War and Peace

War and Peace (Russian: Война и мир, translit. Voyna i mir) is a novel by Leo Tolstoy set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. Blending fictional lives with essays on history, causation and morality, it follows several aristocratic families in Russia from 1805 to 1820 as Europe convulses under Napoleon. Tolstoy revised earlier serial material—first published as 1805—into the vast 1869 book edition now regarded, alongside Anna Karenina, as his crowning achievement and a landmark of world literature.

Overview

Tolstoy’s narrative interweaves the fortunes of five families—the Bezukhovs, Bolkonskys, Rostovs, Kuragins and Drubetskoys—while placing real historical figures such as Napoleon and Field Marshal Kutuzov on stage. The plot runs from drawing rooms in St Petersburg to the fields of Austerlitz and Borodino, through the burning of Moscow and the French retreat. Alongside the story, Tolstoy inserts discursive chapters that question “great man” history and argue that large events arise from innumerable small choices, circumstances and necessities.

Plot summary (brief)

In 1805, the illegitimate but good-hearted Pierre Bezukhov unexpectedly inherits a fortune, while his friend Prince Andrei Bolkonsky leaves society and his pregnant wife to seek meaning in war. In Moscow, the impulsive Natasha Rostova comes of age. The disastrous Russian defeat at Austerlitz shatters Andrei’s ideals; his wife dies in childbirth, and he retreats into melancholy. Pierre’s loveless marriage to the glamorous Hélène collapses after scandal and a duel; searching for moral direction, he briefly embraces Freemasonry.

Years later Andrei and Natasha fall in love, but her near-elopement with Hélène’s brother Anatole breaks the engagement and leaves Natasha desolate. In 1812, Napoleon invades. At Borodino, Pierre witnesses slaughter; Andrei is mortally wounded. Moscow is abandoned and burns. Pierre is captured by the French and, through the peasant Karataev, discovers a humble, sustaining faith in life. During the retreat, Petya Rostov is killed; Pierre is freed by raiders led by Denisov and Dolokhov. After the war Hélène dies; Pierre and Natasha, both tempered by grief, marry. A first epilogue shows their domestic lives alongside Nikolai Rostov’s marriage to Princess Maria Bolkonskaya and their stewardship of Bald Hills; a second epilogue advances Tolstoy’s philosophy of history.

Themes and form

Tolstoy resists simple genre labels, calling the book “not a novel… and still less a historical chronicle.” The work is often read as an inquiry into free will and necessity, critiquing heroic causation and proposing that history is the calculus-like sum of countless infinitesimal actions. Its moral center moves from quests for glory to everyday virtues—family bonds, patience, pity—and to the quiet wisdom personified by Platon Karataev. Stylistically, Tolstoy’s shifting point of view, cinematic description, and attention to minute sensation create an unusually immersive realism.

Composition and publication

Tolstoy began the project in the early 1860s, mining letters, diaries, memoirs and official histories. An early version appeared as The Year 1805 in The Russian Messenger (1865–1867) before Tolstoy rewrote the whole, expanding the time frame through 1820 and integrating his historical essays. The 1869 book edition sold rapidly and was soon translated into European languages.

Language

The novel’s Russian narrative contains extensive French dialogue, reflecting the idiom of the aristocracy. As the war intensifies, French recedes in the text—read by many as a subtle sign of cultural realignment and patriotic feeling—though Tolstoy also uses it for tonal contrasts between social artifice and Russian sincerity.

Reception and legacy

Contemporary Russian critics debated how to classify the “novel-epic,” but many writers immediately hailed it. Turgenev called it “one of the most remarkable books of our age”; Dostoevsky praised its objectivity; later admirers ranged from Virginia Woolf to Thomas Mann and John Galsworthy. Military readers singled out the battle scenes for their insight and accuracy. Today War and Peace remains a touchstone of narrative ambition and philosophical fiction, frequently cited among the greatest novels ever written.

English translations

There are many English renderings, including classic versions by Constance Garnett and by Aylmer and Louise Maude (friends of Tolstoy), and later translations by Rosemary Edmonds, Ann Dunnigan, Anthony Briggs, and Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky. Translators differ on how much French to retain and how to reproduce Tolstoy’s repetitions and unusual syntax; Dunnigan is often praised for idiomatic clarity, the Maudes for authority and notes, and Pevear/Volokhonsky for fidelity to Russian rhythms.

Adaptations

War and Peace has inspired notable screen and stage versions, including King Vidor’s 1956 film (Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda), Sergei Bondarchuk’s monumental Soviet production (1966–1967), BBC television serials (1972–1973; 2016), and Sergei Prokofiev’s opera (composed in the 1940s; first complete performance 1955). Dave Malloy’s electropop musical Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 adapts Book Eight for the modern stage.

External links

• Full text (English, Aylmer & Louise Maude) at Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2600
• Russian text (modern orthography) at ilibrary.ru: http://ilibrary.ru/text/11/p.1/

War and Peace (English) at Internet Archive (multiple editions and translations): https://archive.org