War and Peace

It's hard to find anything original to say about "War and Peace." This classic of 19th century Russian literaure, written by one of the greatest novelists of the last 500 years, has been exhaustively reviewed, studied, dissected, and interpreted in film, drama, opera, and dance (I think). What I can say as a literary gourmand (someone who will read everything from the back of the shampoo bottle to "Valley Of The Dolls" to "Ulysses") and a professional specialist in the Russian language is this: WoP is a damn fine historical novel, worth a try for anyone who's every enjoyed a long historical novel. And this War and Peace, the latest translation of this monumental work from Russian into English, is the most readable and accurate version of the several I have read. Not only do they provide immediate translations of all the French and German conversations and letters in the book so you don't have to wonder what in tarnation is going on, they are true to the marvelous humor and simplicity of the original Russian language. The translation team of Pevear and Volkhonsky has successfully tackled several classics of Russian literature, making books like Demons newly accessible to English-speaking readers. This book is worth the money and the potential hernia.

I won't address the contents of the book in this review; it is excellent and has been discussed at length by others. I want to make a brief note about the binding.

Several reviewers have complained that the US edition is too large and that the pages are glued rather than sewn, which makes the book somewhat unstable. While "War and Peace" is never going to be a pocketbook, I would like to point out that the British edition (ISBN-10: 0099512238, ISBN-13: 978-0099512233) is about 1/2 an inch thinner than the US edition, and it has a sewn binding (which is much more durable). The cover is cloth, and I happen to think that it looks nicer than the US edition.

Note that you cannot order the UK edition from Amazon.com at the time of this writing, so those who are interested will either have to pay the extra shipping to order from Amazon.co.uk or else look elsewhere.

War and Peace, particularly this translation, is perhaps the best novel ever written. The historical sweep, punctuated by details of everyday life in the early 19th century Russia, is commanding. If there is one drawback to the novel, it is Tolstoy's increasingly repetitious philosophical musings about historical theory toward the end of the book.

Anyone who wants to be a writer needs to study this book. Tolstoy masterfully sets up the dynamics of Russia and Europe, the Russian class system, and the changing attitudes that finally led to the 1917 revolution, in the characters of several families, in particular the Rostovs, Pierre Bezhukov, and the Bolkonskys. Tolstoy steers us through the rising and falling fortunes of these people with the Napoleonic Wars as a backdrop. His descriptions of military camp life can be touching, humorous, and disturbing, all at once. And his description of the Battle of Borodino is achingly realistic, and perhaps one of the best anti-war passages ever written without being polemical or political.

Do yourself a favor and read this translation.

Potential reader: do not be daunted by the length of W&P! At over 1200 pages, this is, truly, a long work. Nonetheless, it is worth every second spent. I cannot comment on particular translations personally, but I am led to believe this one (the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation) is the best, based on various recommendations from critics, such as James Wood's excellent review in the New Yorker. On to the book itself:

With each page, I must confess my jealousy of Tolstoy grew immensely. By the end, one sits in sheer awe of the Master's writing ability. By far the most notable strength of Tolstoy's is his ability to craft characters; I have read no other author outside of Shakespeare and Milton (with his Satan from "Paradise Lost") able to create real men and women as well as Tolstoy. I cannot claim to be a Shakespeare expert, but I would rate Tolstoy's character-crafting even higher than the Bard's, though I am aware this is not a popular judgement.

Pierre, a corpulent and intelligent misfit in Russian high society; Prince Andrei, a dark, pessimistic, and arrogant (yet strangely tender) nobleman; and Natasha Rostov, a caring, complex, and often infuriating young woman, are the three standouts. To be sure, there are myriad other characters of interest (Nikolai Rostov, Princess Marya, Field Marshal Kutuzov, etc.), but the three aforementioned go beyond mere characters, metamorphosing into real, flesh-and-blood human beings. All three are fictional, unlike many of the other characters, and yet all three are more lifelike than perhaps any other literary creations.

Tolstoy's powers go further, however. The language is wonderful; though a translation, the explanatory notes offered at the beginning by Richard Pevear give one a greater sense of Tolstoy's language, especially his use of repetitions; his "readings" of characters expressions (and sometimes those of inanimate objects) also work wonderfully.

One thing that might irk those who are not overly familiar in philosophical reading are Tolstoy's interpolated philosophical essays. The whole second Epilogue is a long essay on the Philosophy of History, as are chunks of the last two books. I assure the potential reader with all my heart that, even if he does not particularly enjoy these essays, the novel is worth it and warrants reading. Being a student of philosophy, I found the essays quite fascinating (notably Hegelian), but even if one despises them, the story, characters, and every other aspect of WAR AND PEACE makes repeated reading well worth it.

Along with the wonderful Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the profound Jorge Luis Borges, and the darkly insightful Fyodor Dostoevsky, Tolstoy is at the top of my list of novelists (alright, Borges isn't a novelist, but close enough!). And yet, there is something that places the Count well above even the strengths of the others, and makes WAR AND PEACE a far greater novel than even "One Hundred Years of Solitude" or "Crime and Punishment." That something is the characters, it is Pierre, it is Prince Andrei, it is Natasha or Nikolai or Kutuzov. Any one of Tolstoy's characters would warrant a marvelous rating; all of them combined make WAR AND PEACE, by a long shot, the greatest novel I have yet read.

To close, I echo Russian novelist Isaak Babel: "If the world itself could write, it would write like Tolstoy." Truer words have never been spoken of him, and I feign not outdo them.

Count Lev Nikolaevich (1828-1910), more widely known abroad as Leo Tolstoy, is recognized as one the greatest novelist in the modern era. War and Peace is a superb piece of literature that most serious readers should read at least once. Many read it a few times. The fictional story is never dull. The non-fiction parts seem a bit strange and the reader can skip those parts. Once the reader gets past the first few pages, the reading is relatively simple and compelling. There are not too many characters, and it contains excellent prose that one might associate with Tolstoy's writing. It is only the length that discourages the reader.

This was a seven day read, including two days of intensive reading covering about 300 pages per day. That is about the same as a complete regular novel such as "Saturday" which is 300 pages. It is not for the faint of heart.

War and Peace is a bit of an odd novel being so long. Tolstoy goes beyond a simple novel as Anna Karenina or The Cossacks. He tells a historical tale plus he injects approximately 100 pages of his own non-fiction comments about society and war. Tolstoy's non-fiction comments ruin the book to a degree. Instead of the best novel ever written, Tolstoy's political ideas - which the reader can skip - tend to tarnish the book as a piece of literature. One feels that he should have been able to integrate his ideas into the actions of the characters rather than giving the reader long lectures on history and politics in the middle and at the end of a wonderful story (as Dostoevsky integrates his ideas on religion and morality into the dialogue). Otherwise, it is probably one of the best novels ever written.

I like Pevear and Volokhonsky's work and have bought and read three of their other works. All the translations, such as Oxford (Maude) and Modern Library Classics (Garnett), are good and very similar in overall quality. For example, turn to the beginning at the start of section 11. The present book uses Roman numerals while Maude uses simple numbers. What other differences are there? The present book says two people "cherish" their friendship while Maude says they "value" their friendship. Not much different. Going on, the two turn to talk to each other in Maude while in the present book one speaker pulls up their chair. One would have to know Russian and consult the original text to know if the "chair" is more accurate. So, overall one gets the same general feeling about the story and novel by reading any of the translations. But, the present book seems to give the reader more details.

Great read: 5 stars if you have the fortitude.