- Paperback: 214 pages
- Publisher: Carcanet Press Ltd; New edition edition (26 Sep 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 185754286X
- ISBN-13: 978-1857542868
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 13.5 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,394,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'With obvious affinities to Kafka's The Castle, The Tartar Steppe is a serener and more immediately rewarding book.' --The Times
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
Young Giovanni Drogo is posted to remote Fort Bastiani, overlooking the Tartar Steppe. Published in Italy in 1945, this story is an indictment of military life and a meditiation on human thirst for glory.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sometimes described as an indictment of military life and thought, this book touches on far more. It somehow reaches into ones innermost mind, to put a precise finger on the futility of ones existence, yet also on the inevitibality of our destiny. I have read thousands of books in my time, but never one that made me so sad for my own life. The setting for this powerful book - the lonely Fort Bastiani, in some unknown place and time - is superbly painted, and its characters in perfect keeping with it. A book that deserves to be more well known, it would stand very favourable comparison with many contemporary novels.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I can't believe no one's reviewed this book yet. I came across it as a result of 1001 Books To Read Before You Die, and though I'd never heard of it before, it definitely deserves to be in that list (or even 10 Books To Read Before You Die). It's haunting, sad, melancholic and, if you find yourself stuck in a rut, it might make you rethink your situation. The story is based around a young soldier assigned to a remote fortress whose garrison is perpetually waiting, waiting and hoping for an attack by the enemy, whoever they are, from across the desert they have to watch. If that sounds like a boring idea for a book, it honestly isn't. It's absolutely beautiful. Buy it.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Waiting for Godot in the desert of the Tatars. Officer Giovanni Drogo is assigned to Fort Bastiani, a frontier post in front of the steppe in which the Tatars live (the book is a bit iffy geographically, no doubt deliberately, as it suggests an Italian fort in what seems like Central Asia). He doesn't like the place right from the beginning, and hopes he would be out of it in four months, but he ends up serving (SPOILER AHEAD) thirty years. In which absolutely nothing happens, and in which he sacrifices the possibility of having a family or a meaningful career. And when he is about to retire, the Tatars (or whomever the invaders are) really attack, he is considered too ill and old to fight, so he is shipped immediately from the front. A great book (though perhaps a bit too long) that would be considered existentialist today, even if author Buzzati didn't suscribe to that movement. Note: Buzzati wrote some other great books, including the great fantasy book The Mystery of the Old Forest, which I believe has not been translated into English.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Tartar Steppe: Dino Buzzati
The Tartar Steppe is a curious novel. If you examine the basic premise of the storyline it would appear that not a lot happens. Read more
Published 2 months ago by N. A. Spencer
A multifaceted gem
This novel tells a relatively simple story: Giovanni Drogo wastes his life in an isolated frontier fort, waiting for a chance to fight off an enemy attack. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Cat
Waiting
There is a painting - Malevich's Complexe Presentiment. This is the painting of Buzzati's book. This is a book when nothing happens - time stands still, or rather time is simply... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Leopard
Frightening
Cold, beautiful and cruel. The drama is set at a military fortress on the edge of the Tartar steppe from whence the enemy is expected to attack even though no action had been... Read more
Published 17 months ago by demola
Forgotten classic
The story is very simple and is easily summarised in the blurb. However, the real charm of this book is in the telling of the story. Read more
Published 19 months ago by studio425
One steppe beyond
As my title implies it appears madness(pun intended) to devote a life to the insignificance of awaiting a moment to make our mark. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Frank Candour
weird and wonderful
As said in other reviews, young Drogo is stationed at a remote post high in the mountains where he seems to be the only soldier not there by choice. Read more
Published on 5 Aug 2009 by monica
One of the best
Like the other reviewers, it makes you wonder where your life went, and perhaps why you didn't do more with it while you had the chance. Read more
Published on 4 Aug 2009 by D. J. Keyworth
To read and re-read
There is very few books that we have time to re-read because there's always so much new ones waiting for us... Read more
Published on 16 Aug 2008 by Josephine Huys
Everyone is in the Tartar steppe
You read it and you will see that "Giovanni Drogo" is you. The story written by Buzzati is terribly true: the life of our main character in the fortress is a metaphora of our life. Read more
Published on 12 Nov 2003
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