War and Peace
Knopf - Knopf
Release date: 2007-10-16
Hardcover
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Classic fiction, Russian Novel And Short Story, Fiction, Literature - Classics / Criticism, Russian, Literature: Classics, Classics, Literary, Fiction / General, Alexander I, 1801-1825, Campaigns, History, Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815, Russia
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War and Peace
Date undefinedNothing like it, nor will there ever be. It is a life changing experience.
War and Peace
Date undefinedWhen French forces led by Napoleon spread across Europe and threatened Russian safety and independence, Russia declared war against France. The novel revolves around a group of Russian protagonists (Pierre, Andrew, Natasha, Mary, Nicholas and General Kutuzov) during time of French occupation of Moscow, decisive battle of Borodino, French withdrawal from Russia, and the return to a life of normalcy.
Tolstoy's characters, like those of Dostoevsky are intricate complex; both Andrew and Pierre had qualities similar to Tolstoy himself (the death of Andrew's wife during child birth just like Tolstoy's mother, Pierre's alienation from society and his odd unattractive looks). Still, Tolstoy artistically made the two characters distinguished and different, Tolstoy went to great fascinating lengths to very clearly detail Andrew's inability to open up for others and his dislike of being touched by others .
Tolstoy, who chose a leap of faith in his personal religious life, which is reflected in this story told against the historical backdrop of spiritual Russia defeating rational France during a time of mutual suffering of both nations because of the actions of their governments; it is a universal tale.
Great exploration of human irrationality and motives, a story of every person's anguish in the face of loss, death, and search for meaning in life.
War and Peace
Date undefinedThe book is set between 1805 to 1820 in Russia, among a few families and individuals whose fates become entwined. The families are feudal nobility, most with peasant serfs. This historical time overlaps with when Napoleon Buonaparte came into power in France, then led his army against Russian, and withdrew, then was deposed. Half the book covers stories of war and battle strategy and decisions; individual skirmishes and battles; life in camp and war hospitals; and struggles of war, seen through the eyes of the characters who--some pages before--were engaging in intrigue and personality in drawing rooms and salons of Petersburg and Moscow. The book unabashedly includes the upper of the upper crust, including 'the richest man in Russia', people with access to the Tsar, families with houses and houses and estates and estates. It also includes characters with proximity to the heads of the Russian Army, making it easy to provide a backdrop to essays on strategy, the Russian communal personality and will, and the political intrigues of the various factions about how to handle Napoleon. The family and relationship dramas include a couple of characters and storylines that seem similar to what one finds in Anna Karenina: this is definitely a Tolstoy story and it will please or pain the reader in some ways just like the reader reacted to Anna Karenina. Surprisingly, the book ends just as strongly as it begins--it could have continued another 1,000 pages it seems just as strongly. As it winds down, one finds oneself at the beginning less of a French-ified salon story of Petersburg intrigue and more at the beginning of a Turgenev story of managing a feudal estate with hunting, agriculture, bailiffs, marital harmony.
The novel is good at so many levels. Finding a readable translation that handles the barriers to entry (like the French, and the diminutives and naming issues to understand how everyone relates) is the biggest issue. Once one is a good way in, keeping the characters in order becomes manageable and the book blooms on almost every page. Truly one of the best novels ever. That said, for me the book includes some of the disappointing themes from Anna Karenina that seem to imply an acceptable behavior of cheating on husbands by women without the reverse. Maybe this was Tolstoy's goal to draw out some reaction based on the sadness and hazing of cuckolded men but whether it's men cheating on wives or vice versa, Tolstoy's decision to lay in the most sympathetic and tragic figures as the cheated-on stains an otherwise pristine novel.
