War and Peace. Leo Tolstoy.

War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy
Hammondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books
1869 (1957)

Why read it? In War and Peace, Tolstoy alternated literary forms, using fiction to tell his story of the maturing of Pierre Bezukhov, Andre Bolkonsky and Natasha Rostova during the Napoleonic campaigns in Russia, and essays in which he discusses the ironies and absurdity of war. In other words, two battles are the essence of this novel: the personal and social battles are presented in fiction; the military battles are the subject of the essays. The story covers roughly the years between 1805 and 1820, centering on the invasion of Russia by Napoleon's army in 1812 and the Russian resistance to the invader.

Fiction: The social battles include Pierre's surviving the war, his attitude toward life and his social skills completely changed. He realizes that people have the freedom to see things their own way. He feels ready for anything. He dreads nothing in the world. Sees the infinite in everything. Andre, on the other hand, struggles to define the purpose of life, recognizes its contradictions and dies accepting both life and death.

Essays: Napoleon had a dream of a united Europe with Paris as its capital. Napoleon planned his military strategy based on his belief that he could do no wrong, but every decision he made in trying to conquer Russia was a decision that actually prevented the French from conquering Russia and eventually decimated his forces. From the Russian side, Kutzov, the Russian commander, just allowed the war to take its course. His lack of military planning won the war for Russia.

No summary can capture the scope of this novel, the over five hundred characters, the ideas about life and death and the military. When you have finished reading it, you have struggled with Pierre to understand and accept life; you have faced the confusion of warfare and accepted life and death with Andre Bolkonsky; you have flirted with life with Natasha and begun to realize that she must accept responsibility for her words and actions. And with Tolstoy, you have ridiculed the notion that leaders' own personal ambitions should doom the mass of their citizens to die for such absurd causes.

While there are many reasons for reading War and Peace, I think I enjoyed most Tolstoy's insights into life and the human character and condition.

Some sample ideas from the book:

"Pierre...the young man who did not know how to behave: First he had left a lady before she had finished speaking, and now detained another who was wishing to get away from him." "He spoke with such self-confidence that no one could be sure whether his remark was very witty or very stupid." "...don't marry until you can say to yourself that you have done all you are capable of doing, and until you cease to love the woman of your choice and see her plainly, as she really is; or else you will be making a cruel and irreparable mistake." "Bolkonsky possessed to the highest degree all those qualities that Pierre lacked and which might best be summed up as will power." "Yes, they are splendid children, splendid, confirmed the Count, who always settled all perplexing questions by finding everything splendid."

"Here in Moscow we are more occupied with dinner parties and scandal than with politics." "His favorite occupation...was that of listener, especially when he succeeded in starting two good talkers on the opposite sides of an argument." "He could remain silent for hours without feeling or causing others to feel the slightest embarrassment." "I shall live to learn that in this world one can expect no reward." "...the prime condition of successful activity is order....." "As Sterne says: 'We don't love men so much for the good they have done us as for the good we have done
them.' " "In society he was always on the watch for an opportunity to say something striking and took part in a conversation only when this was possible."

"The troops of the left flank, infantry and hussars alike, felt that the command itself did not know what to do, and this hesitation communicated itself to the men." "This was the critical moment of moral vacillation which decides the fate of battles: would this disorderly mob of soldiers heed the voice of their commander, or would they merely look at him and continue their flight?" "From general to private, every man was conscious of his own insignificance, aware that he was but a grain of sand in that ocean of humanity, and yet at the same time had a sense of power as a part of that vast whole."

"...we mustn't forget Survoroy and his maxim: 'It is better to attack than be attacked.' " "It was obvious that the affair that had begun so lightly could not now be averted in any way but was bound to run its course to the very end, irrespective of the will of men." "....struggling with himself to do what was for him the most difficult thing in life--to say something unpleasant to a man's face, to say the opposite of what the other...expected." "And, after all, what is honor and glory? The same love for others, the desire to do something for them, the desire for their praises." "You may not have come across it, but I have seen how good men brought up in those traditions of unlimited power grow more irritable with the years, turn cruel and harsh, and although aware of it cannot control themselves...."

Quote: "It is only by renouncing our claim to discern a purpose immediately intelligible to us, and admitting the ultimate purpose to be beyond our ken...."

Quote: "...so every individual bears within himself his own aims and yet bears them so as to serve a general purpose unfathomable by man."

Quote: "Just as in a dream everything may be unreal, incoherent, and contradictory except the feeling behind the dream."

Quote: "The herd goes in that direction because the animal in front leads it there and the collective will of all the other cattle is vested in that leader."