Dersu Uzala (book)

Dersu Uzala
Author(s)	V. K. Arseniev
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject(s)	Travelogue
Publisher	McPherson
Publication date	October 1996
ISBN	978-0929701493

This article is about the book. For the 1975 Russian-Japanese movie directed by Akira Kurosawa, see Dersu Uzala (1975 film).

For the 1961 Russian movie, see Dersu Uzala (1961 film).

Dersu Uzala. Photo by V. Arsenyev

Dersu Uzala (Russian: Дерсу Узала; alternate U.S. titles: With Dersu the Hunter and Dersu the Trapper) is the title of a 1923 book by the Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev.

Plot

Arsenyev's book tells of his travels in the Ussuri basin in the Russian Far East. Dersu was the name of a Nanai hunter (who lived c. 1850–1908) who acted as a guide for Arsenyev's surveying crew from 1902 to 1907, and saved them from starvation and cold. Arsenyev portrays him as a great man, animist who sees animals and plants as equal to man. From 1907, Arsenyev invited Dersu to live in his house in Khabarovsk as Dersu's failing sight hampered his ability to live as a hunter. In the spring of 1908, Dersu bade farewell to Arsenyev and walked back to his home in the Primorsky Krai, where he was killed. According to Arsenyev's book, Dersu Uzala was murdered near the town of Korfovskiy and buried in an unmarked grave in the taiga.

Editions in Russian

• Дерсу Узала. Сквозь тайгу Издательство: Терра - Книжный клуб (1997) Н. Е. Кабанова (ed.) EAN 9785300010973 (English: Dersu Uzala. Taiga Publishing House: Terra Book Club) (1997) N. ya. Kabanov (ed.) EAN 9785300010973)

English translations

For more information about English and other language translations see [1] and [2].

• With Dersu the Hunter: Adventures in the Taiga adapted by Anne Terry White
  • Pub: George Braziller] 1965, A Venture Book, New York. ISBN 0807603252

• Dersu the Trapper translated by Malcolm Burr
  • Pub: Secker & Warburg, London 1939. First English edition.
  • Pub: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc. New York: 1941. ISBN 0929701496 First American edition.
  • Pub: McPherson and others, 1996, 2001. ISBN 0929701496. Mass market paperback.

• Dersu Uzala translated by Victor Shneerson
  • Pub: Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, ca 1950
  • Pub: Raduga Moscow 1990, ISBN 5050028221
  • Pub: University Press of the Pacific 2004 ISBN 1410213471

Film adaptations

• 1961 - Dersu Uzala (Дерсу Узала) Soviet Union, director Agasi Babayan [Агаси Бабаян]
• 1975 - Dersu Uzala (Дерсу Узала) Soviet Union/Japan, director Akira Kurosawa

External links

• http://www.dersuuzala.info/