War and Peace

Description

Antony’s Brigg’s acclaimed translation of Tolstoy’s great Russian epic. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

Set against the sweeping panoply of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, War and Peace—presented here in the first new English translation in forty years—is often considered the greatest novel ever written. At its center are Pierre Bezukhov, searching for meaning in his life; cynical Prince Andrei, ennobled by wartime suffering; and Natasha Rostov, whose impulsiveness threatens to destroy her happiness. As Tolstoy follows the changing fortunes of his characters, he crafts a view of humanity that is both epic and intimate and that continues to define fiction at its most resplendent.

This edition includes an introduction, note on the translation, cast of characters, maps, notes on the major battles depicted, and chapter summaries.

Praise for Antony Brigg’s translation of War and Peace:

“The best translation so far of Tolstoy’s masterpiece into English.”
-Robert A. Maguire, professor emeritus of Russian studies, Columbia University

“In Tolstoy’s work part of the translator’s difficulty lies in conveying not only the simplicity but the subtlety of the book’s scale and effect. . . . Briggs has rendered both with a particular exactness and a vigorous precision not to be found, I think, in any previous translation.”
-John Bayley, author of Elegy for Iris

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.“There remains the greatest of all novelists—for what else can we call the author of War and Peace?” —Virginia WoolfCount Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828, in Yasnaya Polyana, Russia. Orphaned at nine, he was brought up by an elderly aunt and educated by French tutors until he matriculated at Kazan University in 1844. In 1847, he gave up his studies and, after several aimless years, volunteered for military duty in the army, serving as a junior officer in the Crimean War before retiring in 1857. In 1862, Tolstoy married Sophie Behrs, a marriage that was to become, for him, bitterly unhappy. His diary, started in 1847, was used for self-study and self-criticism; it served as the source from which he drew much of the material that appeared not only in his great novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina(1877), but also in his shorter works. Seeking religious justification for his life, Tolstoy evolved a new Christianity based upon his own interpretation of the Gospels. Yasnaya Polyana became a mecca for his many converts. At the age of eighty-two, while away from home, the writer suffered a break down in his health in Astapovo, Riazan, and he died there on November 20, 1910.

Anthony Briggs has written, translated, or edited twenty books in the fields of Russian and English literature.

Orlando Figes is the prizewinning author of A People’s Tragedy and Natasha’s Dance. He is a regular contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New York Review of Books.

INTRODUCTION
Leo Tolstoy said, “It is not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less an historical chronicle.” Henry James ranked it among those “large loose baggy monsters” and added, “Tolstoy is a reflector as vast as a natural lake; a monster harnessed to his great subject—all human life!” But whatever we call it, War and Peace is an astonishing work—a book that incorporates historical characters, vivid battle scenes, several love stories, shrewd glimpses of everyday life, an examination of Western ideas and the Russian soul, and a disquisition on the nature of history itself, among other things. It is at once a book of ideas and an epic portrait of ordinary life amid extraordinary circumstances.

Pierre Bezukhov and Prince Andrey Bolkonsky, are the book’s central characters, but their stories are just two of many threads. Pierre, big, clumsy, and big-hearted, is a naïve searcher after big truths—a French-educated liberal who unexpectedly inherits a title and great wealth, gets pushed into a disastrous marriage, dabbles in Freemasonry, becomes obsessed with assassinating Napoleon, and finally finds a measure of peace in the stoic, here-and-now outlook of a saintly peasant.

Andrey is Pierre’s friend, but almost his total opposite. Though strongly impelled to do good, Andrey possesses a cold, cynical intelligence that sees through the self-serving pretensions and illusions of the men he encounters at court and in the army—not to mention those of his tyrannical father and pious sister. He is incapable of playing politics or indulging in sentimental delusions; he would rather do his duty, fight—and die. It is only in his wrenching love affair with Natasha Rostov—sparked by her incandescent spirit, interrupted by a bitter scandal, and then rekindled as he lies dying—that Andrey finds hope and, ultimately, a kind of transcendence.

The Rostov family—Natasha, her brother Nikolay, and her parents—are the book’s other chief characters. They are a seemingly ordinary lot—the father is a sentimental spendthrift, Nikolay a gung-ho cavalryman, and Natasha a spirited naïf. Yet their open-hearted goodness, their innate patriotism, their love of simple pleasures—balls, parties, banquets, hunts, sleigh rides, folk dances—and their heartfelt delights and sorrows offer an ordinary Russian counterweight to the troubled ruminations and erratic peregrinations of Pierre and Andrey.

Napoleon’s invasion of Russia—the historical event at the heart of the novel—irrevocably transforms the lives of all of these characters. For some—Andrey and Natasha’s brother Petya, along with many thousands of others—the invasion puts an abrupt end to all dreams of the future. For others—Pierre and Natasha, Nikolay and Andrey’s sister Marya—the invasion brings much dislocation and sadness, but ultimately offers them a second chance at happiness. Like Napoleon, who falsely believes he is directing history, and like General Kutuzov, who wisely lets history direct him, they have all been caught up in a mysterious sweep of people and events—a historical tide that has pushed them inexorably toward a fate that is at once completely determined and utterly surprising.

ABOUT LEO TOLSTOY

Leo Tolstoy was born in central Russia in 1828. He studied oriental languages and law (though he failed to earn a degree in the latter) at the University of Kazan and, after a dissolute youth, eventually joined an artillery regiment in the Caucasus in 1851. He took part in the Crimean War, and the Sebastopol Sketchesthat emerged from it established his reputation. After living for some time in St. Petersburg and abroad, he married Sophie Behrs in 1862 and they had thirteen children. The happiness this brought him gave him the creative impulse for his two greatest novels, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). Later in life his views became increasingly radical as he gave up his possessions to live a simple peasant life. After a quarrel with his wife he fled home secretly one night to seek refuge in a monastery. He became ill and died during this dramatic flight, at the small railway station of Astapovo, in 1910.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

What is Tolstoy’s attitude toward his female characters—the doomed, downy-lipped Lise; the beautiful, bewitching Hélène; the love-struck, long-suffering Sonya; the devout, dowdy Marya? And what of Natasha? How do you account for her transformation throughout the book, from her debut as a high-spirited pixie to her final incarnation as a matronly homebody?
 

Pierre’s passionate attachment to the world of ideas takes him from one enthusiasm to another—from free-thinking Francophile to philanthropic Freemason to would-be assassin of the Antichrist, Napoleon. What do you think Pierre is searching for? Why is he invariably ineffective when trying to translate his enthusiasms into practical results? And how has he changed by the end of the book?
 

Platon Karatayev, the peasant who befriends Pierre while both are captives of the French, is a catalyst for Pierre’s transformation into a happy man. What does the worldly sophisticate Pierre learn from this humble man? Is there something uniquely Russian about Karatayev? How does he compare with the other peasants described in the book, such as those at Bald Hills, the Bolkonsky estate?
 

Andrey Bolkonsky’s pride keeps him from stooping to the politicking and self-promotion of other staff officers and court officials—yet it also poisons his relationship with his wife, Lise, with his sister, Marya, and, for much of the book, with his one-time fiancée, Natasha. How does a terrible wound and a lingering illness change his attitude toward Marya, Natasha, and life in general?
 

Tolstoy advances his own theory of history throughout the book and devotes his entire second epilogue to elaborating and defending it. What do you think about his theory of history? How is it expressed through the lives of his book’s characters—both historical and fictional?
 

Napoleon and Kutuzov are a study in contrasts, and it’s clear who Tolstoy thinks is the better man—and the better general. How does Kutuzov achieve victory at Borodino and, ultimately, in Russia? Do you think his style of leadership is truly best in all circumstances?
 

What does Tolstoy have to say about the foibles, follies, and strengths of Russia’s ruling class during a period of supreme crisis? How do the intrigues, protestations, machinations, and proclamations of Kutuzov’s general staff and Alexander’s ministers and diplomats affect the course of the war?
 

Tolstoy’s book is overflowing with vivid scenes—the ball in which Andrey falls in love with Natasha, the hunt at the Rostov estate, and the battle of Borodino, to name a few. What are your favorite scenes from the book? What do they say about the characters involved? About the nature of Russian life at the time? Or about the nature of war and history in general?
 

The book is populated by an array of memorable rogues—the repugnant, grasping Kuragin brothers; the brave, blustering Dolokhov; the ambitious, fickle Boris; among others. Yet none is treated as a cartoon. How does history alter these characters and our perception of them?
 

What do you think Tolstoy would make of our present-day leaders and their attitudes toward history, war, and peace?

An extract from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

During the interval there was a cool draught in Hélène’s box as the door opened and in walked Anatole, stopping and trying not to brush against anyone.

‘Allow me to introduce my brother,’ said Hélène, her eyes shifting uneasily from Natasha to Anatole.  Natasha turned her pretty little head towards the handsome adjutant and smiled at him over her bare shoulder.  Anatole, who was just as handsome close to as he had been from a distance, sat down beside her and said this was a delight he had long been waiting for, ever since the Naryshkins’ ball, where he had had the unforgettable pleasure of seeing her.  Kuragin was much more astute and straightforward with women than he ever was in male company.  He talked with an easy directness, and Natasha was agreeably surprised to discover that this man, the butt of so much gossip, had nothing formidable about him – quite the reverse, his face wore the most innocent, cheery and open-hearted of smiles.

Kuragin asked what she thought of the opera, and told her that at the last performance Semyonova had fallen down on stage.

‘Oh, by the way, Countess,’ he said, suddenly treating her like a close friend of long standing, ‘we’re getting up a fancy-dress ball.  You must come – it’s going to be great fun.  They’re all getting together at the Arkharovs’.  Please come.  You will, won’t you?’  As he spoke he never took his smiling eyes off Natasha, her face, her neck, her exposed arms.  Natasha knew for certain he was besotted with her.  She liked this, yet she could feel the temperature rising and she was beginning to feel somehow cornered and constrained in his presence.  When she wasn’t looking at him she could sense him gazing at her shoulders, and she found herself trying to catch his eye to make him look at her face.  But when she looked into his eyes she was shocked to realize that the usual barrier of modesty that existed between her and other men was no longer there between the two of them.  It had taken five minutes for her to feel terribly close to this man, and she scarcely knew what was happening to her.  Whenever she turned away she bristled at the thought that he might seize her from behind by her bare arm and start kissing her on the neck.  They were going on about nothing in particular, yet she felt closer to him than she had ever been to any other man.  Natasha kept glancing round at Hélène and her father for help – what did it all mean? – but Hélène was deep in conversation with a general and didn’t respond to her glance, and her father’s eyes conveyed nothing but their usual message, ‘Enjoying yourself?  Jolly good.  I’m so pleased.’

There was an awkward silence, during which Anatole, the personification of cool determination, never took his voracious eyes off her, and Natasha broke it by asking whether he liked living in Moscow.  She coloured up the moment the question was out of her mouth.  She couldn’t help feeling there was something improper about even talking to him.  Anatole smiled an encouraging smile.

‘Oh, I didn’t like it much at first.  Well, what is it that makes a town nice to live in?  It’s the pretty women, isn’t it?  Well, now I do like it, very much indeed,’ he said, with a meaningful stare.  ‘You will come to the fancy-dress ball, Countess?  Please come,’ he said.  Putting his hand out to touch her bouquet he lowered his voice and added in French,  ‘You’ll be the prettiest woman there.  Do come, dear Countess, and give me this flower as your pledge.’

Natasha didn’t understand a word of this – any more than he did – but she felt that behind his incomprehensible words there was some dishonourable intention.  Not knowing how to respond, she turned away as if she hadn’t heard him.  But the moment she turned away she could feel him right behind her, very close.

‘Now what?  Is he embarrassed?  Is he angry?  Should I put things right?’ she wondered.  She couldn’t help turning round.  She looked him straight in the eyes.  One glance at him, standing so close, with all that self-assurance and the warmth of his sweet smile, and she was lost.  She stared into his eyes, and her smile was the mirror-image of his.  And again she sensed with horror there was no barrier between the two of them.

The curtain rose again.  Anatole strolled out of the box, a picture of composure and contentment.  Natasha went back to her father’s box, completely taken by the new world she found herself in.  All that was happening before her eyes now seemed absolutely normal.  By contrast, all previous thoughts of her fiancé, Princess Marya, her life in the country, never even crossed her mind.  It was as if it all belonged to the distant past.

GB

Additional information

Dimensions	2.4000 × 5.0700 × 7.8000 in
Imprint	Penguin Classics
ISBN-13	09780140447934
ISBN-10	0140447938
Author	Antony Briggs, Leo Tolstoy, Orlando Figes
Audience	General / adult
BISAC	FIC014000, FIC032000
Subjects	classics books, war and peace tolstoy book, leo tolstoy books, crime and punishment penguin classics, war and peace hardcover, anna karenina penguin classics, war and peace leo tolstoy, anna karenina by leo tolstoy, war and peace penguin classics, the count of monte cristo book, leo tolstoy, anna karenina, tolstoy, classic books for adults, historical, penguin classics deluxe edition, classic books hardcover, classic literature, penguin classics, War and peace, penguin, FIC032000, bucket list, peace, FIC014000, penguins, classics, classic
Format	General Trade