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War and Peace

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Novels

   CAPTION: Title War and Peace

   Cover to the English first edition
       Author     Leo Tolstoy
   Original title Война и мир (Voyna i mir)
      Country     Russian Empire
      Language    Russian
      Genre(s)    Historical, Romance, War novel
     Publisher    Russki Vestnik (series)
      Released    1865 to 1869 (series)
     Media type   Print ( Hardback & Paperback) & Audio book
        ISBN      NA

   War and Peace (Russian: Война и мир, Voyna i mir; in original
   orthography: Война и миръ, Voyna i mir") is an epic novel by Leo
   Tolstoy, first published from 1865 to 1869 in Russki Vestnik, which
   tells the story of Russian society during the Napoleonic Era. It is
   usually described as one of Tolstoy's two major masterpieces (the other
   being Anna Karenina) as well as one of the world's greatest novels.

   War and Peace offered a new kind of fiction, with a great many
   characters caught up in a plot that covered nothing less than the grand
   subjects indicated by the title, combined with the equally large topics
   of youth, age and marriage. While today it is considered a novel, it
   broke so many novelistic conventions of its day that many critics of
   Tolstoy's time did not consider it as such. Tolstoy himself considered
   Anna Karenina ( 1878) to be his first attempt at a novel in the
   European sense.

Name

   The Russian words for "peace" (pre-1918: "миръ" ) and " world"
   (pre-1918: "міръ", including "world" in the sense of "secular society";
   see mir (social)) are homonyms and since the 1918 reforms have been
   spelled identically, which led to an urban legend in the Soviet Union
   saying that the original manuscript was called "Война и міръ" (so the
   novel's title would be correctly translated as "War and the World" or
   "War and Society"). However, Tolstoy himself translated the title into
   French as "La guerre et la paix" ("War and Peace"). The confusion has
   been promoted by the popular Soviet TV quiz show Chto? Gde? Kogda?
   (Что? Где? Когда? - What? Where? When?), which in 1982 presented as a
   correct answer the "society" variant, based on a 1913 edition of "War
   and Peace" with a misprint in a single page. This episode was repeated
   in 2000, which refuelled the legend.

   In contrast, there is also a (unrelated) poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky
   called "Война и міръ" (i.e. "міръ" as "society"), written in 1916.

Origin

   Tolstoy initially intended to write a novel about the Decembrist
   revolt. His investigation of the causes of this revolt led him all the
   way back to Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, and ultimately the
   history of that war. All that remains of that intention is a
   foreshadowing in the first epilogue that Prince Bezukhov and Prince
   Andrei Bolkonski's son are going to be members of the Decembrists.

Language

   Although Tolstoy wrote the bulk of the book, including all the
   narration, in Russian, significant pockets of dialogue throughout the
   book (including its opening sentence) are written in French. This
   merely reflected reality, as the Russian aristocracy in the nineteenth
   century all knew French and tended to speak French among themselves, as
   the lingua franca of the European upper classes, rather than Russian,
   and indeed Tolstoy makes one reference to an adult Russian aristocrat
   who has to take Russian lessons to try and master the national
   language. Less realistically, the Frenchmen portrayed in the novel,
   including Napoleon himself, sometimes speak in French, sometimes in
   Russian.

Plot introduction

   The novel tells the story of a number of aristocratic families
   (particularly the Bezukhovs, the Bolkonskis, and the Rostovs) and the
   entanglements of their personal lives with the history of 1805– 1813,
   specifically Napoleon's invasion of Russia. As events proceed, Tolstoy
   systematically denies his subjects any significant free choice: the
   onward roll of history determines happiness and tragedy alike.

   The standard Russian text is divided into four books (fifteen parts)
   and two epilogues. While roughly the first two-thirds of the novel
   concern themselves strictly with the fictional characters, the later
   parts of the novel, as well as one of the work's two epilogues,
   increasingly contain highly controversial, nonfictional essays about
   the nature of war, political power, history, and historiography.
   Tolstoy interspersed these essays into the story in a way which defies
   conventional fiction. Certain abridged versions removed these essays
   entirely, while others (published even during Tolstoy's life) simply
   moved these essays into an appendix.

Plot summary

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

   War and Peace depicts a huge cast of characters, both historical and
   fictional, the majority of whom are introduced in the first book. At a
   soirée given by Anna Pavlovna Scherer in July 1805, the main players
   and families of the novel are made known. Pierre Bezukhov is the
   illegitimate son of a wealthy count who is dying of a stroke, and
   becomes unexpectedly embroiled in a tussle for his inheritance. The
   intelligent and sardonic Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, husband of a charming
   wife Lise, finds little comfort in married life, instead choosing to be
   aide-de-camp of Prince Mikhail Kutuzov in their coming war against
   Napoleon. We learn too of the Moscow Rostov family, with four
   adolescent children, of whom the vivacious younger daughter Natalya
   Rostova ("Natasha") and impetuous older Nikolai Rostov are the most
   memorable. At Bald Hills, Prince Andrei leaves his pregnant wife to his
   eccentric father and religiously devout sister Maria Bolkonskaya and
   leaves for war.
   The first page of War and Peace in an early edition
   The first page of War and Peace in an early edition

   If there is a central character to War and Peace it is Pierre Bezukhov
   who, upon receiving an unexpected inheritance, is suddenly burdened
   with the responsibilities and conflicts of a Russian nobleman. His
   former carefree behaviour vanishes and he enters upon a philosophical
   quest particular to Tolstoy: how should one live a moral life in an
   imperfect world? He attempts to free his peasants, but ultimately
   achieves nothing. He enters into marriage with Prince Kuragin's
   beautiful and immoral daughter Elena, against his own better judgement.

   Elena and her brother Anatoly then conspire together for Anatoly to
   seduce and dishonor the young and beautiful Natasha Rostova. This plan
   fails, yet, for Pierre, it is the cause of an important meeting with
   Natasha. When Napoleon invades Russia, Pierre observes the Battle of
   Borodino up close by standing near a Russian artillery crew and he
   learns how bloody and horrific war really is. When Napoleon's Grand
   Army occupies an abandoned and burning Moscow, Pierre takes off on a
   quixotic mission to assassinate Napoleon and is captured as a prisoner
   of war. After witnessing French soldiers sacking Moscow and shooting
   Russian civilians, Pierre is forced to march with the Grand Army during
   its disastrous retreat from Moscow. He is later freed by a Russian
   raiding party. His wife Elena dies sometime during the last throes of
   Napoleon's invasion and Pierre is reunited with Natasha while the
   victorious Russians rebuild Moscow. Pierre finds love at last and
   marries Natasha, while Nikolai marries Maria Bolkonskaya. Andrei, who
   was also in love with Natasha, is wounded during Napoleon's invasion
   and eventually dies after being reunited with Natasha before the end of
   the war.

   Tolstoy vividly depicts the contrast between Napoleon and the Russian
   general Kutuzov, both in terms of personality and in the clash of
   armies. Napoleon believed that he could control the course of a battle
   by giving orders, sent by courier, which inevitably got delayed,
   garbled, or made irrelevant by unforeseen development; Kutuzov believed
   that all he could do was plan the initial disposition of his troops,
   then let subordinates closer to the action actually direct the
   fighting. He would sit in his tent until the battle was over, and he
   sometimes fell asleep in the middle of an important battle. Napoleon
   chose wrongly, opting to march on to Moscow and occupy it for five
   fatal weeks, when he would have been better off destroying the Russian
   army in a decisive battle. Kutuzov refused to destroy his army to save
   Moscow: instead he retreated and allowed the French to occupy the city.
   Once in Moscow, the tightly-organized Grande Armée dispersed, occupying
   houses more or less at random; the chain of command broke down, and (in
   Tolstoy's opinion inevitably) burned Moscow to the ground. Tolstoy
   thinks that it was inevitable because when a wooden city is left in the
   hands of strangers, who naturally cook meals, smoke pipes, and try to
   keep warm, fires will inevitably start. In the absence of an organized
   Fire Department, such fires would burn large parts of the city. After
   the fires, the disorganized French army headed for home, where they
   were destroyed by the Russian winter and harried by partisan raids.
   Napoleon took his carriage and a team of fast horses and left ahead of
   the army, most of whom never saw France again. General Kutuzov believes
   time to be his best ally, and refrains from engaging the French, who
   ultimately destroy themselves as they limp back toward the French
   border. They are all but destroyed by a final Cossack attack as they
   straggle back toward Paris.
   Spoilers end here.

Characters in "War and Peace"

     * Pierre Bezukhov — A freethinking Freemason, though weak and at
       times reckless, is capable of decisive action and great displays of
       willpower when circumstances demand it.
     * Natasha Rostova — the chief female character, charming due to her
       exuberant and enthusiastic personality
     * Andrei Bolkonski — A cynic, who is the foil to Pierre.
     * Maria Bolkonskaya — A woman who struggles between the obligations
       of her religion and the desires of her heart.
     * Nikolai Rostov
     * Napoleon
     * Kutuzov
     * Elena Kuragina - Pierre's wife, who earns social power in circles
       in high society
     * Anatoly Kuragin
     * Petya Rostov
     * The Freemason

   Many of Tolstoy's characters in War and Peace were based on real-life
   people known to Tolstoy himself. Nikolai Rostov and Maria Bolkonskaya
   were based on Tolstoy's own memories of his father and mother, while
   Natasha was modeled after Tolstoy's wife and sister-in-law. Pierre and
   Prince Andrei bear much resemblance to Tolstoy himself, and many
   commentators have treated them as alter egos of the author.

Film, TV, theatrical and other adaptations

     * The first Russian film adaptation of War and Peace was the 1915
       Vladimir Gardin directed film Voyna i mir, starring Gardin and
       Russian ballerina Vera Karalli.

     * Initiated by a proposal of German director Erwin Piscator in 1938,
       Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev composed an opera based on this
       epic novel during the 1940s. The complete musical work premiered in
       Leningrad in 1955.

     * First successful stage adaptations of War and Peace were produced
       by Alfred Neumann and Erwin Piscator (1942, revised 1955, published
       by Macgibbon & Kee in London 1963, and staged in 16 countries
       since) and R. Lucas (1943). A second film adaptation was produced
       by F. Kamei in Japan (1947).

     * War and Peace (1956): American director King Vidor made a
       208-minute long film starring Audrey Hepburn (Natasha), Henry Fonda
       (Pierre) and Mel Ferrer (Andrei). The casting of Henry Fonda as the
       youthful Pierre has been questioned, but many critics consider
       Audrey Hepburn perfect as Natasha,

     * War and Peace (1968): Soviet director Sergei Bondarchuk made a
       critically acclaimed four-part film version (Vojna i mir) of the
       novel, released individually in 1965-1967, and as a re-edited whole
       in 1968, starring Lyudmila Savelyeva (as Natasha Rostova) and
       Vyacheslav Tikhonov (as Andrei Bolkonsky). Bondarchuk himself
       played the character of Pierre Bezukhov. By the time Bondarchuk
       made this film, the flawless image of Natasha as created by Audrey
       Hepburn had achieved an almost iconic status among Western
       audiences, and it was therefore a challenge for the director to
       select an actress for this role. The actress he chose, Lyudmila
       Savelyeva, looked very similar to Hepburn. The film was almost
       seven hours long; it involved thousands of actors and extras and it
       took seven years to finish the shooting, as a result of which the
       actors age dramatically from scene to scene. It won an Oscar for
       Best Foreign Language Film for its authenticity and massive scale.

     * In December 1970, Pacifica Radio station WBAI broadcast a reading
       of the entire novel (the 1968 Dunnigan translation) read by over
       140 celebrities and ordinary people.

     * War and Peace (1972): The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)
       made a television miniseries based on the novel , broadcast between
       in 1972-73. Anthony Hopkins played the lead role of Pierre. Other
       lead characters were played by Rupert Davies, Faith Brook, Morag
       Hood, Alan Dobie, Angela Down and Sylvester Morand.

     * Love and Death (1975): Woody Allen wrote and directed a satirical
       take on War and Peace and other Russian Epic Novels.

     * A stage adaptation by Helen Edmundson was published in 1996 by Nick
       Hern Books, London. The play was first produced in 1996 at the
       Royal National Theatre.

Trivia

     * The title War and Peace or La Guerre et la Paix was also the title
       of an earlier political work by French anarchist Pierre Proudhon,
       published in 1864. As Tolstoy had met Proudhon personally, and was
       held to be an admirer of his work and politics, it is likely that
       the title War and Peace was inspired by Proudhon's La Guerre et la
       Paix.

English translations

     * Clara Bell (from a French version) 1885-86
     * W. H. Dole 1889
     * Leo Wiener 1904
     * Constance Garnett (1904)
     * Louise and Aylmer Maude (1922-3)
     * Rosemary Edmonds (1957, revised 1978)
     * Princess Alexandra Kropotkin (1960)
     * Ann Dunnigan (1968)
     * Anthony Briggs (2005)
     * Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (expected Fall 2007)

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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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