Other tales of the Caucasus were to follow which were observed at this time, though not written until a later period. In 1854–55. The Woodcutters was written; a book notable for its exact and rather frigid realism; full of curious records of Russian soldier-psychology—notes to be made use of in the future. In 1856 appeared A Brush with the Enemy, in which there is a man of the world, a degraded non-commissioned officer, a wreck, a coward, a drunkard and a liar, who cannot support the idea of being slaughtered like one of the common soldiers he despises, the least of whom is worth a hundred of himself.
Above all these works, as the summit, so to speak, of this first mountain range, rises one of the most beautiful lyric romances that ever fell from Tolstoy’s pen: the song of his youth, the poem of the Caucasus, The Cossacks.[1] The splendour of the snowy mountains displaying their noble lines against the luminous sky fills the whole work with its music. The book is unique, for it belongs to the flowering-time of genius, “the omnipotent god of youth,” as Tolstoy says, “that rapture which never returns.” What a spring-tide torrent! What an overflow of love!
“‘I love—I love so much!… How brave! How good!’ he repeated: and he felt as though he must weep. Why? Who was brave, and whom did he love? That he did not precisely know.”[2]
