Product Description

In Russia's struggle with Napoleon, Tolstoy saw a tragedy that involved all mankind. Greater than a historical chronicle, War and Peace is an affirmation of life itself, `a complete picture', as a contemporary reviewer put it, `of everything in which people find their happiness and greatness, their grief and humiliation'. Tolstoy gave his personal approval to this translation, published here in a new single volume edition, which includes an introduction by Henry Gifford, and Tolstoy's important essay `Some Words about War and Peace'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18603 in Books
• Published on: 1993-07-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 992 pages

Synopsis
This epic novel is centred on Napoleon's war with Russia. It expresses Tolstoy's view that history is an inexorable process which man cannot influence. Three of the characters, Natasha Rostov, Prince Andrew Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov illustrate Tolstoy's philosophy.

Customer Reviews

The force that moves nations
(contains spoilers)

There are two themes in War and Peace: one is "What is the force that moves nations", in other words what causes historical events to take place, the motivation that drives all humans; and the second is the particular focussing on a small number of families and their circle.

The sections of the book that deal with warfare and Napoleon are naturally biased towards the Russian viewpoint, with Tolstoy sarcastically referring to "that genius Napoleon." Rules of warfare and theories of battle are expounded and are (surprisingly to me) engrossing. The statistics of this war are staggering: although Moscow was taken by the French, the French army of 600,000 virtually ceased to exist as they struggled to leave Russia.

Tolstoy points out how extraordinary it is, that a country's army, though a tiny percentage of the population, brings about the subjugation of millions if they triumph in battle.

The human element of the novel focuses on a huge cast of characters. People claim they mix up the Russian names; but this edition didn't pose any problems. I loved the picture of Russian life, one of socialising, balls, hunting, serfs, peasants, Cossacks...during a war, life goes on elsewhere in that country as normal. A valued hunting dog is purchased for "three families of house serfs" and one of my favourite chapters describes a wolf hunt with 130 dogs

Pierre and Prince Andrei are tormented by their search for happiness in life, an objective, an aim. It is described as a torment that can never be satisfied. Tolstoy perceives man's restlessness as being a result of the Fall - as a result we can't be idle without feeling guilty. "A secret voice warns that for us idleness is sin". These two men strive against their baser nature, towards "the infinite, the eternal and the absolute".

These two upright, decent men contrast with Anatole, with his moral vacuum, self aggrandisement, vanity and pride. He is a rake, a "male Magdalen" who believes: "all will be forgiven him because he enjoyed himself so much"

Prince Andrei comes to the conclusion that we must have sympathy, love of our brothers, "a happiness beyond the reach of material forces, of the soul alone, the happiness of loving".

Pierre, who was captured by the French and endured dreadful privations, achieved peace and inner harmony through living through the horrors of death, and realising that his wealth had caused such a superfluity of the comforts of life that it had destroyed all the joy in gratifying his needs and choosing his occupations.

Women are central, essential to the male characters, but very much in the Miltonic mould: "he for God only, she for God in him." Initially Prince Andrei advised Pierre against women: "tie yourself up with a woman and like a convict in irons you lose all freedom....selfish, vain, humdrum, trivial in everything". Women such as Helene seem "as it were, covered with the hard polish left by the thousands of eyes that had scanned her person".

Natasha, who loves Prince Andrei but is spurned by him and becomes Pierre's devoted wife, receives one of literature's most romantic declarations: "if I were not myself, but the handsomest, cleverest, best man in the world, and if I were free, I would be on my knees this minute to beg for your hand and your love."

War and Peace is one of those remarkable books where the reader is surprised with the pleasure of recognition of the human situation. The old countess "evinced to a remarkable degree a trait noticeable in the very young and the very old. Her existence had no manifest aim...but was merely...occupied by the need to exercise her various functions."

One of a handful of books to regularly re-read.

Still historical
You can't not give one of the world's greatest novels five stars. But you can consider how modern readers might find it. There are undoubtedly elements of what we would now call soap opera here - just as there are in Hardy, say, or Austen. Tolstoy's didactic purpose (a critique of 'modern' theories of history) waxes as the book progresses and concludes in a hundred page theoretical diatribe that - while it addresses philosophical issues that still have currency - probably won't detain many non-academic readers. This translation - now nearly 40 years old - has probably been surpassed but remains highly serviceable; realising, as it does, Tolstoy's ability to experiment with narrative postures without ever upsetting the reader's sense of 'normality'. Pierre remains one of the most fully-realised characters in fiction, while the battle scenes (especially, for my money, Schon Graben) are breathtaking pieces of writing. Tolstoy's innately aristocratic values can grate: the serfs invariably exist in a kind of Benthamite world of ignorant charm, while the author's worldly irony can create a sense that humanity barely deserves the humanist outrage that he occasionally heaps on Europe's warmongers. But this is just firing a catapult at an oil tanker. It's 'War and Peace' for goodness sake!

The best soap opera ever written!
Starting this book I thought I was going to be reading classic literature in a way that was going to be very intellectual. What I got was one of the best dramas ever written but with an epic soap opera feel. If you can make it past the first two hundred pages you will love this book but getting there is hard as there are so many characters that I was very lost for a long time as to who was who and what was happening. Once I'd got past this I found I was reading a great drama about two families and the interaction that happens between them with love and war as the main events to occur. This is not highbrow literature this is great literature of a universal story about life and it doesn't get much better than this. Ignore the amount of pages and enjoy this for what it is epic drama!