War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy, 1869
Held by Standard Ebooks, PG 2600read here
Read it here about 41 h of reading
Add to a shelf
Tolstoy's novel follows five Russian families, among them the Bezukhovs, Bolkonskys and Rostovs, from a St Petersburg soirée in July 1805 through the Napoleonic wars. Pierre, Andrei and Natasha love, fail and change while Austerlitz, Borodino and the burning of Moscow unfold around them. Between scenes of fiction, Tolstoy stops to argue about how history works and how little great men steer it. The book ends with two epilogues, the second wholly given to that argument. Its characters meet real figures such as Napoleon and mix them with invented ones.
Where it happens
- Saint Petersburg The novel opens at Anna Pavlovna Scherer's soirée here in July 1805.1
- Austerlitz (Slavkov u Brna) Site of the battle that Tolstoy weaves into the early plot.1
- Borodino Battle shown in the novel before the French reach Moscow.1
- Moscow Occupied by the French and burned, as the novel tells it.1
Through time
- 1863Tolstoy begins writing the novel.1
- 1865Early chapters appear as The Year 1805 in The Russian Messenger, running to 1867.1
- 1869After rewriting, Tolstoy publishes the complete book.1
- 1922The Maude translation is published by Oxford University Press (volumes dated 1922 and 1923).1
- 1933The Maude translation is revised.1
Who is in it, and behind it
Leo Tolstoy author
Began the novel in 1863 and published the full text in 1869.1
Sophia Tolstaya scribe
Tolstoy's wife, who copied the manuscript by hand as many as seven times before it went to print.1
Louise and Aylmer Maude translator
Friends of Tolstoy whose English version appeared from Oxford University Press in 1922 and 1923.1
Pierre Bezukhov character
Awkward, educated abroad and the central figure, often voicing Tolstoy's own doubts.1
Andrei Bolkonsky character
A sceptical, thoughtful aide-de-camp in the Napoleonic campaigns.1
Natasha Rostova character
Introduced as not pretty but full of life, romantic and impulsive.1
Platon Karataev character
A fellow prisoner of Pierre's during the French occupation of Moscow.1
Napoleon Bonaparte subject
The French emperor whose invasion of Russia drives the historical plot.1
What it is about
History without great men
Tolstoy argues in the narrative chapters that history comes from many small acts, not from rulers or generals.1
Five families, one invasion
Five interlocking family stories show how the French invasion reached ordinary Russian aristocratic lives.1
Fiction beside real events
Invented characters share the page with Austerlitz, Borodino and the fire of Moscow.1
Searching for a way to live
Pierre, the central figure, often carries Tolstoy's own struggles and beliefs.1
In its own words
1805 I “Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes.
Above him was a clear blue sky, and the sun’s vast orb quivered like a huge hollow, crimson float on the surface of that milky sea of mist.
The facts clearly show that Napoleon did not foresee the danger of the advance on Moscow, nor did Alexander and the Russian commanders then think of luring Napoleon on, but quite the contrary.
After the last two days spent in solitude and unusual circumstances, Pierre was in a state bordering on insanity.
“Ah, my dear fellow!” rejoined Karatáev, “never decline a prison or a beggar’s sack!” He seated himself more comfortably and coughed, evidently preparing to tell a long story.
The most usual generalizations adopted by almost all the historians are: freedom, equality, enlightenment, progress, civilization, and culture.
The shape of the book
28 chapters, 563,794 words. Point at a bar.
How it came to be here
Tolstoy began work in 1863. An early version ran as The Year 1805 in The Russian Messenger from 1865 to 1867. He rewrote it between 1866 and 1869 and published the whole in 1869. His wife Sophia Tolstaya copied the manuscript by hand, by one count up to seven full times. He drew on histories, letters and diaries, and on people who remembered the 1812 invasion. This site carries the Maude translation, first printed by Oxford University Press in 1922 and 1923 and revised in 1933. Louise and Aylmer Maude knew Tolstoy personally.
Free to read elsewhere
- Standard Ebooks this edition
- Open Library search editions you can borrow or read
- HathiTrust search full-view scans
- Project Gutenberg search
Sources
Text: PG 2600 | translator: Louise and Aylmer Maude. CC0 (Standard Ebooks).