Sebastopol Sketches

Sevastopol Sketches are three historical fiction short stories written by Leo Tolstoy and published in 1855 to record his experiences during the Siege of Sevastopol . The name originates from Sevastopol, a city in Crimea. The book has also been released under the anglicized title The Sebastopol Sketches and is sometimes titled Sevastopol Stories. These brief "sketches" formed the basis of many of the episodes in Tolstoy's magnum opus, War and Peace. In Sevastopol in December, Tolstoy uses second person narrative in an introductory tour of life in Sevastopol. The detailed tour is arguably... similar to one Tolstoy may have been given upon arrival in Sevastopol in November, 1854. As part of the tour, the narrator takes you though the dressing station, which is a makeshift hospital in the Assembly Hall. Here you find wounded soldiers, amputees, "some of them on camp beds, but most of them lying on the floor". Tolstoy also uses Sevastopol in December to introduce the reader to the settings, mannerisms, and background he uses in Sevastopol in May and Sevastopol in August.
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