War and Peace

• 1. Composition And Evolution

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  Leo Tolstoy began writing War and Peace in 1863, the year he married and settled at his country estate. He wrote to Elizabeth Bers asking for chronicles or diaries from the Napoleonic period in Russia. He found few written records of Russian domestic life from that time and tried to rectify these omissions in early drafts. The first half of the book was named "1805". During the writing of the second half, he read widely and acknowledged Schopenhauer as one of his main inspirations. The first draft of the novel was completed in 1863. In 1865, the periodical The Russian Messenger published the first part of this draft under the title 1805. Tolstoy was dissatisfied with this version but allowed several parts to be published with a different ending in 1867. He heavily rewrote the entire novel between 1866 and 1869. His wife Sophia Tolstaya copied as many as seven separate complete manuscripts before Tolstoy considered it ready for publication. The version published in 1869 had a very different ending from the version eventually published under the title War and Peace. Russians who had read the serialized version were eager to buy the complete novel, and it sold out almost immediately.

• 2. Historical Context And Realism

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  The plot of the novel is set fifty-five years before Tolstoy wrote it. He spoke with people who lived through the 1812 French invasion of Russia. He read all standard histories available in Russian and French about the Napoleonic Wars. He also studied letters, journals, autobiographies, and biographies of Napoleon and other key players of that era. There are approximately one hundred sixty real persons named or referred to in War and Peace. He worked from primary source materials such as interviews and documents. He used his own experience in the Crimean War to bring vivid detail and first-hand accounts of how the Imperial Russian Army was structured. Tolstoy was critical of standard history especially military history in War and Peace. He explains at the start of the novel's third volume his own views on how history ought to be written. The historical context begins with the controversial execution of Louis Antoine Duke of Enghien in 1804 while Russia is ruled by Alexander I during the Napoleonic Wars. Key historical events woven into the novel include the Ulm Campaign and the Battle of Austerlitz. The Treaties of Tilsit and the Congress of Erfurt appear in the narrative. Tolstoy references the Great Comet of 1811 just before the French invasion of Russia.

• 3. Narrative Structure And Philosophy

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  War and Peace consists of three hundred sixty-one chapters. Of those twenty-four are philosophical chapters with the author's comments and views rather than narrative. These chapters discuss historical events but do not touch on the fictional plot of the novel. Tolstoy said that the best Russian literature does not conform to standards and hence hesitated to classify War and Peace. He stated it is "not a novel even less is it a poem and still less a historical chronicle". Large sections especially the later chapters are philosophical discussions rather than narrative. He regarded Anna Karenina as his first true novel. The standard Russian text is divided into four volumes comprising fifteen books and an epilogue split into two parts. Roughly the first half is concerned strictly with the fictional characters whereas the latter parts increasingly consist of essays about the nature of war power history and historiography. Tolstoy interspersed these essays into the story in a way that defies previous fictional convention. Certain abridged versions remove these essays entirely while others published even during Tolstoy's life simply moved these essays into an appendix. His narrative structure is noted for its god's-eye point of view over and within events. It also portrays an individual character's viewpoint swiftly and seamlessly.

• 4. Principal Characters And Families

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  The novel tells the story of five families: the Bezukhovs, the Bolkonskys, the Rostovs, the Kuragins, and the Drubetskoys. Count Pyotr Kirillovich Pierre Bezukhov is the central character and often a voice for Tolstoy's own beliefs or struggles. Pierre is the socially awkward illegitimate son of Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhov who has fathered dozens of illegitimate sons. Educated abroad Pierre returns to Russia as a misfit. His unexpected inheritance of a large fortune makes him socially desirable. Prince Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky is a strong but skeptical thoughtful and philosophical figure in the Napoleonic Wars. He marries Princess Elisabeta Lisa Karlovna Bolkonskaya née Meinena. His sister Princess Maria Nikolayevna Bolkonskaya is a pious woman whose father attempted to give her a good education. The caring nurturing nature of her large eyes in her otherwise plain face is frequently mentioned. Countess Natalya Ilyinichna Natasha Rostova is introduced as not pretty but full of life romantic impulsive and highly strung. She is an accomplished singer and dancer. Her brother Count Nikolai Ilyich Nikolenka Rostov is a hussar beloved elder son of the family. Their cousin Sofia Alexandrovna Sonya Rostova is orphaned and in love with Nikolai.

• 5. Plot Progression Through War

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  The novel begins in July 1805 in Saint Petersburg at a soirée given by Anna Pavlovna Scherer. Many main characters are introduced as they enter the salon. Pierre Bezukhov is about to become embroiled in a struggle for his inheritance since the count is dying after a series of strokes. Prince Andrei decides to join Prince Mikhail Ilarionovich Kutuzov in the coming war against Napoleon in order to escape a life he cannot stand. The plot moves to Moscow contrasting its provincial more Russian ways to the more European society of Saint Petersburg. At the Schöngrabern engagement Nikolai Rostov has his first taste of battle. Boris Drubetskoy introduces him to Prince Andrei whom Rostov insults in a fit of impetuousness. Bolkonsky Rostov and Denisov are involved in the disastrous Battle of Austerlitz where Prince Andrei is badly wounded as he attempts to rescue a Russian standard. Later in the book Pierre convinces himself through gematria that Napoleon is the Antichrist of the Book of Revelation. He takes off on a naïve mission to assassinate Napoleon but becomes anonymous in all the chaos. He rescues a young girl from a burning house then comes across two French soldiers robbing an Armenian family. When one tries to rip the necklace off the young woman's neck Pierre intervenes by attacking the soldiers and is taken prisoner by the French army.

• 6. Critical Reception And Legacy

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  The novel made its author the true lion of the Russian literature according to Ivan Goncharov. It enjoyed great success with the reading public upon its publication and spawned dozens of reviews and analytical essays. Yet the Russian press's initial response was muted with most critics unable to decide how to classify it. The liberal newspaper Golos was one of the first to react. Its anonymous reviewer posed a question later repeated by many others: "What could this possibly be? What kind of genre are we supposed to file it to?... Where is fiction in it, and where is real history?" Writer and critic Nikolai Akhsharumov suggested that War and Peace was neither a chronicle nor a historical novel but a genre merger. Slavophiles declared Tolstoy their hero and pronounced War and Peace the Bible of the new national idea. Among the reviewers were military men and authors specializing in war literature. Most assessed highly the artfulness and realism of Tolstoy's battle scenes. Unlike professional literary critics most prominent Russian writers of the time supported the novel wholeheartedly. Goncharov Turgenev Leskov Dostoevsky and Fet have all gone on record as declaring War and Peace the masterpiece of Russian literature.