Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace

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Leo Tolstoy’s War and Pea

A groundbreaker…

Tolstoy shows how history impinges on private lives
Weaves battle scenes with scenes from private lives: birth, proposals, marriages, adultery, duels, debts, dying…
Individuals propose, God, or fate, disposes, determining the actual course of events.
(Note how the author, in a sense, becomes God, determining the lives of his characters.)

First truly successful attempt to depict battle scenes on a large scale
Tolstoy’s first war scenes described the war in the Caucasus and the siege of Sebastopol during the Crimean war
(although owed a certain debt to Stendal’s La Chartreuse de Parme, which described the battle of Waterloo)
The soldier is seen as an individual: the battle is the sum of the actions of the individual soldiers
Focusses on Russian history from 1805 to 1813, with an epilogue up to 1820: the battles of Schöngrabern and Austerlitz (Austria) and Borodino (1812), outside Moscow

Tolstoy wanted to challenge the (Romantic) idea that history is made by “great men.”
His Napoleon is unsuccessful and does not control the movement of battle or of history
His opponent, the Russian general Kutuzov, “lets the battle happen,” knowing there is nothing he can do
History is thus the movement of nations, the sum of all the private lives involved
The true victor of the battles against Napoleon is the Russian people, the narod

To weave the fictional, e.g. his character Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, with the historical, e.g. Napoleon, seamlessly, so that we do not notice
To make the chance encounters and relationships of his characters plausible, so that the reader’s credulity is not challenged

At beginning of novel, married to Liza
Goes off to be an adjutant to Kutuzov, almost killed at Austerlitz, saved by Napoleon
Returns to his father’s estate in time to see his wife die in childbirth
Dances with Natasha Rostova, falls in love and proposes
They are engaged, but then he is fatally wounded at Borodino
Description of his slow death, cared for by Natasha and his sister Princess Marya

Projection of author into novel
Illegitimate son of rich Moscow nobleman
Has spent much time in France, imbued with revolutionary ideas, joins freemasons
His father dies, leaving him his wealth
Foolishly marries the voluptuous Hélène Kuragin
Has a duel over one of her adulterous affairs
Is a witness at Borodino, taken prisoner by French
Meets Platon Karataev, Russian peasant, realizes the power of the Russian narod.

The main heroine of the novel
Like Pushkin’s Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, assumes a symbolic role as representative of Russia
Falls in love with Prince Andrei, but they never marry
Natasha one of the great representations of Russian womanhood: is sophisticated, yet deeply Russian
Ends up marrying Pierre, once his wife dies

Captain Tushin: the modest professional soldier, an artilleryman, who saves the day at Schöngrabern
Platon Karataev: the peasant whose wisdom inspires Pierre Bezukhov when they meet in French captivity

Natasha waltzing with Prince Andrei at the ball in St Petersburg (her first!) where the Emperor Alexander is present.
Pierre is in love with her, but cannot dance: encourages his friend Prince Andrei to dance with her.
Prince Andrei, a widower, proposes to her.

Natasha’s famous Russian folk dance to the accompaniment of her uncle in the country cabin.
Compare the scene in Anna Karenina of Levin mowing with the peasants: the desire to be at one with the Russian narod
The wolf hunt

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