War and Peace (Modern Library Classics)
War and Peace (Modern Library Classics)
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Often called the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is at once an epic of the Napoleonic Wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of the Russian spirit. Tolstoy’s genius is seen clearly in the multitude of fully realized and equally memorable characters that populate this massive chronicle. Out of this complex narrative emerges a profound examination of the individual’s place in the historical process, one that makes it clear why Thomas Mann praised Tolstoy for his Homeric powers and placed War and Peace in the same category as the Iliad: “To read him . . . is to find one’s way home . . . to everything within us that is fundamental and sane.”
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- ISBN13: 9780345472403
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War and Peace (Modern Library Classics)
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War and Peace (Modern Library Classics)
Often called the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is at once an epic of the Napoleonic Wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of the Russian spirit. Tolstoy’s genius is seen clearly in the multitude of fully realized and equally memorable characters that populate this massive chronicle. Out of this complex narrative emerges a profound examination of the individual’s place in the historical process, one that makes it clear why Thomas Mann praised Tolstoy for his Homeric powers and placed War and Peace in the same category as the Iliad: “To read him . . . is to find one’s way home . . . to everything within us that is fundamental and sane.”
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Rating
It has been said that Leo Tolstoy is one of the greatest writers of all time and that can certainly be seen in his epic masterpiece “War and Peace,” but there are some things left to be desired in the work including a more uniform style with regard to fiction and history, and a more interesting plot.
I can’t add too much to the praise Tolstoy has received about his skill, but I would like to mention that, not only was he a great writer, he was also an observant psychologist (albeit without the doctorates as far as I know). His descriptions of character and idiosyncrasies are masterful and reveal an immense amount of insight into the human character. Reading his work is truly a pleasure, though much of that can be attributed to the translator (Constance Garnett in this case).
I shouldn’t harp on about the inadequacies of the book, but Tolstoy’s personal reflections on the history when the novel takes place do not mesh well with the fiction and causes a somewhat disjointed read. Though Tolstoy’s tearing up of Napoleon is humorous and important for the book, it could be inserted as a character’s beliefs just as easily. Instead, it is written as an author’s aside. Another negative is the slow plot, which may have been lively in the 19th century, but lacks in excitement today.
The author’s free-will/fate philosophy in the last section of the book, however, is about as lively as can be and deserves repeated readings. It alone could stand as a masterpiece.
Rating
Tolstoy’s War and Peace rightfully ranks amongs the best novels ever written in any language. The master novelist uses Napolean’s Wars with Russia as the context against which he narrates the story of four families. The four families, along with several timeless characters, live through the times of War and Peace to provide us with a representation of every aspect of Russian life, Russian thought and imagery of both cities and villages.
Tolstoy’s great talent was in providing insights using his extremely good sense of seemingly trivial. The details, be it of the functioning of clock or steam engine, or of the idealogy and rites of Masons, or the charge of cavalry in war or the thoughts of a man on his death bed, the details, the insight, the lucidity of expression of such varied themes in one book requires Tolstoy’s genius.
There are innumerable unforgettable characters in this mammoth novel. Each one brings out different characteristics of human pysche, each one is made into a being of flesh and blood, strengths and weaknesses. Prince Andrey Bolkonsky, the dashing gentleman who shuns his boring high society to fight in war to achieve glory, is as compelling as a soldier as he is a wounded person, wounded both in love and in war. His death scene, touted as one of the greatest scenes in Russian Literature, is perhaps unmatched in its ability to engage a reader and his tears. The other equally important character is Pierre Bezukhov, who is a close friend of the Prince. Pierre is always so unsure, so uncertain, dabbling with different ideas and ideals, falling, failing, has a wife who nearly ruins him, and yet Pierre by the end of the novel comes of age, redeems himself, and in the climax attains Natasha in marriage. Natasha is the heroine of the novel. She is a bright spark, the resplandent laughter, full of energy and life, beautiful and engrossing female character. Whenever she breaks into the story, the tale becomes a remarkable love story. Music and smile pour in, dances start to occur.
Be it Natasha’s family members or those of Prince Bolkonsky’s or any of their acquaintances, the characterization is such that one can visulaize each one separately. If there is villaincy in Doholov, Natasha’s brother Rostov has his inexperience leading him into a near ruin. If Marya, Bolkonsky’s sister is god fearing charming but simple looking girl, Ellen is seductress, souless counterpart who possesses a father and a brother equally despicable. The whole array of characters are present in this novel, which of human characteristics be different species of animals, makes Tolstoy’s War and Peace a Noah’s Ark.
The novel is at the same time a swashbuckling romance, family saga, philosophical query, a historical fiction, a war memoir and more. It is a timeless classic that through its pages develops a whole crop of humanity, representative of our passions and traits, and chronicle of our deeds and choices and what guides them. The novel has one of the best last quarter I have ever read, where the climax arouses so strong feelings at every page, that I was laughing joyfully on one page and crying inconsolably on next page. (This is before the epilogue).
I have often stressed that classics deserve respect, slow and patient reading, and War and Peace is no different. There are sections where I was forced to move like a stream of water going downhill, and other places where reading each page was an effort. Yet once the plot is set up, once you have finished reading over one third the novel, once the Russian names and their universe is created in your head, the novel becomes friendlier. It fills your head with images, emotions, ideas and you are carried to Tolstoy’s world. For anyone seriously interested in reading great literature, Tolstoy is a must. Inarguably, War and Peace is one of the brightest prose pieces ever written and I heartily recommend it to one and all. Again I have figured that Constance Garnett must have been a great translator, and like other great Russian Novels I read translated by her, this one also calls for my gratitude to her. But above all, all credit to Tolstoy for creating this epic saga. Must read it.
Rating
This is a translated version, and since I cannot read Russian, I cannot tell how well it conveys what Tolstoy really wrote and meant. What I can say after reading this mammoth novel is that it is lifelike. In one book, Tolstoy presents the Russia of late 19th century, the urban Moscow and Petersburg hoi polloi, the rural noblemen and peasantry, politics, religion, horse racing, hunting, balls, love, adultery, heartbreaks, death, birth, marriage and everything else that needs to be put on this masterpiece canvass to create a complete recreation of life.
There are three essential characters. Anna Karenina who deserts her husband to live with her lover, Count Vronsky who is a dashing and colonel Anna falls for and Levin who some say is Tolstoy’s autobiographical sketch in some ways.
This novel has several love stories, developed delightfully in beginning and then these give way to the ground realities of the world and society. In some sense, the novel is like those movies that show everything from birth to death, and hence the delightful childhood, or steamy romance of adulthood become just frames in passing imagery, where the whole is spectacular and full of everything.
Through Anna’s and Vronsky’s stories, set in Moscow and Petersburg, the life of Princes and Princesses comes live with associated gossip, glamor, balls, grand parties, dresses and fashion, and many characters appear and reappear to tell intertwined tales of several lifes. These lifes are of people with money or inheritances, they speak multiple languages, have servants and maids and valets to look after the mundane stuff, have enough time to dwell on questions of social justice, ethics and natural sciences through their eyes that judge from a distance. On the other hand, Levin is a rural nobleman, uncormfortable in the city. His life mixes with the toil of peasants who cut, mow, grow, reap, harvest, and thrash crops. He practically encounters the questions of faith in God, of social justice and enpowerment, of natural sciences but placed in the other world of his city relations and friends finds himself wanting with respect to articulating his views on anything and everything.
Anna is a complex character: a beautiful women split between multiple roles of mother, wife, sister, lover, social outcast and allows Tolstoy to present a multitude of beautifully created emotions through her. Levin fulfils the role of a thinker and doubter alike, of a “nice guys finish last” league gentleman, of a compelling person with principles that make him appear unmotivated or worldly inept to uninitiated. Vronsky is to begin with the “happy go lucky” charmers, and must in his lifetime discover how great love (to others wife) comes at great cost. Without disclosing the story too much, let me just say there are other important and completely developed characters, who have their pieces of life added to serve a grand buffet of possibilities.
As a novel that opens the window into life in Russia, this novel will remain an important masterpiece that can also be read for its splendid love stories, for discussions on ethics, politics, faith and morality and for patient reading spread over weeks. It is a classic, a meganovel, and needs time, respect, and patience; but reading a novel of this skill and magnitude is in my view, a delightful experience unmatched by reading dozens of easy read 100 page books we buy as bestsellers in bookstores everwhere. Commit to it, and experience the love, life, flora, fauna, streets, winds and tea in Russia in Tolstoy’s masterly detail:)
Rating
What’s left to say about a book that more than any other is often called the greatest novel ever written? Some readers may avoid such enormously famous works due to intimidation or to a jaded (and unjustified) familiarity. To such folks, I say, pretend you never heard of the book except from a trusted friend who’s recommending this book as a `sweeping saga of war-time Russia and its gentry class during tumultuous times’ (or other such book cover blurb) and dive in. You’ll be rewarded with leaving your accidental life and experiencing the company of people whose lives you’ll care deeply about: Prince Andrei, Natasha, Nikolai, Pierre, and a host of others. No doubt you’ve heard of the huge number of characters in the book and that readers should jot down notes to understand what’s going on. Yes, there are many people in the book but the main characters are a manageable number and most people reading for pleasure will do fine without notekeeping. And the book is long but so is the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Stephen King’s Dark Tower series.
Unforgettable characters, magnificent battle scenes, adultery, philosophical ruminations, and even some chick-flick tear jerker scenes – what more can a reader ask for?
Rating
I heard a professor say that if you only read one book in your life, it ought to be “War and Peace.” And I believe he’s right. Reading a chapter or two a day, it took me months, but it was a most rewarding experience. To my surprise, the novel was not plodding and obtuse, like many classics. Instead, I found it enjoyable, endearing and informative. It tells the tale of several noble Russian families and how they intertwine during a restive period in Russian history. It also describes in great detail various battles and the personages involved, some fictional, some not. As a story, it had suspense, very well-defined characters, action and interesting plot turns. The book also contained essays by Tolstoy on the forces of history and other matters — which I tended to skip over. But, now having completed this singular work, I feel enriched and satisfied. I’m no expert, but if someone tells me this is the greatest novel ever written, they won’t get any argument from me.
Rating
This review is broken down into two segments, a Descriptive Summary and an Evaluative Summary. If you’re already very familiar with the story of “War and Peace,” you may wish to skip directly to the latter facet of my review which is essentially the critique of the Constance Garnett translation.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY:
In 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Austria to expand his European empire. Russia, being an ally of Austria, stood with their brethren against the infamous Emperor. Napoleon prevailed and a treaty was ultimately signed at Tilsit. In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia, again in an effort to expand his empire. The end result of this tragic war was that Napoleon’s army of about 600,000 soldiers was reduced to roughly 60,000 men as the defamed Emperor raced from Moscow (which he had taken), back across the frozen Russian tundra in his carriage (leaving his troops behind to fend for themselves) for Paris. That encapsulizes the military aspect of this work.
But the more intricate story involves both the activities and the peccadillos of, primarily, three Russian families of nobility: The Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, and the Bezukovs. The continual thorn of “The Antichrist,” Napoleon, really just provides the wallpaper for this story of romance, riches, desolation, love, jealousy, hatred, retribution, joy, naiivety, stupidity, and so much more.
Tolstoy has woven an incredibly intricate web that interconnects these noble families, the wars, and the common Russian people to a degree that would seem incomprehensible to achieve – but Tolstoy perseveres with superb clarity and great insight to the human psyche. His characters are timeless and the reader who has any social experience whatever will immediately connect with them all.
“War and Peace” is a fictional, lengthy novel, based upon historical fact.
In his Epilogue, Tolstoy yields us a shrewd dissertation on the behavior of large organizations, much of it by way of analogy. It’s actually an oblique, often sarcastic, commentary on the lunacy of government activities and the madness of their wars.
EVALUATIVE SUMMARY:
The Garnett translation has probably come under more fire than any of the others, purportedly for inaccuracies of what Tolstoy supposedly actually said. This is possibly true, but as I do not speak Russian, I can neither confirm nor deny this allegation. But I will point out that there are two types of translations — the one is rigid and runs word for word correctly, and the second type focuses more upon manifesting the essence of a story… The Big Picture, so to speak. The Garnett translation falls into the latter category.
I can make one particular and certain observation regarding this volume: Garnett’s handling of the more poetic and epic events in the novel is masterful. Even if her translation is not word-for-word correct, I’m sure that she was very plugged into the vision which Tolstoy was trying to convey. You’ll see this actuality blossom in the following places, for instance: “Petya’s dream”; the view of Moscow on the morning of Napoleon’s approach; the “scrying” episode between Natasha and Sonya; The wolf hunt… and so on. I think it’s “The Woman’s Touch,” coming through, which is a good thing.
Constance Garnett published her version of “War and Peace” in 1904, so this was one of the early ones. Other translations into English include:
Clara Bell (from a French version) 1885-86
W. H. Dole 1889
Leo Wiener 1904
Louise and Aylmer Maude (1922-3)
Princess Alexandra Kropotkin (1949)
Manuel Komroff (Abridged) (1956)
Rosemary Edmonds (1957, revised 1978)
Ann Dunnigan (1968)
Anthony Briggs (2005)
Andrew Bromfield (2007), (translation of an early draft, approx. 400 pages shorter than other English translations.)
Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (October 16, 2007)
Wikipedia cites this information about Garnett [edited]:
“She was initially educated at Brighton and Hove High School. Afterwards she studied Latin and Greek at Newnham College, Cambridge on a government scholarship, where she also learned Russian (partly from émigré Russian friends such as Felix Volkonsky [Rubenstein]), and worked briefly as a school teacher.
In 1893, shortly after a visit to Moscow, Petersburg and Yasnaya Polyana where she met Leo Tolstoy, she was inspired to start translating Russian literature, which became her life’s passion and resulted in English-language versions of dozens of volumes by Tolstoy, Gogol, Goncharov, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Turgenev, Ostrovsky and Chekhov. The Russian anarchist Sergei Stepniakpartly assisted her, also in revision some of her early works.
By the late 1920s, Garnett was frail, white-haired, and half-blind. She retired from translating after the publication in 1934 of Three Plays by Turgenev. After her husband’s death in 1937, she became quite reclusive. She developed a heart condition, with attendant breathlessness, and in her final period had to walk with crutches.”
In summary, if you happen to end up with a Garnett translation for your first reading of “War and Peace,” I would say that you have been lucky. Some English translations yield the French entries (2% of the book) as Tolstoy entered them, with the English translation of the French following in footnotes. Garnett translated the entire work, with a very few minor exceptions, as a direct read in English, so it’s easy to read.
I have read the following translations to date: Maude (twice), Pevear/Volokhonsky, Briggs, and now Garnett. (The others will be read soon!) So I feel that I can say with some authority, highly recommended!
Rating
Count Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 and died in 1910. He gave up his university studies, became a soldier among the Cossacks, traveled abroad and experimented along Rousseaesque lines with education. He was a seeker after truth and ultimate meaning as a justification for existence, a moralist with a great love and appetite for life. Apart from War and Peace he wrote a second novel, Anna Kerenina, selected esays, two short novels and a collection of short stories.
Perhaps if Adolf Hitler had read War and Peace, he would never have invaded Russia because he suffered the same fate that befel Napoleon’s armies at the gates of Moscow, when they were trapped by the onset of the severe Russian winter and forced to retreat – and ultimate ignominous defeat by the Russian forces under General Kutuzov. Hitler’s armies lost 300000 men in their retreat from Stalingrad in 1942, defeated by The Red Army under the command of General Chuikov.
At the time War and Peace was written Russia was ruled by Alexander 1, grandson of Catherine the Great. It was a feudal, religious and mystical society, controlled and managed by landlords and the aristocracy, to which Tolstoy belonged.
The main characters in the novel are these aristocrats, Princes and Princesses, who discuss and deal with political, social, familial and religious matters at soirees and in the drawing-room, where the story begins. The tone is set by Prince Vassily, affecting nonchalance, discusses the appointment of a Baron Funke by empress of Austria as first secretary to the Vienna legation. “He is a poor creature . . .”
We meet P1erre, along with Natasha are the main characters in the novel, Pierre is a seeker after truth, patterned it seems on Tolstoy himself. His troubled love for Natasha is a wonderfully envisaged and developed parallel theme.
Translated by Constance Garnett in the three parts, complete and unabridged in one volume, War and Peace is impossible to summarize due to its immensity and grandeur, the huge cast of characters, the interplay of personal relationships and their involvement in the inexorable historical and cataclysmic events that took place between 1812 and 1813. The Learning Process: Some Creative Impressions
Rating
Awesome, much more enjoyable than Anna Karenina in my opinion. Don’t get put down by the high number of pages as it is an easy read and it is like a great movie, you will be sad to finish reading it so soon no matter how long it will take. Classic reviews point to the number of characters and the use of their different patronyms as a difficulty. This may be an issue to some, but I have not minded or even noticed it as such. Movies that have been made on this novel make it appear as stuffy as an old valse. Don’t be mistaken by this false impression, it is a very modern novel. The historical background and the position that Tolstoï takes on the war are fascinating. I am sorry that I did not read this novel sooner. As an old classic it is available for free on the internet. My review applies to the French edition downloaded from gutenberg.org, by the way quite an excellent translation. Read it today !
Rating
The Library Classic is a very handy, readable and clear edition of this classic. I had never read the Tolstoy’s War and Peace until I made this order. The translation from Russian to English is so clear and real. 1400 pages in length but it is not a slog or slow read. It does take time. It is a wonderful novel.