Lunchtime read: The Cossacks

Two worlds collide with the Moscow aristocrat and the Cossack girl and no matter what how earnest the declarations of love the divide cannot be breached.

After he tells Marianka that he will ask for her hand in marriage formally, although she is betrothed to Luka, fate intervenes and his Cossack rival is seriously injured on a raid. The sense of isolation that Olenin has felt all along suddenly consumes him after she angrily tells him that he can do nothing for her and he decides to quit the village.

At the end he departs without even a glance from Marianka and the world he hoped he could enter and learn from closes as he horse pulls away from his lodging.

Tempted to read the other story in this volume so might hold off on the review…