#31 - War and Peace

First off, War and Peace isn't even necessarily the name. War, certainly. But the Peace could also be World, or The Rest. War and the Rest. War and Everything Else. Everything. Else. Tolstoy argues that War and Peace is not a novel, and I would have to agree with him. Novels have a plot, a central theme, a sense of focus or at least a prescribed direction. What War and Peace does is play with focus - from the tiniest minutiae to the grandest frontiers of Europe - in order to encapsulate, in a mere 1444 pages (in my Penguin Classics, Rosemary Edmonds-translated edition), the entirety of Russia, in mind, body and spirit.

The largest portion of the book ranges from 1805-1812, the Napoleonic Wars. It has over 500 named characters, but centers around a few wealthy noble families - the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, the Bezuhovs, and the Kuragins - and their lives, both in War, and Peace. There are births, deaths, marriages, affairs, dances, pranks, drinking, farming, shooting, stabbing, talking, yelling, singing, sitting, standing, lying in both word and act, and more. To quote Mark Twain, "Tolstoy carelessly neglects to include a boat race". The only exceptions are sex (none of that naughty stuff) and swearing , which doesn't pop up at all until later on in the depths of the biggest bummer part of the war. I really truly cannot give a plot summary for this book, there is not one to be found. And that's because this book is REAL.

Russian realism had already had me really impressed. Between Anna Karenina and Crime and Punishment, the understanding of the human psyche that Tolstoy and Dostoevsky showed was jaw-dropping, and War and Peace raised the bar still further. Every minute detail of action and reaction, of inner dialogues and public repartee was effortlessly perfect. The breadth added to the effect - by the end, the childhood memories of the Rostovs were just as foggy and nostalgic for me as my own were. War and Peace is a novel with big ideas, but a reserved way of showing them. Characters have earth-shaking realizations and epiphanies, their world-view changing dramatically (particularly in Pierre and Andrei, Tolstoy's avatars). But even in these wise and intelligent characters, there are beautiful contradictions. These metaphorical theories are mocked and lampooned just chapters later, showing, in its turn, the ongoing contradictions of men.

One of the reasons that War and Peace shouldn't be called a novel is the multiple branching diatribes that Tolstoy left in it. Religion, from the Masonic lodge to entire schools of metaphysics, are examined by piles upon piles of the characters, culminating in a resoundingly  devout argument that had me engrossed, if not convinced. He was less roundabout with his examination of the Great Man Theory of History, in vogue at the time but absolutely despised by Tolstoy. While I agree firmly that the GMT is too enthusiastic in its hero worship, I didn't need 300 pages and an epilogue to expound upon it.

War and Peace is beyond description. To those who argue that you cannot truly appreciate a work of literature unless it is in the original language, I laugh. True genius in art will transcend, and War and Peace is proof of that. The ONLY, and I mean the only reason why this is not getting a 10 out of 10 and joining my pantheon of heroes is because it was not, as all great Russian things should be, distilled to a purer form.

9/10