2011 Books – War and Peace

Well, what can I say. Last year was everything German, this year is everything Russian. And so I bit the bullet and pulled out my copy of War and Peace and set about reading this massive book.

I have to admit, I found the first 50-100 pages rather boring. But that is because I had no idea what Leo Tolstoy was doing. So I did a little research, perusing Cliff Notes and commentaries, and from that point on, I actually enjoyed the book. Mind you, I didn’t read all of the notes and commentaries, I just wanted to know what was going on in the first few pages. (Besides the notes and commentaries would have taken as long to read as the book itself).

First of all, you cannot read this book as if it were a novel. Sure, there’s a story, but the story isn’t the book. This book crosses just about all genres. It’s a history book. It teaches logic and debate. It gives exposition on philosophy and religion. It delves into psychology and human character and how people change under certain circumstances. And it talks about the inner vs. the outer man. He touches on the topic of greatness vs glory. Suffering. History as seen from various points of view. Love as seen from different angles. And so much more. So if you plan on reading this, don’t expect it to be some sweeping novel. It’s not. It’s a textbook on life.

Tolstoy also changes points of view. Sometimes you’re seeing through the eyes of a character. Sometimes you’re the fly on the wall. Other times he’s giving you his present day analysis of past events. And sometimes he does all of that in one chapter – so you can see how different people perceive the same event. Oddly enough, it’s seamless.

From some of the research that I did on this book, I found out that Tolstoy spent five years researching the book. At the end of the translation that I read, there are some questions and answers that he provided for the reader. He talks about how reading the military reports are unreliable because each side will present a battle in the best light of their side. So instead, he used notes, letters, memoirs, etc. of those who were in the battles. And he’s been cited as having written the best and truest battle scenes ever put onto paper.

Another thing I picked up in doing a little background was how he used the two languages to express a person’s character or motives. The book was originally written in Russian and sprinkled with French. According to one source:

It has been suggested that it is a deliberate literary device employed by Tolstoy, to use French to portray artifice and insincerity as the language of the theater and deceit while Russian emerges as a language of sincerity, honesty and seriousness. It displays slight irony that as Pierre and others socialize and use French phrases, they will be attacked by legions of Bonapartists in a very short time. It is sometimes used in satire against Napoleon. In the novel, when Pierre proposes to Hélène, he speaks to her in French — Je vous aime (‘I love you’). When the marriage later emerges to be a sham, Pierre blames those French words.

The use of French diminishes as the book progresses and the wars with the French intensify, culminating in the capture and eventual burning of Moscow. The progressive elimination of French from the text is a means of demonstrating that Russia has freed itself from foreign cultural domination. It is also, at the level of plot development, a way of showing that a once-admired and friendly nation, France, has turned into an enemy.

Despite the slow start and the headache that came with it, I finished the book thinking, “yes, this is a masterpiece.” To anyone wanting to tackle this 500,000+ word book, do a little research on it first. It will help prepare you for what is to follow. Read it slowly – when I tried to pick up the pace, I found myself going back and rereading things.

There are several different translations out there. The translation I read was done by Aylmer and Louise Maude who were friends of Tolstoy and thus could tap into him to make sure they were conveying in English what he meant to say. Most translations are based upon the French version of the novel. Why go from Russian to French to English, I don’t know. Then there are others that cut 400 pages out of the book which I can’t imagine would remain true to Tolstoy’s intent.

And by the way, it is not the longest book ever written. Later this year, I’m going to read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, which is longer than War and Peace. Like I said, everything Russian!