I always wanted to read War and Peace -- always assumed that one day I would -- but put it off and put it off, fearing that it would be fusty and old-fashioned and not quite to my liking. What a pleasure, then, to have enjoyed it so much.
I knew that the story involved Napoleon's invasion of Russia, but not that so much of the action -- the real power-brokering -- would take place in the drawing rooms and the ballrooms of Russia's aristocratic class. Characters (right up to the Emperor, Tsar Alexander himself) go off to war because they seek honours and rewards, and also because they admire the way they look in uniform; it's all a grand game until one first encounters the smoke and reek and confusion of an actual battle. On the field, multiple generals issue conflicting orders, each trying to jockey for favour and undermine the commander-in-chief, yet meanwhile, the front-line soldiers must, without proper instructions, decide whether their side is winning or losing; whether to advance or retreat. Back in Petersburg and Moscow, the fashionable ladies host stylish parties and, while arranging good matches between the young people, attempt to predict and agree with the prevailing, popular opinions; their efforts freighted with as much significance as those taking place far away on the fields of battle.
Within the narrative of this cast of 500+ characters, Leo Tolstoy often pauses to philosophise about his theories of history and the natures of power and free will. I was sometimes deflated by these pauses, and most especially when he would compare the "science of history" with physics or chemistry or mathematical maxims -- and especially because I didn't buy his analogies. But here's the thing: these theories were the whole point of War and Peace and with it Tolstoy changed the study of history from concentrating on the "Great Man" (as had been the fashion at the time) to considering all of the events and all of the people that came before and attended a major historical event. I may not agree with his idea that there's an inevitability to history (such that the French invasion of Russia would have happened without a Napoleon or an Alexander), but it's so tied up with the plot and the characters -- they're only there in order to demonstrate these theories -- that it's an all or nothing proposition (and that includes the Second Epilogue that so many readers advise skipping: why begrudge Tolstoy an extra 15 pages after visiting with him for over a thousand?).
My favourite scenes:
After the battle of Austerlitz, Nicholas -- his heart burning with patriotism and a nearly romantic love for his sovereign -- chances upon the Austrian Emperor jumping his horse back and forth across a small ditch, evidently trying to show Tsar Alexander how easy it would be for him to do so, too. Alexander is so upset with the ugliness of the fighting he has just witnessed that he can't even attempt the jump and a junior officer comes to his aid. Instead of judging the tsar harshly for this, Nicholas' heart spills over with love and he only regrets not having helped Alexander himself. (pp 238-39, my edition)
At the Viliya River, Napoleon orders that a ford be found to cross. As Napoleon turns his attention to his maps, an enthusiastic colonel of the Polish Ulhans leads his men straight into the river down below, drowning many of the soldiers and their horses. Believing their beloved Emperor to be watching, they turn towards him and smile, deliriously happy to die for his wishes. When an aide-de-camp points out the sacrifice, Napoleon only glances disapprovingly at the distraction. (pp 517-18)
After a day of hunting wolves, the young Rostovs are invited to take supper with their "Uncle". When he begins to play Russian folk tunes and Natasha is invited to dance, there is a tense moment as her brother fears that, having been educated in the French style, she wouldn't know the peasant ways. In typical Natasha fashion, she performs the dance brilliantly, bringing tears of admiration to everyone's eyes. (p 432)
This last was particularly amusing to me because I had never before considered (or truly known) how horrifying it must have been in European court-life at the time to be invaded by the country they deferred to in cultural matters. As demonstrated in War and Peace, all of the nobility were educated in French, spoke amongst themselves in French (in a later scene, out of patriotism a group of nobles attempt to speak only Russian for an entire evening, and can't do it), attend French theatre and operas, perform French dances -- their thinking was so French that it must have felt like the ultimate betrayal when Napoleon marched on Russia.
War and Peace is a big book full of big ideas and much more enjoyable and accessible than I had expected. Along with the brainy bits like this: Man lives consciously for himself, but serves as an unconscious instrument for the achievement of historical, universally human goals, there are funny bits like this: Though the doctors treated him, let his blood, and gave him medications to drink, he nevertheless recovered, and the whole is unlike any other book that I have ever read. My reading enjoyment would probably qualify this as a four star book (only because of the historical theory pauses) but it would be unfair to compare War and Peace to modern storytelling -- judging it for what it is, this is a work of genius that deserves five stars.
Another of my favourite scenes is when Pierre, after being taken prisoner by the French, looks to the stars and has an epiphany about love and existence:
Pierre looked into the sky, into the depths of the retreating, twinkling stars. "And all this is mine, and all this is in me, and all this is me!" thought Pierre. "And all this they've caught and put in a shed and boarded it up!"And what's most interesting about that is that today on facebook, my mother posted this link. In it, when Neil deGrasse Tyson was asked what the most astounding fact about the universe is, he replied:
"The most astounding fact is the knowledge, that the atoms that comprise life on Earth – the atoms that make up the human body – are traceable to the crucibles that cooked light elements into heavy elements in their core, under extreme temperatures and pressures.
"These stars, the high mass ones among them, went unstable in their later years. They collapsed and then exploded, scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy: guts made of Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, and all of the fundamental ingredients of life itself. These ingredients become parts of gas clouds that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems – stars with orbiting planets – and those planets now have the ingredients for life itself. So that when I look up at the night sky and I know that, yes, we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up, many people feel small – ’cause they’re small and the universe is big – but I feel big. Because, my atoms came from those stars.
"There’s a level of connectivity. That’s really what you want in life. You want to feel connected, want to feel relevant. You want to feel like you’re a participant in the goings on of activities and events around you. That’s precisely what we are, just by being alive."Pierre knew all that because Tolstoy knew all that, and isn't that a bit of genius right there?
