'There remains the greatest of all novelists-for what else can we call the author of War And Peace? Tolstoy's+ senses, his intellect, are acute, powerful, and well nourished...Nothing seems to escape him. Nothing glances off him unrecorded...Every twig, every feather sticks to his magnet. He notices the blue or red of a child's frock; the way a horse shifts its tail; the sound of a cough; the action of a man trying to put his hands into pockets that have been sewn up. And what his infallible eye reports of a cough or a trick of the hands his infallible brain refers to something hidden in the character, so that we know his people, not only by the way they love and their views but also by the way they sneeze and choke.
1. 1. In an article, "Some Words About War and
Peace," Tolstoy writes: "What is War and
Peace? It is not a novel, even less is it a poem, and
still less an historical chronicle. War and Peace
is what the author wished and was able to express in the form in
which it is expressed." He goes on to discuss how many precedents
for this "disregard of conventional form" there are in the history
of Russian literature. How do you respond to this characterization
of the novel? Does it help you understand its scope, structure, or
style?
2. 2. Relatedly, while some novelists have bemoaned what they
considered to be the formless nature of War and
Peace, Henry James called it "a wonderful mass of life."
How did the novel's length affect your reading experience? Does its
scale mirror its comprehensive outlook? Does Tolstoy's ambitious
vision succeed, in your opinion?
3. 3. Tolstoy also writes, with regard to the "character of the
period" he was trying to depict, that it "had its own
characteristics . . . which resulted from the pre-dominant
alienation of the upper class from other classes, from the
religious philosophy of the time, from peculiarities of education .
. . and so forth." What do you make of Tolstoy's treatment of the
themes of aristocracy and class, religion, and education in this
work?
4. 4. Discuss the eventual marriage of Natasha Rostova and
Pierre Bezukhov. How does their alliance speak to larger
principles, if at all? How does the concept of family relate to the
theme of war? Are Natasha and Pierre representative of Russian
social life at the time? Why or why not?
5. 5. Regarding "the divergence between my description of
historical events and that given by the historians," Tolstoy draws
interesting distinctions between the artist and the historian: "As
an historian would be wrong if he tried to present an historical
person in his entirety . . . so the artist would fail to perform
his task were he to represent the person always in his historic
significance. . . . For an historian considering the achievement of
a certain aim, there are heroes; for the artist treating of man's
relation to all sides of life, there cannot and should not be
heroes, but there should be men. . . . The historian has to deal
with the results of an event, the artist with the fact of the
event." Discuss Tolstoy's concern with history, and the place he
accords to the individual in the historical process.
6. 6. What is Tolstoy's verdict on Napoleon? How does this novel
treat the idea of the historical "great man"?
7. 7. Tolstoy's focus on five upper-class families contrasted
sharply with the struggles of the nation during the Napoleonic war.
And yet, many see the novel as a celebration of the Russian spirit.
How do you perceive Tolstoy's emphasis on the aristocratic? How
does the Revolution affect Russian class structure, if at all?
8. 8. A contemporary critic, N. N. Strakhov, said, "What is the
meaning of War and Peace? The meaning is expressed
in these words of the author more clearly than anywhere else:
'There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness, and
truth.' " Is this statement as simple as it sounds? Discuss.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
