St Petersburg Photo:own
Voyna i Mir - War and Peace - by Lev Tolstoy has recently been shown on TV as a drama series in an Anglo-American adaptation. The series was quite enjoyable to watch and I was most impressed with the filming of the war scenes. But it remained a little too close, for my liking, to a Georgian period drama.
As I watched the series, the book, which I have read twice and at different times in my life, constantly came to mind. I first read War and Peace when I was about eighteen - I did not take to it, though I loved the character of Natasha, the young countess Rostova. I then read it again in my thirties, whilst travelling in India, and really appreciated Pierre Bezhukov.
My recollection was that through the intersecting stories of the many characters that people the novel, and underpinning the narration, there were Tolstoy's philosophical reflections on the nature of history and the interconnectedness of existence. Those reflections seemed to have been largely omitted, or downplayed, from the recent TV adaptation, thus obscuring the meaning of the work. After the last episode was shown I felt some serious dissatisfaction and concluded that a new careful reading, from start to finish, was in order.
St Petersburg. Photo: own
I searched for War and Peace on my bookshelves, could not find it, so I bought a new copy and for once it had to be a real book, I could not do with a Kindle edition even though it's free to download. I toyed with the idea of getting an Audible book then I decided that only an old fashioned tome would do. I got it through the post in no time - a thick volume that manages to compress the original four (or was it five?) books into one and which definitely requires the use of a good pair of reading glasses or a magnifying glass, as my father, who hated glasses, used to read with. I have one somewhere too.
I must confess at this point that my favourite novel by Tolstoy has always been Anna Karenina rather than War and Peace. This is just a personal preference and it may well be that my third reading of War and Peace will change my perception entirely. I just wish I could read it in the original Russian! I have been watching Bondarchuk's four part film, following the suggestion of a friend, and I love hearing the characters speak part in Russian, part in French, as Russian aristocrats used to do.
The two works, War and Peace and Anna Karenina are some decades apart, yet one notices continuities .There are several parallels between the characters: Kitty and Natasha share similarities, yet Natasha also partakes of Anna's darkness, whereas Levin could be a more disillusioned alter ego of Pierre Bezoukov.
I am still in the process of reading and digesting it, so I do not feel I can as yet comment on this third reading of War and Peace, but I do have something to share. While researching the book, I came across Chicago Professor of Slavonic Studies William Nickell's list of reasons for why people ought to read Voyna i Mir. He suggests twelve such reasons, I am adding my comments next to each one:
1. Because it is not a “classic novel” (Indeed. Tolstoy even wrote an appendix to explain why it is NOT a novel)
2. Because it asks big questions in little ways (So very true! And Bondarchuk really captured this in his film, see for example the scene of the hunted wolf).
3. Because it is “golden" (ie it belongs to the golden era of Russian literature. Maybe this is not such a compelling reason after all, I would not prioritise it)
4. Because it is entertaining (you bet!).
5. Because it tells a great story (and great it is in every sense of the word).
6. Because it is a literary mecca (so many of us say "I would like to read it but I cannot...", there is a sense of great satisfaction in saying 'I have read it from start to finish').
7. Because it reminds us of the human costs of war (Absolutely).
8. Because it is a national narrative (again, I feel somewhat lukewarm about this, but why not?)
9. Because it examines the cult of the great man (Substitute Napoleon with any other 'great' man and draw your conclusions).
10. Because it is epic (Yes, definitely, a modern Iliad).
11. Because you can participate in the great Tolstoy translation wars (French or no French? Russian aristocrats were bilingual and spoke mixing French with Russian. Parts of the book are in French, as they thought in French, as Tolstoy did, and again Bondarchuk uses both languages in his film rendition. I am so envious of this capability for bilingualism!)
12. Because it is modern in its treatment of war, the personality, and epistemology (Self evident)
You can find Professor Nickell's reasons for reading War and Peace here and here, with full explanations of why he thinks so.
Meanwhile I continue my reading. I am at a different point in my life, with a different set of priorities than when I first read the book, so what will Tolstoy's great work yield for me now? What will I discover in the 994 pages of the version I bought? Reading this work is a challenge that makes you confront your beliefs and anxieties. You do react, as you read every single page and, occasionally, you do feel like flinging the book across the room, only to pick it up again a few moments later (now you know why I went for a paperback rather than a Kindle). As I am dipping into it, I am looking to adding a couple more reasons for reading (or re-reading) War and Peace to the list given by Nickell.
And you, would you read it and, if so, why?
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