And Quiet Flows the Don" was the pinnacle of Sholokhov's career. He never again produced a work to compare, although to be fair to him, his career coincided with the height of Stalinist conformity in the arts. This was an era when simply being a famous writer was dangerous - think of the careers of Pasternak, Babel, and Pilnyak. If Sholokhov descended into the role of a party hack churning out the obligatory Socialist Realist pap, at least he lived to a ripe old age!

I am very surprised to see that there are not more reviews of this book. Either it shows that people are too drawn to this magnificent work to leave behind the world Sholokhov created, even for a moment to type, or that not too many people are reading this life changing novel because they are not aware of it. I am very reticent on writing reviews, since I do not find my pen to be adequate enough to motivate fellow Amazonians to give my tastes a chance. Anyhow, since I am so spell bounded by Sholokhov's world, I could not any longer sit in the shadow and silence my voice.

I am still reading "And Quiet Flows the Don" and momentarily I am on Volume 3 of this epic tale (and it cannot get any bigger than this, well maybe Tolstoy, but even the "Silent Don" is a different caliber than good old "War and Peace"). I am sure the translator of "And Quiet Flows the Don" must have spent years performing the task of translation. The sheer amount of detailed description evokes such intense emotions and vividness that the reader cannot but live in the world Sholokhov created. The best way to put it in simple terms is that "one is there, or rather the Don is here." How much love, meticulous care and tenderness went into developing, writing and presenting the story of the Don Cossacks in the midst of the First World War, the Russian Revolution and then the Civil War is incomparable to any work I have encountered. Though, while I have to state that Mann is my favorite novelist, "And Quiet Flows the Don" has to be my favorite novel (so far). Do not be fooled by those who say that this is Communistic propaganda. Serious minded ironists always masked themselves in order to raise sensations and satire of the dominant discourse.

Sholokhov's epic is bar none the best narrative I have come across, period. Granted, there are many avid readers who adhere to peculiar authors and works, who will from the first get-go choose to disagree with me on my praise of Sholokhov, I am only exuding my affections and gratitude to Sholokhov for having offered the world an absolute beautiful tale of life. This is Realism at its best. Sure, we can all debate whether an author can depict reality objectively, or purely from a perceived account; but still this does not suffice for me to avoid the Silent Don tale. Anyone who has come across "And Quiet Flows the Don" is doing him/herself a disservice and disfavor by not reading it.

Mikhail Sholokov richly deserved his Nobel prize for literature. His literary work in "Quiet Flows the Don" is without doubt one of Russia's masterpieces. His ability to weave a complex and wonderfully graphic tapestry of cossack life before, during, and after Russia's October Revolution is remarkable. His descriptions of the land and the individual lives of the people inhabiting this area of Russia is visually stunning as I read the story images of the characters sprang to mind without effort. The reader will embark on a wonderful journey through a remarkable country at a critical time in human history. Sholokov style and prose is guaranteed to hold the reader captive. He truly is a worthy successor to Lev Tolstoy

I have read this book more than 5 years prior to writing this review, but I have yet to read an epic that has as lasting an impression as this one. The author, a humanist to the core, gently weaves the scenes over the myriad of characters. The reader is pulled into the scenes - he doesn't remain a reader. It has a raw, fresh appeal to it, even now. Need I go on?

Irrespective of the controversy surrounding its authorship, this remains one of the most powerful and memorable novels I have ever read. Big and angry, it grabs all those cliches about Russian epics firmly about the neck and squeezes them for all they're worth.

Mikhail Sholokhov is not a name that rolls of the tongue. It should. He was a brilliant writer from a preternaturally early age. His multi seried novel starting with "And Quiet Flows the Don" first published in the 1930's is a wonderful, mesmerizing journey into Cossack life on the precipice of the Great War and on to the Russian revolution. Despite it's sympathetic and quite human tone it was both heavily censored by the new Soviet government AND reversed by Stalin who is said to have loved the books.

There continues to be questions about whether or not Sholokhov wrote it or copied it. In either case someone wrote a great book! The people of the "The Don" are extraordinary, indecent, savage, romantic, traditional, loving, violent, spiteful, superstitious and full of intrigue. No one is spared from Sholokhov's pen as men are rapists, opportunists while hard working and sincere. Women have a very short end of the stick but still display a broad range of raw emotion.

Sholokhov pulls several interesting ploys. He portrays the calm of the flowing Don to lull the reader into seeing the people as similarly placid and living much as they had forever but they are clearly not. There is much conflict and emotion that boils through. He takes interesting long tangents where a seemingly throw away character will be writing diary entries about life and war only to let us observe through that person what a main character is doing on the battlefield. Then he takes us through some of the same scene from the main character's viewpoint. And finally the two characters; in this case Yevgeny Listnisky and Grigory Melekhov ultimately meet again in a very intense scene.

There are so many images stuck in my head of village life, army camps with salty language and lamentable deeds and of course the underlying challenge to Czarist power that creates yet more tension. At it's heart this one seriously messed up romance with heaps of betrayal, denial, anger and of course passion.

Loved it. On to book II in 2012.