War and Peace and Tolstoy and Russia and Napoleon and … All That

In a few days, I’ll post a summary of my mid-year reading-to-date. I want to comment on the book that started my 2018 reading: Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

I have two goals. I hope to encourage you to read it if you haven’t. If you have, I hope I’ll spur you to comment on your experience reading this archetypal “big book.” Ideally, sharing my experience might lessen the impression that it’s a toweringly imposing monolith that should be read and create some expectation that you might want to.

Yes, it is a large book. In the edition I read, more than 1,300 pages. It will require the devotion of some precious reading time. I believe it’s worth it.

I read War and Peace in an English translation. There are numerous translations available in many languages. One always feels apologetic about reading “great literature” at a remove from the author’s own language, but that’s a limitation of mine. I’d be delighted to hear from readers who know it in Russian. Victor Travel Blog, how about you? I envy anyone the experience of reading the original.

Preparing to Read War and Peace

I have a few suggestions to give first-time readers about what to expect.

Tolstoy published the book in 1869, and the story spans the years 1805-1820. Unless you have a sound command of Russian society and history at the beginning of the 19th century, and know something about Napoleon’s campaigns of 1805 and especially 1812, consider doing a bit of historical study for some context. Not required, but helpful.

I recommend that you find an edition of the book that has some historical notes and maps (Tolstoy provided some, himself, which should be there). Numerous historical figures (not just Napoleon) appear in the book, and it’s useful to distinguish them from the fictional ones if, like me, your knowledge of Russian history isn’t what it should be.

Very helpful is an edition that provides a summary of the major characters, typically grouped by family. That’s useful for those of us who aren’t familiar with the Russian convention of individuals having a first name, patronymic, surname and (often multiple) nicknames, any one of which might be used to refer to them in narrative or dialogue. Not only are there more than 500 characters, those family relationships play out over the entire course of the book, and it’s useful — especially early on as they enter in quick succession — to have a guide.

Unless you’re extremely comfortable reading French, have a dictionary at hand. Most of the principal characters in the book are from the Russian aristocracy, which was heavily francophile. The “peace” sections set in Moscow and Petersburg often include dialogue in French, as was the custom. I have a nodding acquaintance with reading French, and could follow most of those passages, but I benefitted from looking up unfamiliar vocabulary and expressions.

Finally, I’ll suggest that — as Tolstoy himself stated — you shouldn’t expect to read a “novel.” War and Peace is something else. It lacks some of the unities of a novel, because there are so many interlinked and overlapping stories. The “arc” or “theme” of the book subsumes all of them and bridges them all with considerations that sound pretentious to describe, from “the fate of Russia,” or “the futility of war” to the banal, “no man is an island.” Accept that Tolstoy’s accomplishment in composing War and Peace is sui generis and enjoy the journey.

Why Read It?

War and Peace is a compelling story, artfully told. Tolstoy masterfully sets a complex, interwoven set of personalities and events inside the framework of historical fact. His ability to create interesting and convincing humans and drama, and have them react to, be driven by and deal with the exigencies of both fictional and historical circumstances is praiseworthy.

If you know Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina or The Death of Ivan Ilyich, you already know his storytelling ability. In War and Peace he extends himself on an extremely large scale across two decades of events. The result is an impressive accomplishment.

As a practitioner of the writer’s craft, Tolstoy stands tall. He creates memorable characters with distinctive, multidimensional personalities. Life is not tidy in Tolstoy, nor is it simple. People and events surprise us. He uses all the tools at a writer’s command: shifting perspectives and points of view, dialogue, direct and indirect interior monologue and dialogue. There are wonderful descriptive passages in which he portrays the aristocratic social settings, the cities, the beauty of the Russian landscape and — with enormous variety and power — the stupidity, confusion, horror and disruption of war.

I could easily write 1,000 words giving examples of how thoroughly I admire Tolstoy’s mastery of point of view. He shifts us deftly from St. Petersburg to Moscow to a tent in a battlefield to an estate outside of Moscow to follow what’s happening with another set of characters, moving in and out of their perspectives so that we understand how they view their situation, individual dramas, their relationships with other characters or events. While these carefully structured moments move the story forward, they also give us constantly evolving understanding of the psychology of his characters, their strengths and weaknesses, and show us multiple ways of seeing and thinking about what was happening not only in this story, but in Russia sixty years before Tolstoy sat down to write.

I’m not a devotee of military novels, but I’ve logged my share of them, due in large part to the fact that many of the best western writers have had the backdrop of almost constant warfare throughout the 19th and 20th centuries for their stories. Tolstoy himself was a veteran, and his book is not just about characters who are living through a war. He is doing all he can to enunciate his view about the very nature of war. It’s fascinating and brilliantly done.

I would greatly appreciate hearing from those of you who’ve read War and Peace, with your opinions. What did you enjoy or what did you not like? Perhaps you started it and set it aside? Why? Other readers, I hope, will benefit from your observations, to balance mine. Please leave a comment.

Happy reading.

© Brad Nixon 2018