Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace
1865-1869
A groundbreaker…
• Considered one of the world’s greatest novels
• Huge influence on subsequent literature
• Tolstoy did not consider it a novel within the
meaning prevalent at the time
• In fact redefined what a novel meant for
subsequent generations
War and Peace:
History and private lives
• 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.)
War: the extreme stress point of history
• 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
Philosophical purpose
• 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
Tasks of the historical novelist
• 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
Core Characters…
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky
• 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
Pierre Bezukhov
• 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.
Natasha Rostova
• 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
Representatives of the common people, the
Russian narod
• 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
Famous scenes I
• 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.
Famous scenes II
• 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
Famous film versions
• Hollywood version with
Audrey Hepburn as
Natasha (1956)
Famous film versions
• Russian version (1967),
dir. Sergei Bondarchuk,
with Liudmila
Savelieva.
• Sergei Bondarchuk as
Pierre Bezukhov (right)
Famous film versions
TV miniseries with Clemence Poesy (2006)