Michael's Reviews > War and Peace
War and Peace
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![65909643](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p2/65909643.jpg)
This is one of those books that can be life-changing. I read this as a teenager and I remember exactly where I was (sitting on my bed, in my grandmother's house, in southern Germany) when I finished it. I must have spent an hour just staring out the window, in awe of the lives I'd just led, the experiences I'd just had.
****
I'm now re-reading this, enjoying it immensely and no doubt appreciating it much more than I did the first time. Tolstoy has the most amazing ability to make us feel, when he zooms out and examines historical events, that the individual is nothing--and then when he zooms in and paints intimate portraits of his characters, that the individual is everything. Breathtaking.
By the way, I'm reading the Anthony Briggs translation (Penguin Classics), and it's marvelous. I'm quite picky when it comes to translations and this is one of the best I've read.
It's in the sweeping battle scenes that Tolstoy shows how insignificant the individual really is--how even generals and emperors are at the mercy of random and unpredictable events. Then when Tolstoy switches to the intimate drawing room scenes, the entire perspective shifts, and nothing matters more than the individual consciousness that he depicts. The juxtaposition of these two feelings is just, well, genius!
I'd forgotten how mystical Tolstoy gets with respect to Pierre's "conversion" or "enlightenment" or "getting religion." It's fascinating how Pierre becomes animated by these great ideas and that's a sign of his maturity, whereas Prince Andrey matures in an almost opposite way: by eschewing his former great ideas regarding military heroism and focusing instead (at this point in the narrative) on his baby son.
The contrapuntal movement of Pierre and Andrey's development is only highlighted when they're together, debating whether one ought to try to improve people's lives (Pierre) or just focus on one's own happiness and leave the world alone (Andrey). It's actually a profound debate, which then ends when Andrey beholds the vast sky again and something stirs inside him, something long dormant, and we as readers can't help anticipating that Andrey will be "back."
***
One of the great glories of reading War and Peace is to encounter, in a novel, characters struggling with serious philosophical issues--not as airy abstractions but rather in terms of how they ought to live. Pierre and Prince Andrey are the prime examples of this. I kept thinking, as I read the sections in which they struggle earnestly with such questions, that contemporary American fiction has precious little of this. I wonder if it's because we've all drunk the kool-aid that says "show, don't tell," making contemporary novelists shy away from such material. But this little mantra, while seemingly objective, renders entire realms of fiction off-limits. Tolstoy is constantly "telling" us what Pierre and Andrey are thinking, and the novel is so much better for it.
***
Tolstoy's "peace" is of course anything but: it's full of anticipation and intrigue and philosophical yearning, from the bursting bewildering sallies of youth (Natasha) to the resigned feeling that life isn't what you dreamed when you were young, and perhaps you aren't either (Pierre). The deftness and sheer range of human drama is staggering.
And the war, when it returns, is no abstract matter. Everywhere there are people caught up in this great event, bewildered by it. Here's Rostov on seeing the French officer he's brought down: "This pale, mud-stained face of a fair-haired young man with a dimple on his chin and bright blue eyes had no business with battlefields; it was not the face of an enemy; it was a domestic, indoor face." Rostov can't help seeing him as a human being, and in that moment his "enthusiasm suddenly drained away."
It's interesting how, when Rostov chases the French officer on horseback, he thinks about the wolf hunt he was recently on. When I read the scene of the hunt, where the hunters capture the old She-Wolf and her cubs, I couldn't help feeling sorry for those animals, for that animal family hunted for pure sport. I wondered how that scene would come back into the narrative because of the obvious symbolic weight of it, and here it is, in the scene of war. The characters hadn't empathized with the She-Wolf in the same way that Rostov does with the French officer, but I wonder if we're meant to anyway, or at least be made somewhat uncomfortable (as I was) by such sport-killing, perhaps seeing it as a prelude to another kind of sport-killing altogether: namely war.
***
Tolstoy can't help wearing his patriotism on his sleeve a bit, as he describes Napoleon's advance and the rival Moscow social circles, one of which has eschewed anything French while the other clings to its Francophile ways. Of course the French-speaking social circle is that of Helene, who's cold and manipulative and whose brother schemed to snatch away Natasha in such, well, French fashion. But this is no bald tale of Russian virtue and French perfidy. Tolstoy is finely attuned to the chaos of war and to the humans that engage in it, so much more alike than not as everyone tries simply to survive and perhaps claim a little glory in the end.
***
I love how Tolstoy peppers his narrative with keen insights into human nature. Here he is, when describing the attitude of Muscovites on the approach of Napoleon: "At the first approach of danger two voices always speak out with equal force in a man's heart: one tells him very sensibly to consider the exact extent of the danger and any means of avoiding it; the other says even more sensibly that it's too wearisome and agonizing to contemplate the danger, since it is not in a man's power to anticipate future events and avoid the general run of things, so you might as well turn away from the nastiness until it hits you, and dwell on things that are pleasant."
***
Tolstoy describes the cavalcade of human affairs as well as anyone, and the evacuation of Moscow is a great example of it: so many little stories described with the deftest brushstrokes. The irony and humor also shine through when he describes Berg's ridiculous recitation of war stories or Count Rostov's childlike diffidence when it comes to the issue of whether they should empty their wagons of belongings in order to make room for wounded soldiers.
***
Hurtling toward the end now, and Tolstoy is hammering his theme that the individual is a slave to fate and mysterious forces. This adds much irony to his tale, and some biting commentary as well, as when he says: "These man, carried away by their passions, were nothing more than the blind executors of the saddest law of necessity; but they saw themselves as heroes, and mistook their doings for achievements of the highest virtue and honour."
***
In the final pages the scenes return to domestic life full of family, as the war generation ages and their children are born. So many mixed emotions in the characters and in me, the reader, as our story ebbs to a close, as this towering and monumental work of art draws ever nearer to silence. "Memento mori," the characters are described as feeling in the face of an old countess, and the same can be said of this entire work, which is a testament to the fragility and beauty and fleetingness of life itself.
***
And then, finally, we see Pierre and Natasha together, but the last lines of the dramatic narrative belong to young Nikolay, Prince Andrey's son, who thinks: "Father! Father! Yes, I'm going to do something even he would have been pleased with."
Tolstoy then delves more directly into a philosophical treatise on free will, capping his narrative with the final summation that "it is no less essential to get away from a false sensation of freedom and accept a dependence that we cannot feel."
***
With that, the book closes, and I feel again what a monumental work I've just encountered. I'll spend many days and weeks pondering these pages, recalling little scenes and thinking about Tolstoy's grand arguments. The scope is breathtaking and profound, yet on every page you feel the frantic beating of the human heart. Despite all its spiritual claims, it's a deeply humanistic work.
****
I'm now re-reading this, enjoying it immensely and no doubt appreciating it much more than I did the first time. Tolstoy has the most amazing ability to make us feel, when he zooms out and examines historical events, that the individual is nothing--and then when he zooms in and paints intimate portraits of his characters, that the individual is everything. Breathtaking.
By the way, I'm reading the Anthony Briggs translation (Penguin Classics), and it's marvelous. I'm quite picky when it comes to translations and this is one of the best I've read.
It's in the sweeping battle scenes that Tolstoy shows how insignificant the individual really is--how even generals and emperors are at the mercy of random and unpredictable events. Then when Tolstoy switches to the intimate drawing room scenes, the entire perspective shifts, and nothing matters more than the individual consciousness that he depicts. The juxtaposition of these two feelings is just, well, genius!
I'd forgotten how mystical Tolstoy gets with respect to Pierre's "conversion" or "enlightenment" or "getting religion." It's fascinating how Pierre becomes animated by these great ideas and that's a sign of his maturity, whereas Prince Andrey matures in an almost opposite way: by eschewing his former great ideas regarding military heroism and focusing instead (at this point in the narrative) on his baby son.
The contrapuntal movement of Pierre and Andrey's development is only highlighted when they're together, debating whether one ought to try to improve people's lives (Pierre) or just focus on one's own happiness and leave the world alone (Andrey). It's actually a profound debate, which then ends when Andrey beholds the vast sky again and something stirs inside him, something long dormant, and we as readers can't help anticipating that Andrey will be "back."
***
One of the great glories of reading War and Peace is to encounter, in a novel, characters struggling with serious philosophical issues--not as airy abstractions but rather in terms of how they ought to live. Pierre and Prince Andrey are the prime examples of this. I kept thinking, as I read the sections in which they struggle earnestly with such questions, that contemporary American fiction has precious little of this. I wonder if it's because we've all drunk the kool-aid that says "show, don't tell," making contemporary novelists shy away from such material. But this little mantra, while seemingly objective, renders entire realms of fiction off-limits. Tolstoy is constantly "telling" us what Pierre and Andrey are thinking, and the novel is so much better for it.
***
Tolstoy's "peace" is of course anything but: it's full of anticipation and intrigue and philosophical yearning, from the bursting bewildering sallies of youth (Natasha) to the resigned feeling that life isn't what you dreamed when you were young, and perhaps you aren't either (Pierre). The deftness and sheer range of human drama is staggering.
And the war, when it returns, is no abstract matter. Everywhere there are people caught up in this great event, bewildered by it. Here's Rostov on seeing the French officer he's brought down: "This pale, mud-stained face of a fair-haired young man with a dimple on his chin and bright blue eyes had no business with battlefields; it was not the face of an enemy; it was a domestic, indoor face." Rostov can't help seeing him as a human being, and in that moment his "enthusiasm suddenly drained away."
It's interesting how, when Rostov chases the French officer on horseback, he thinks about the wolf hunt he was recently on. When I read the scene of the hunt, where the hunters capture the old She-Wolf and her cubs, I couldn't help feeling sorry for those animals, for that animal family hunted for pure sport. I wondered how that scene would come back into the narrative because of the obvious symbolic weight of it, and here it is, in the scene of war. The characters hadn't empathized with the She-Wolf in the same way that Rostov does with the French officer, but I wonder if we're meant to anyway, or at least be made somewhat uncomfortable (as I was) by such sport-killing, perhaps seeing it as a prelude to another kind of sport-killing altogether: namely war.
***
Tolstoy can't help wearing his patriotism on his sleeve a bit, as he describes Napoleon's advance and the rival Moscow social circles, one of which has eschewed anything French while the other clings to its Francophile ways. Of course the French-speaking social circle is that of Helene, who's cold and manipulative and whose brother schemed to snatch away Natasha in such, well, French fashion. But this is no bald tale of Russian virtue and French perfidy. Tolstoy is finely attuned to the chaos of war and to the humans that engage in it, so much more alike than not as everyone tries simply to survive and perhaps claim a little glory in the end.
***
I love how Tolstoy peppers his narrative with keen insights into human nature. Here he is, when describing the attitude of Muscovites on the approach of Napoleon: "At the first approach of danger two voices always speak out with equal force in a man's heart: one tells him very sensibly to consider the exact extent of the danger and any means of avoiding it; the other says even more sensibly that it's too wearisome and agonizing to contemplate the danger, since it is not in a man's power to anticipate future events and avoid the general run of things, so you might as well turn away from the nastiness until it hits you, and dwell on things that are pleasant."
***
Tolstoy describes the cavalcade of human affairs as well as anyone, and the evacuation of Moscow is a great example of it: so many little stories described with the deftest brushstrokes. The irony and humor also shine through when he describes Berg's ridiculous recitation of war stories or Count Rostov's childlike diffidence when it comes to the issue of whether they should empty their wagons of belongings in order to make room for wounded soldiers.
***
Hurtling toward the end now, and Tolstoy is hammering his theme that the individual is a slave to fate and mysterious forces. This adds much irony to his tale, and some biting commentary as well, as when he says: "These man, carried away by their passions, were nothing more than the blind executors of the saddest law of necessity; but they saw themselves as heroes, and mistook their doings for achievements of the highest virtue and honour."
***
In the final pages the scenes return to domestic life full of family, as the war generation ages and their children are born. So many mixed emotions in the characters and in me, the reader, as our story ebbs to a close, as this towering and monumental work of art draws ever nearer to silence. "Memento mori," the characters are described as feeling in the face of an old countess, and the same can be said of this entire work, which is a testament to the fragility and beauty and fleetingness of life itself.
***
And then, finally, we see Pierre and Natasha together, but the last lines of the dramatic narrative belong to young Nikolay, Prince Andrey's son, who thinks: "Father! Father! Yes, I'm going to do something even he would have been pleased with."
Tolstoy then delves more directly into a philosophical treatise on free will, capping his narrative with the final summation that "it is no less essential to get away from a false sensation of freedom and accept a dependence that we cannot feel."
***
With that, the book closes, and I feel again what a monumental work I've just encountered. I'll spend many days and weeks pondering these pages, recalling little scenes and thinking about Tolstoy's grand arguments. The scope is breathtaking and profound, yet on every page you feel the frantic beating of the human heart. Despite all its spiritual claims, it's a deeply humanistic work.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
March 13, 2017
– Shelved
July 17, 2017
–
Started Reading
July 17, 2017
–
7.18%
"I couldn't resist re-reading this. It's time. After much consideration, I decided to go with the Anthony Briggs translation (even though I already own the Rosemary Edmonds), and I have to say it's marvelous."
page
100
July 19, 2017
–
12.57%
"It feels as if I'm not reading this book--I'm living it. Tolstoy has the most amazing ability to make us feel, when he zooms out and examines historical events, that the individual is nothing--and then when he zooms in and paints intimate portraits of his characters, that the individual is everything. Breathtaking."
page
175
July 21, 2017
–
17.96%
"It's in the sweeping battle scenes that Tolstoy shows how insignificant the individual really is--how even generals and emperors are at the mercy of random and unpredictable events. Then when Tolstoy switches to the intimate drawing room scenes, the entire perspective shifts, and nothing matters more than the individual consciousness that he depicts. The juxtaposition of these two feelings is just, well, genius!"
page
250
July 26, 2017
–
34.12%
"One of the glories of reading War and Peace is to encounter, in a novel, characters struggling with serious philosophical issues--not as airy abstractions but rather in terms of how they ought to live. Too bad American fiction has so little of this. It's like we've all drunk the kool-aid that says "show, don't tell." Tolstoy tells us what Pierre and Andrey are thinking, and the novel is so much better for it."
page
475
July 28, 2017
–
39.87%
"Wonderful how the characters are deepened and the love-plots thicken!"
page
555
August 1, 2017
–
50.29%
"War approaches again, and Prince Andrey, in his bitterness, rejoins the army. Storm clouds figuratively gather."
page
700
August 1, 2017
–
52.08%
"Into battle again! But still the humanity shines through. Here's Rostov on seeing the French officer he's brought down: "This pale, mud-stained face of a fair-haired young man with a dimple on his chin and bright blue eyes had no business with battlefields; it was not the face of an enemy; it was a domestic, indoor face.""
page
725
August 3, 2017
–
56.75%
"Tolstoy is wearing his patriotism on his sleeve a bit, as he describes Napoleon's advance and the rival Moscow social circles, one of which has eschewed anything French while the other clings to its Francophile ways. Of course the French-speaking social circle is that of Helene, who's cold and manipulative and whose brother schemed to snatch away Natasha in such, well, French fashion."
page
790
August 6, 2017
–
62.64%
"We've just begun the Battle of Borodino, and Tolstoy is expounding on his theme that in history, the individual is nothing."
page
872
August 6, 2017
–
62.64%
""At the first approach of danger two voices always speak out with equal force in a man's heart: one tells him very sensibly to consider the exact extent of the danger and any means of avoiding it; the other says even more sensibly that it's too wearisome and agonizing to contemplate the danger...so you might as well turn away from the nastiness until it hits you, and dwell on things that are pleasant.""
page
872
August 8, 2017
–
69.32%
"Moscow is being evacuated, Prince Andrey is gravely wounded, yet through all the tragic cavalcade Tolstoy's little flashes of humor and irony shine through, like Berg's ridiculous recitation of war stories and Count Rostov's childlike diffidence."
page
965
August 10, 2017
–
72.92%
"Pierre and Natasha are in spiritual agony, while Prince Andrey is in physical agony. Moscow is abandoned. But just when all seems hopeless...."
page
1015
August 11, 2017
–
81.03%
"The contrapuntal movement of Pierre and Prince Andrey continues, as Pierre is set to be executed, only to find himself spared, and Prince Andrey looks like he's recovering, only to become gravely ill again and....I can hardly bear to say it!"
page
1128
August 13, 2017
–
86.71%
""These man, carried away by their passions, were nothing more than the blind executors of the saddest law of necessity; but they saw themselves as heroes, and mistook their doings for achievements of the highest virtue and honour.""
page
1207
August 14, 2017
–
90.23%
"Natasha and Pierre are coming together at long last, each after suffering profoundly. But it won't happen right away. "'Oh, but why does he have to go to Petersburg?' cried Natasha suddenly, only to come back with a ready answer. 'No, no, he has to go... Doesn't he, Marie? He does have to go...'"
Now all that's left is epilogue."
page
1256
Now all that's left is epilogue."
August 15, 2017
–
93.39%
"We're now in the final pages, where the scenes return to domestic ones full of family life, as the war generation ages and their children are born. So many mixed emotions in the characters and in me, the reader, as our story ebbs to a close, as this towering and monumental work of art draws nearer to silence."
page
1300
August 16, 2017
–
Finished Reading
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Julie
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Jul 19, 2017 08:44PM
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![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
I understand its connection to the various emotions that it can express and invoke, Michael.
Does it require knowledge of cultural conventions, to understand? I would like to read Anna Karenina first.
Does it require knowledge of cultural conventions, to understand? I would like to read Anna Karenina first.
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
Thanks, Sue! It's a truly marvelous work, and I can highly recommend the Briggs translation, if you're reading in English.
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
Does it require knowledge of cultural conventions, to understand? I would like to read Anna Karenina first."
Thanks, Joudy. I don't think it requires any special knowledge of cultural conventions at all. There are a few cultural references that weren't obvious to me, but the version I have (the wonderful Briggs translation) footnoted them so I can look them up. Anna Karenina is also a fantastic novel. I read it again last year and enjoyed it tremendously. You've got some happy reading ahead!
![Glenn Russell](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1505195595p1/23385697.jpg)
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
![Nina Ive](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1470343232p1/57671004.jpg)
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
![Michael Perkins](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1454487234p1/13298726.jpg)
“He opened his eyes. Above him again was the same lofty sky with clouds that had risen and were floating still higher, and between them gleamed blue infinity...
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
![Lisa](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1480492067p1/32532774.jpg)
![Dolors](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1691612725p1/18383778.jpg)
![Ken](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1621963990p1/730754.jpg)
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
Thank you, Lisa! I was quite hesitant to go back to this novel precisely because of the powerful effect it had on me when I was young. I was afraid it would disappoint or that I'd be grasping for something in my own youth that I couldn't ever have back. But I must say that as soon as I started reading, all those concerns fell away, and I was swept up all over again, and able to see so much more in the book. So it certainly rewards re-reading, as does Anna Karenina, another of my favorites.
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
Thank you so much, Dolors! Yes, I see now that this is a book that should be re-read every few years--that there's so much here that will resonate differently at different stages of one's life. It's really a testament to Tolstoy's art that he's created a work like this.
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
Thank you, Samra. True, the first time is so charming, as with many things--but now, re-reading, the impact is even deeper, as I see so much more.
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
Thanks, Ken. "Indelible" is exactly the right word for the scenes Tolstoy paints--they become almost archetypes through his telling.
![Fionnuala](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1368182051p1/5498525.jpg)
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
![Satyajeet](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1561194058p1/9692204.jpg)
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
![Steve Chaput](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1397686537p1/2965629.jpg)
I'm not a hater of the classics or Russian literature. This just didn't capture my interest.
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
![Kris](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1390152276p1/5974610.jpg)
![Kris](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1390152276p1/5974610.jpg)
There are huge debates, wars almost, over the best Russian to English translators, to the point where I don't think there's one go-to Russian translator, although there are fairly entrenched camps for or against different individuals. There's a great article from The New Yorker that explored this in 2005, for some backstory -- http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/200... Pevear and Volokhonsky have been a lightning rod for controversy -- some love their translations, some don't. There's a good comparison of 4 translations of W&P here https://frisbeebookjournal.wordpress....
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
Thanks, Kris! I'm glad you're enjoying it too!
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
Thanks, Howard! It's such an outstanding book, the review seems to write itself.
![Kris](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1390152276p1/5974610.jpg)
This is the first translation by Briggs that I have read. I definitely join with Michael in recommending it. I don't speak Russian, so I can't speak to his ability to capture the nuances of the original, but the book flows beautifully. The characters jump off the page, and the translation moves seamlessly from the intimacy of the drawing room scenes (with the closely observed idiosyncrasies of the characters) to the sweeping battle scenes. I understand that Briggs's translation is controversial in some circles because he decided to translate Tolstoy's original French passages into English as well (P&V left them in French and just translated the Russian into English). Briggs gives a heads up for when characters are speaking in French, so his decision didn't bother me.
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
Thanks, Kris. Your analysis is perfectly spot-on. It's really beautifully rendered and doesn't feel forced at all, and adds, as you say, another fascinating layer to Tolstoy's book. I love how the characters struggle and often change their minds, how they can embrace different ideas with equal passion, and how all this serves to illuminate larger historical movements of the time. I'm in awe.
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
There are huge debates, wars almost, over the best Russian to English translators, to the point where I don't think..."
I'll add that I'm not sure Briggs has translated any other major work (yet), but if he does, I'd snap it up in a heartbeat. Kris is right that there are huge debates here. Pevear and Volokhonsky have become the new standard translators, but I have to say I don't love their translations. They tend to be very literal, to the point where it doesn't sound like the English language anymore but some weird hybrid. Maybe if I read Russian I'd appreciate it, but I don't. There's an interesting website that has some side-by-side comparisons between Briggs and P/V that influenced me when I was choosing a translation. You can find it here: http://www.tolstoytherapy.com/2014/01...
![W.D. Clarke](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1535550502p1/13122795.jpg)
I have some P&V translations of Dostoevsky, and I can't say that any of the prose jumped right off the page, so I will dip into the Briggs oeuvre for sure, thanks :)
![Michael](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1515603070p1/65909643.jpg)
This is the first translation by Briggs that I have read. I definitely join with Micha..."
I agree wholeheartedly, and I'll add that Briggs' decision to translate the French was another huge plus for me. I don't read French either, and the last thing I want to do is flip back and forth to notes every time the characters speak French.