War and Peace

War and Peace

Author	Leo Tolstoy
Original title	Война и мир (Voyna i mir)
Language	Russian
Genre(s)	Historical, Romance, War novel
Publisher	Russkii Vestnik (series)
Publication date	1865 to 1869 (series)
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback) & Audio book
Pages	1000-1500
ISBN	NA

War and Peace (Russian: Война и мир, Voyna i mir) is a long novel by Leo Tolstoy, first published from 1865 to 1869 in Russkii Vestnik, which tells the story of Russian society during the Napoleonic Era. It is usually described as one of Tolstoy's two major masterpieces (the other being Anna Karenina) as well as one of the world's greatest novels. War and Peace offered a new kind of fiction, with a great many characters caught up in a plot that covered nothing less than the grand subjects indicated by the title, combined with the equally large topics of youth, marriage, age, and death. While today it is considered a novel, it broke so many novelistic conventions of its day that many critics of Tolstoy's time did not consider it as such. Tolstoy himself considered Anna Karenina (1878) to be his first attempt at a novel in the European sense.

Title

The Russian words for "peace" (pre-1918: "мир") and "world" (pre-1918: "мiръ", including "world" in the sense of "secular society"; see mir (social)) are homonyms and since the 1918 reforms have been spelled identically, which led to an urban legend in the Soviet Union saying that the original manuscript was called "Война и міръ" (so the novel's title would be correctly translated as "War and the World" or "War and Society").^[1] However, Tolstoy himself translated the title into French as "La guerre et la paix" ("War and Peace"). The confusion has been promoted by the popular Soviet TV quiz show Что? Где? Когда? (Chto? Gde? Kogda? - What? Where? When?), which in 1982 presented as a correct answer the "society" variant, based on a 1913 edition of "War and Peace" with a misprint in a single page. This episode was repeated in 2000, which refuelled the legend. There is also an (unrelated) poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky called "Война и міръ" (i.e. "міръ" as "society"), written in 1916. War and Peace or La Guerre et la Paix was also the title of an earlier political work by French anarchist Pierre Proudhon, published in 1864. It has been speculated that the title War and Peace was inspired by Proudhon's La Guerre et la Paix.^[2]

Origin

Tolstoy initially intended to write a novel about the Decembrist revolt.^[3] His investigation of the causes of this revolt led him all the way back to Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, and ultimately the history of that war. All that remains of that intention is a foreshadowing in the first epilogue that Pierre Bezukhov and Prince Andrei Bolkonsky's son are going to be members of the Decembrists.

Language

Although Tolstoy wrote the bulk of the book, including all the narration, in Russian, significant pockets of dialogue throughout the book (including its opening sentence) are written in French. This merely reflected reality, as the Russian aristocracy in the nineteenth century all knew French and often spoke it among themselves rather than Russian. Indeed, Tolstoy makes one reference to an adult Russian aristocrat who has to take Russian lessons to try to master the national language. Less realistically, the Frenchmen portrayed in the novel, including Napoleon himself, sometimes speak in French, sometimes in Russian.

Context

A scene from Sergei Bondarchuk's production of War and Peace (1968).

The novel tells the story of five aristocratic families, particularly the Bezukhovs, the Bolkonskys, and the Rostovs, and the entanglements of their personal lives with the history of 1805–1813, principally Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812. As events proceed, Tolstoy systematically denies his subjects any significant free choice: the onward roll of history determines happiness and tragedy alike. The standard Russian text is divided into four books (fifteen parts) and two epilogues – one mainly narrative, the other wholly thematic. While roughly the first half of the novel is concerned strictly with the fictional characters, the later parts, as well as one of the work's two epilogues, increasingly consist of (nonfictional) essays about the nature of war, political power, history, and historiography. Tolstoy interspersed these essays into the story in a way that defies fictional convention. Certain abridged versions removed these essays entirely, while others, published even during Tolstoy's life, simply moved these essays into an appendix.

Plot summary

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

War and Peace

War and Peace depicts a huge cast of characters, both historical and fictional, Russians and non-Russians, the majority of whom are introduced in the first book. The scope of the novel is extremely vast, but the narration focuses mainly on five or six characters whose differing personalities and experiences provide the impetus to the story with their mutual interactions leading up to, around and following the Napoleonic war. At the start of the first book, at a soirée given in July 1805 by Anna Pavlovna Scherer - the maid-of-honor to the queen mother Empress Maria Fyodorovna - the main players and aristocratic families of the novel are made known. Pierre Bezukhov is the illegitimate son of a wealthy count who is dying of a stroke, and becomes unexpectedly embroiled in a tussle for his inheritance. Educated abroad in France, with his mother dead, Pierre is essentially kindhearted, but is socially awkward owing to his goodhearted, open nature, and finds it difficult to integrate with the Petersburg society. Pierre's friend, the intelligent and sardonic Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, is the husband of a charming wife Lise, and is beginning to find little comfort in married life. Finding Petersburg society unctuous, he instead chooses to be an aide-de-camp to Prince Mikhail Kutuzov in their coming war against Napoleon.

Tolstoy then switches to Moscow, Russia's ancient city, as a contrast to St Petersburg. The Rostov family would become one of the main narrative players of the novel. We learn of the Moscow Count Ilya Rostov family, with his four adolescent children, of whom the vivacious younger daughter Natalya Rostova ("Natasha") and impetuous older Nikolai Rostov are the more memorable. Young Natasha, at the threshold of her youth, is supposed in love with Boris, a disciplined boyish officer, while Nikolai is pledging his teenage love to Sonya, his younger cousin. The eldest child of the Rostov family, Vera, is cold and somewhat haughty but has a good prospective marriage in a German officer husband Berg. Petya is the youngest of the Rostov family; like his brother, he is impetuous and eager to join the army when of age. The heads of the family, Count Ilya Rostov and Countess Natalya Rostova, are an affectionate couple but forever worrisome over their neglectful financial management. At Bald Hills, the Bolkonskys' country estate, Prince Andrei leaves his pregnant wife to his eccentric father Prince Nikolai Andreivitch Bolkonsky and devoutly religious sister Maria Bolkonskaya and leaves for war.

The first page of War and Peace in an early edition

The second book opens with descriptions of the impending Russian-French war preparations. At the Schöngrabern engagement, Nikolai Rostov, who is now conscripted as ensign in a squadron of hussars, has his first baptism of fire upfront in battle. He meets with Prince Andrei whom he does not really have a liking for. Like all young soldiers he is attracted by Tsar Alexandr's charisma. However Nikolai gambles recklessly and socialises with the lisping Denisov and the diastrous rake, Dolokhov. Briefly returning home to Moscow on home leave, Nikolai finds the Rostov family facing financial ruin due to poor estate management. With Denisov he spends an eventful winter home, finding Natasha blossoming into a beautiful young girl. Although his mother pleads with him to find himself a good financial prospect in marriage, Nikolai refuses to accede to his mother's request to find a rich heiress for wife and promises to marry his childhood sweetheart, the orphaned and self-effacing cousin Sonya. If there is a central character to War and Peace it is Pierre Bezukhov, who, upon receiving an unexpected inheritance, is suddenly burdened with the responsibilities and conflicts of a Russian nobleman. Much of Book Two concerns his struggles with his passions and his spiritual conflicts to be a better man. Now a rich aristocrat, his former carefree behavior vanishes and he enters upon a philosophical quest particular to Tolstoy: how should one live a moral life in an ethically imperfect world? The question constantly baffles and confuses Pierre. He attempts to free his peasants, but ultimately achieves nothing of note. He then enters into marriage with Prince Kuragin's beautiful and immoral daughter Hélène (Ëlena), against his own better judgement. He later joins the Freemasons but becomes embroiled in some of the Freemasonry's politicking, and is continually helpless in the face of his wife's numerous affairs, faced with anguish as all this happens. Pierre is vividly contrasted with Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, Tolstoy's intelligent and ambitious alter ego. At the Battle of Austerlitz Andrei is inspired by a vision of glory to lead a charge of a straggling army, but suffers a near fatal artillery wound. At the face of death he realizes all his former ambitions are pointless and his former hero, Napoleon (who rescues him in a horseback excursion to the battlefield), is apparently as vain as himself. Recovering from his injuries in a military hospital, Prince Andrei returns home only to find his wife Lise dying during childbirth, and is struck by his guilty conscience for not treating her better when she was alive. Burdened with nihilistic disillusionment, Prince Andrei lives anonymously in his estate until he is led to a philosophical argument with the visiting Pierre: where is God in this amoral world? Pierre points to panentheism and an afterlife. Young Natasha meets Andrei during her very first ball, and briefly reinvigorates Andrei with her openness and lively vitality, but the couple's plan to marry has to be postponed with a year-long engagement. When Prince Andrei leaves for his military engagements, Elena and her handsome brother Anatoly conspire together for Anatoly to seduce and dishonor the young, still immature and now beautiful Natasha Rostova. Thanks to Sonya and Pierre, this plan fails, yet, for Pierre, it is the cause of an important meeting with Natasha, when he realizes he has now fallen in love with her. During the time when the Great Comet of 1811–2 streaks the sky, life appears to begin anew for him, with fresh hope of love. Natasha, shamed by her near-seduction, breaks off her engagement with Andrei. Meanwhile Nikolai unexpectedly acts as a white knight to the beleaguered Maria Bolkonskaya, whose father's death has left her in the mercy of an estate of hostile, rebellious peasants. Struck by Maria, whom he is seeing for the first time, he reconsiders marriage and finds Maria's devotion, consideration, and inheritance extremely attractive. But he is constricted by his earlier, youthful promise to Sonya, his cousin, and hesitates to woo Maria. As Napoleon pushes through Russia, Pierre decides to leave Moscow and to watch the Battle of Borodino from a vantage point next to a Russian artillery crew. After watching for a time, he begins to join in carrying ammunition and virtually becomes an artillaryman. There, he realizes first-hand just how terrible and fatal war can be, in wrecking and killing healthy men. The battle is a long and foul one, however it ends in an impossible victory for the Russians, in face of the superior numbers and seemingly indefatigable Napoleonic army, the Russian General Kutuzov seemingly does not capitalize on this and retreats, allowing Napoleon to march on, and invade the capital Moscow. When Napoleon's Grand Army occupies an abandoned and burning Moscow, Pierre takes off on a quixotic mission to assassinate Napoleon He becomes an anonymous man in all the chaos, shedding his responsibilities by wearing peasant clothes and shunning his duties and lifestyle, the only person who he sees while in this garb is Natasha who recognizes him, and he in turn realizes the full scope of his love for her . His plan fails and he is captured in Napoleon's headquarters as a prisoner of war after saving a child from a burning building and assaulting a French legionnaire for attacking a woman . After witnessing French soldiers sacking Moscow and shooting Russian civilians arbritarily, Pierre is forced to march with the Grand Army during its disastrous retreat from Moscow owing to the harsh winter. He becomes friends with his cell-mate Platòn Karataev, a peasant with a saintly demeanor, who is incapable of malice. In Karataev Pierre finally finds what he is looking for, an honest, "rounded" person who is totally without pretence, unlike those from the Petersburg aristocratic society, and also notably a member of the working class, with whom he finds meaning in life simply by living and interacting with him. After months of trial and tribulation—during which Karataev is capriciously shot by the French—Pierre is later captured and freed by a Russian raiding party. Meanwhile Andrei, wounded during Napoleon's invasion, is taken in as a casualty cared for by the fleeing Rostovs; he is reunited with Natasha and sister Maria before the end of the war. Having lost all will to live after forgiving Natasha, he dies, much like the death scene at the end of The Death of Ivan Ilych. As the novel draws to a close, Pierre's wife Elena dies (sometime during the last throes of Napoleon's invasion); and Pierre is reunited with Natasha, while the victorious Russians rebuild Moscow. Pierre finds love at last and, revealing his love after being released from his former wife's death, marries Natasha, while Nikolai, whose dilemma between his heart's choices is now firmly set on Princess Maria, is released from his previous oath by Sonya herself. He marries Maria Bolkonskaya but provides for Sonya for the rest of her life. Nikolai Rostov and Maria, who are now married, decide to adopt and raise Prince Andrei's orphaned son, Nikolai Bolkonsky. Like in all marriages there are minor squabbles but the couples remain devoted to each other. There is a hint in the closing chapters that the idealistic, boyish Nikolai Bolkonsky and Pierre would both become part of the Decembrist Uprising which would change Russia forever, although the novel merely ends with that of a hint. The first epilogue concludes with Nikolai Bolkonsky promising he would do something which even his late father "would be satisfied...." (presumably as a revolutionary in the Decembrist revolt). The second epilogue sums up Tolstoy's views on history, free will and in what ways the two may interact to cause major events in mankind, in a long, partially historical and partly philosophical essay, where the narrator discusses how man cannot be wholly free, or wholly determined by "necessity" and this is primarily down to God.

Tolstoy's view of history

Tolstoy doesn't subscribe to the "great man" view of history: the notion that history is the story of strong personalities that move events and shape societies. He believes that events shape themselves, caused by social and other forces; and great men take advantage of them, changing them but not creating them. As an example, he compares Napoleon and Kutuzov. Napoleon, the Great Man, thought he had created the French Revolution, but actually he had simply happened along at the right time and usurped it. Kutuzov was more modest and more effective. Napoleon believed that he could control the course of a battle through sending orders through couriers, while Kutuzov admits that all he could do was to plan the initial disposition and then let subordinates direct the field of action. Typically, Napoleon would be frantically sending out orders throughout the course of a battle, carried by dashing young lieutenants—which were often misinterpreted or made irrelevant by changing conditions—while Kutuzov would sit quietly in his tent and often sleep through the battle. Ultimately, Napoleon chooses wrongly, opting to march on to Moscow and occupy it for five fatal weeks, when he would have been better off destroying the Russian army in a decisive battle instead his numerically superior army dissipate on a huge scale, thanks to large scale looting and pillaging, and lack of direction for his force. General Kutuzov believes time to be his best ally, and refrains from engaging the French. He moves his army out of Moscow, and the residents evacuate the city: the nobles flee to their country estates, taking their treasures with them; lesser folk flee wherever they can, taking food and supplies. The French march into Moscow and disperse to find housing and supplies, then ultimately destroy themselves as they accidentally burn the city to the ground and then abandon it in late Fall, then limp back toward the French border in the teeth of a Russian Winter. They are all but destroyed by a final Cossack attack as they straggle back toward Europe. Tolstoy observes that Kutuzuv didn't burn Moscow as a "scorched earth policy," nor did Napoleon; but after taking the city, Napoleon moved his troops in, to find housing more or less by chance in the abandoned houses: generals appropriated the grander houses, lesser men took what was left over; units were dispersed, and the chain of command dissolved into chaos. Quickly, his tightly disciplined army dissolved into a disorganized rabble; and of course, if one leaves a wooden city in the hands of strangers who naturally use fire to warm themselves, cook food, and smoke pipes, and have not learned how particular Russian families safely used their stoves and lamps (some of which they had taken with them as they fled the city), fires will break out. In the absence of an organized fire department, the fires will spread. Tolstoy concludes that the city was destroyed by chance.

Major characters in "War and Peace"

Main article: List of characters in War and Peace

• Pierre Bezukhov—A freethinking Freemason, though confused and at times reckless, is capable of decisive action and great displays of willpower when circumstances demand it, often regarded as being a reflection of Tolstoy himself (along with his alter ego Andrey).
• Natasha Rostova—Introduced as a romantic young girl, she evolves through trial and suffering and eventually finds happiness with Pierre
• Sonya Rostova —The 'sterile flower'. Orphaned cousin of Vera, Nikolai, Natasha, and Petya Rostov. Engaged to Nikolai throughout most of the book, toward the end, she releases him to marry Princess Maria.
• Andrey Nikolayevich Bolkonsky —A cynical, brave soldier in the Napoleonic Wars, who is the counterpart to Pierre.
• Maria Bolkonskaya—(born in 1789) A woman who struggles between the obligations of her religion and the desires of her heart.
• Nikolai Rostov—a soldier through most of the book, he evenually marries Princess Maria.
• Napoleon I of France—the Great Man, ruined by great blunders.
• Kutuzov—Russian General throughout the book. His diligence and modesty eventually save Russia from the Great Man.
• Elena Kuragina—Pierre's delinquent wife, who earns social power in high-society circles but eventually defeats herself.
• Anatole Vassilitch Kuragin—Elena's brother and a wild-living soldier who is secretely married yet tries to elope with Natasha Rostova.
• Petya Ilyitch Rostov (1796-1812) son of Count Ilya Adreyitch Rostov and Natalya Rostova, hero officer of the wars with France, killed in 1812
• The Freemason—interests Pierre in his mysterious group, starting a lengthy subplot.
• Emperor Alexander Pavlovitch—Tsar and Emperor of Russia. He signed a peace treaty with Napoleon in 1807.

Many of Tolstoy's characters in War and Peace were based on real-life people known to Tolstoy himself. Nikolai Rostov and Maria Bolkonskaya were based on Tolstoy's own memories of his father and mother, while Natasha was modeled after Tolstoy's wife and sister-in-law. Pierre and Prince Andrei bear much resemblance to Tolstoy himself, and many commentators have treated them as alter egos of the author. (It is an innovation for a writer to create two alter egos of himself, and Tolstoy's are both compelling and complementary.) There are numerous minor characters in War and Peace, who appear in one chapter or are mentioned occasionally in passing. A few of these, such as Platon Karataev, are not really minor: Karataev plays a major role in the maturation of Pierre Bezhukhov after he becomes a prisoner of war.

Film, TV, theatrical and other adaptations

• The first Russian film adaptation of War and Peace was the 1915 film Voyna i mir, directed by Vladimir Gardin and starring Gardin and the Russian ballerina Vera Karalli.
• Initiated by a proposal of the German director Erwin Piscator in 1938, the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev composed an opera based on this epic novel during the 1940s. The complete musical work premiered in Leningrad in 1955. It was the first opera to be staged at the Sydney Opera House in 1973.
• First successful stage adaptations of War and Peace were produced by Alfred Neumann and Erwin Piscator (1942, revised 1955, published by Macgibbon & Kee in London 1963, and staged in 16 countries since) and R. Lucas (1943). A second film adaptation was produced by F. Kamei in Japan (1947).
• War and Peace (1956): American director King Vidor made a 208-minute long film starring Audrey Hepburn (Natasha), Henry Fonda (Pierre) and Mel Ferrer (Andrei). The casting of Henry Fonda as the youthful Pierre has been questioned, but many critics consider Audrey Hepburn perfect as Natasha,

• War and Peace (1968): Soviet director Sergei Bondarchuk made a critically acclaimed four-part film version (Vojna i mir) of the novel, released individually in 1965-1967, and as a re-edited whole in 1968, starring Lyudmila Savelyeva (as Natasha Rostova) and Vyacheslav Tikhonov (as Andrei Bolkonsky). Bondarchuk himself played the character of Pierre Bezukhov. By the time Bondarchuk made this film, the flawless image of Natasha as created by Audrey Hepburn had achieved an almost iconic status among Western audiences, and it was therefore a challenge for the director to select an actress for this role. The actress he chose, Lyudmila Savelyeva, looked very similar to Hepburn. The film was almost seven hours long; it involved thousands of actors, 120 000 extras, and it took seven years to finish the shooting, as a result of which the actors age changed dramatically from scene to scene. It won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for its authenticity and massive scale. [1]
• In December 1970, Pacifica Radio station WBAI broadcast a reading of the entire novel (the 1968 Dunnigan translation) read by over 140 celebrities and ordinary people. [2]
• War and Peace (1972): The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) made a television miniseries based on the novel, broadcast in 1972-73. Anthony Hopkins played the lead role of Pierre. Other lead characters were played by Rupert Davies, Faith Brook, Morag Hood, Alan Dobie, Angela Down and Sylvester Morand. This version faithfully included many of Tolstoy's minor characters, including Platon Karataev (Harry Locke).
• A stage adaptation by Helen Edmundson was published in 1996 by Nick Hern Books, London. The play was first produced in 1996 at the Royal National Theatre.
• La Guerre et la paix (tv) (2000) by François Roussillon. Robert Brubaker played the lead role of Pierre.
• War and Peace (2007): Lux Vide company film which incorporated Russia, France, Germany, Poland and Italy in production. Directed by Robert Dornhelm, with screenplay written by, Lorenzo Favella, Enrico Medioli and Gavin Scott. Alexander Beyer played the lead role of Pierre. Other characters were played by Malcolm McDowell, Clémence Poésy, Alessio Boni, Pilar Abella, J. Kimo Arbas, Juozapas Bagdonas and Toni Bertorelli.

Translations into other languages

Into English:

• Clara Bell (from a French version) 1885-86
• W. H. Dole 1889
• Leo Wiener 1904
• Constance Garnett (1904)
• Louise and Aylmer Maude (1922-3)
• Princess Alexandra Kropotkin (1949)
• Manuel Komroff (Abridged) (1956)
• Rosemary Edmonds (1957, revised 1978)
• Ann Dunnigan (1968)
• Anthony Briggs (2005)
• Andrew Bromfield (2007)
• Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (October 16, 2007)

Into Macedonian:

• Simon Drakul (1985)

Editions

The Inner Sanctum Edition Simon and Schuster. 1945-1954, I (ISBN: 0679600841) Hard Cover, 2. A Reader's Guide and Bookmark for the Inner Sanctum Edition of War and Peace is included, containing

• a list of characters arranged in family groups;
• a chronological table of principal historical events, 1805 to 1812, the period covered by War and Peace;
• a map of the Campaign of 1805; a map showing the Napoleonic Invasion of Russia and a Plan of Moscow in 1812;
• a list of characters, arranged in order of their appearance, with full identifications and a note on Russian names and titles.

The book is translated, with a preface and introductory notes, by Aylmer Maude, with a foreword by Clifton Fadiman. Includes detailed Table of Contents, various famous authors' praises of War and Peace, a list of dates of principal historical events, and 7 maps throughout text, as well as maps on the front & rear paste-down endpapers.

See also

• List of characters in War and Peace
• List of historical novels

References

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

War and Peace

Online text

• A searchable online version of Aylmer Maude's English translation of War and Peace
• English translation at gutenberg
• Searchable version of the gutenberg text in multiple formats ( html, XML, opendocument ODF, pdf (landscape, portrait), plaintext ) SiSU
• Full text of War and Peace in modern Russian orthography

Study guides

• SparkNotes Study Guide for "War and Peace"

Other information

• Discussion about "peace" and "world" meaning, in Russian
• Birth, death, balls and battles by Orlando Figes. This is an edited version of an essay found in the Penguin Classics new translation of War and Peace (2005).
• Russian Army during the Napoleonic Wars
• The War and Peace Broadcast: 35th Anniversary, from Pacifica Radio Archives site

Listening

• Radio documentary about 1970 marathon reading of War and Peace on WBAI, from Democracy Now! program, December 6, 2005