War and Peace

Summary

War and Peace follows several Russian noble families from 1805 to 1820, through the wars against Napoleon and the French invasion of 1812. It opens at a St. Petersburg soirée given by Anna Pávlovna Schérer in July 1805, where talk of Bonaparte mixes with gossip about inheritances. Three young people stand at its center. Pierre Bezúkhov, the awkward illegitimate son of a rich count, unexpectedly inherits his father's fortune and is maneuvered by Prince Vasíli Kurágin into marrying his beautiful, faithless daughter Hélène. Pierre fights a duel with Dólokhov, separates from his wife, joins the Freemasons, tries to reform his estates and searches restlessly for the meaning of life. His friend Prince Andrew Bolkónski, proud and disillusioned, leaves his pregnant wife Lise at Bald Hills with his stern father and his devout sister Princess Mary, and goes to war seeking glory. Wounded at Austerlitz in December 1805, he lies under the open sky and sees Napoleon, his hero, as small and insignificant. He returns home as Lise dies in childbirth. Natásha Rostóva, the lively younger daughter of the generous, improvident Count Ilyá Rostóv in Moscow, grows from a girl of thirteen to a young woman whose vitality restores Andrew to life. They become engaged, but Andrew's father imposes a year's delay; while he is abroad Natásha is drawn into a plan to elope with Hélène's brother Anatole Kurágin. The plot is foiled, the engagement broken, and Natásha falls gravely ill. In 1812 Napoleon crosses the Niemen. Old Prince Bolkónski dies after a stroke, and Nicholas Rostóv, Natásha's brother, rescues Princess Mary from rebellious peasants at Bogucharovo. At Borodinó Pierre wanders the battlefield as a civilian, and Andrew is mortally wounded; at the dressing station he sees Anatole's leg amputated and forgives him. The army under Kutúzov abandons Moscow, the Rostóvs give their carts to the wounded, and Natásha finds Andrew among them and nurses him until his death. Pierre stays in burning Moscow, meaning to kill Napoleon, is arrested, watches prisoners shot, and in captivity learns from the peasant soldier Platón Karatáev a simple acceptance of life. During the French retreat Karatáev is shot by the roadside, and Pierre is freed by partisans in a raid in which young Pétya Rostóv is killed. The first epilogue shows Pierre married to Natásha and Nicholas married to Mary, raising families in 1820. Throughout, Tolstoy interrupts the story with essays arguing that history is not made by great men but by the sum of countless individual wills, and the second epilogue sets out this philosophy of history and the problem of freedom and necessity. The novel was serialized in part as The Year 1805 in The Russian Messenger in 1865–66 and published complete in 1868–69. The library text is the Maudes' translation, with both epilogues.

Plot or Argument

• Book One (1805): Petersburg, Moscow and Bald Hills

  Anna Pávlovna's soirée introduces Pierre, Prince Andrew and the Kurágins; the Rostóvs celebrate a name day in Moscow; old Count Bezúkhov dies and Pierre inherits; Andrew leaves his wife with his father and sister at Bald Hills.

• Books Two–Three (1805): Schön Grabern and Austerlitz

  Nicholas Rostóv has his first taste of battle; Pierre is married to Hélène; Andrew serves on Kutúzov's staff, falls carrying the standard at Austerlitz, and beneath the lofty sky sees Napoleon as small.

• Books Four–Five (1806–07): The duel and the Freemasons

  Pierre wounds Dólokhov in a duel and leaves Hélène; Lise dies in childbirth as Andrew returns; Pierre is received into Freemasonry by Bazdéev; Nicholas loses heavily at cards and visits Denísov in a typhus-ridden hospital; Tilsit seals peace between the emperors.

• Books Six–Eight (1808–12): Natásha

  Andrew revives at Otrádnoe and falls in love with Natásha at her first ball; his father demands a year's wait. Natásha dances at Uncle's hunting lodge, is seduced by Anatole's attentions at the opera, and is stopped from eloping. Pierre sees the comet of 1812.

• Books Nine–Ten (1812): Invasion and Borodinó

  Napoleon crosses the Niemen; Smolensk burns; the old prince dies; Kutúzov takes command. At Borodinó Pierre watches from the Raévski redoubt and Andrew is struck by a shell and recognizes Anatole on the surgeon's table.

• Books Eleven–Twelve (1812): Moscow abandoned

  Moscow is evacuated and burns; the Rostóvs give their carts to the wounded; Natásha finds Andrew and nurses him to his death. Pierre stays behind to kill Napoleon and is arrested and meets Karatáev.

• Books Thirteen–Fifteen (1812–13): Retreat and liberation

  Kutúzov waits while the French army disintegrates; Pierre marches with the prisoners, Karatáev is shot, and partisans under Denísov and Dólokhov free him in a raid in which Pétya dies. Pierre, Natásha and Princess Mary meet again in Moscow.

• First Epilogue (1813–20): Two families

  Pierre and Natásha, Nicholas and Mary build households; Pierre's talk of a reforming society alarms Nicholas; Andrew's son Nikolenka dreams of glory beside his uncle Pierre.

• Second Epilogue: The philosophy of history

  Tolstoy argues that historians mistake the will of rulers for the cause of events, and concludes that, as astronomy gave up the earth's immobility, history must give up the idea of free will in favor of the laws of dependence.

Characters

• Pierre Bezúkhov, protagonist

  Illegitimate son and heir of a rich count, clumsy, generous and searching, who passes through marriage, Freemasonry, Borodinó and captivity before finding peace.

• Prince Andrew Bolkónski, protagonist

  Proud, intelligent officer who seeks glory, is wounded at Austerlitz and Borodinó, and dies reconciled to life and death.

• Natásha Rostóva, protagonist

  Vivid, spontaneous daughter of the Rostóv family whose love, error and recovery are at the heart of the book.

• Nicholas Rostóv, Natásha's brother

  Honest, impulsive hussar who learns the realities of war and later restores the family estate.

• Princess Mary Bolkónskaya, Andrew's sister

  Plain, devout woman who endures her father's tyranny and marries Nicholas.

• Prince Nicholas Bolkónski, Andrew's father

  Old general in retirement at Bald Hills, exacting and loving in his own harsh way.

• Hélène Kurágina, Pierre's wife

  Beautiful, cold society hostess and daughter of Prince Vasíli.

• Anatole Kurágin, seducer

  Hélène's handsome, careless brother who plots to elope with Natásha.

• Dólokhov, officer and gambler

  Reckless duelist and card player who later leads partisans.

• Sónya, cousin

  Poor relation raised with the Rostóvs who gives up her claim on Nicholas.

• Platón Karatáev, peasant soldier

  Fellow prisoner whose sayings and simple faith transform Pierre.

• Kutúzov, commander-in-chief

  Old Russian field marshal whom Tolstoy portrays as wise because he trusts patience and the spirit of the army.

• Napoleon, French emperor

  Portrayed as a vain man who believes he directs events he does not control.

Lessons

• Greatness and goodness

  Tolstoy sets the vain Napoleon, who believes he commands history, against Kutúzov, who trusts patience, and against Karatáev, who has no ambition at all. He argues that greatness without simplicity, goodness and truth is not greatness.

  • How does Prince Andrew's view of Napoleon change on the field of Austerlitz?
  • Why does Tolstoy admire Kutúzov's refusal to attack?
  • Can a person be great in public life and morally small?

• Searching for the meaning of life

  Pierre tries wealth, marriage, Freemasonry, philanthropy and a plan to kill Napoleon before he finds peace in captivity, where he has nothing. Andrew finds and loses meaning several times, at Austerlitz, at Otrádnoe and finally on his deathbed.

  • What does Pierre learn from Bazdéev, and why is it not enough?
  • What does Karatáev give Pierre that no book had?
  • Why does Andrew's love on his deathbed seem to draw him away from life?

• Fall and recovery

  Natásha's near-elopement with Anatole nearly destroys her, and Tolstoy describes her illness, shame and slow return to prayer with great tenderness. Her later care for the dying Andrew and for her mother after Pétya's death shows love grown through suffering.

  • Why is Natásha drawn to Anatole at the opera and afterward?
  • What helps her recover, and what does not?
  • How does Natásha change between the ball in Book Six and the nursing of Andrew?

• Who makes history?

  In essays throughout the later books and in the second epilogue, Tolstoy argues that events arise from the combined wills of millions, not from the orders of generals and emperors, and that the more power a man seems to have, the less free his acts really are. Historians and philosophers have long disputed whether his argument succeeds.

  • What does Tolstoy mean when he compares free will in history to the apparent immobility of the earth?
  • Does the novel's story support or complicate the theory of the second epilogue?
  • If Tolstoy is right, are individuals still morally responsible for their acts?

• Family as the place of peace

  The book ends not on a battlefield but in two households, with Pierre and Natásha and with Nicholas and Mary. The Rostóv home, generous and disordered, is set against the cold salons of Petersburg.

  • What makes the Rostóv family attractive in Book One?
  • Why does Tolstoy end with ordinary domestic life in 1820?
  • What does Nikolenka's dream at the end suggest about the next generation?

Context

The novel covers the War of the Third Coalition (1805), the campaigns of 1806–07 ending at Tilsit, the reforms of Speránski under Alexander I, and the invasion of 1812, when the Grande Armée reached Moscow and was destroyed in retreat. Tolstoy wrote half a century later, after the Crimean War in which he had served and in the years of the emancipation of the serfs. He used memoirs, histories and family traditions, drawing the Rostóvs and Bolkónskis partly from his own Tolstoy and Volkonsky ancestors.

Composition

Tolstoy began in 1863 with a plan for a novel about a Decembrist returning from Siberia and worked backward to 1812 and 1805. The opening parts appeared as The Year 1805 in The Russian Messenger in 1865–66, and the whole work appeared in six volumes in 1868–69 under the title War and Peace. In an 1868 article he said that it was not a novel, still less an epic poem or a historical chronicle. Louise and Aylmer Maude, English friends of Tolstoy who had lived in Russia, made the translation used here, published in the early 1920s.

Reception

Russian critics debated its history and its philosophy from the start; some veterans of 1812 objected to its portraits of commanders. It soon came to be regarded as one of the greatest novels in any language. Many readers have admired the story while questioning the essays on history; Isaiah Berlin's The Hedgehog and the Fox (1953) famously read Tolstoy as a fox who wished to be a hedgehog. Translations into English began in the 1880s, and the Maudes' version was long the standard.

Comparisons

• the-death-of-ivan-ilyich

  Prince Andrew's slow death at Yaroslavl anticipates the later novella's study of a dying man moving from fear to light; both turn on love and the release from self.

• the-iliad

  Tolstoy's mix of battle, family and the fates of nations has often been compared to Homer; both look at war from the commander's tent and from the wounded man on the ground.

• on-war

  Clausewitz appears briefly before Borodinó in Book Ten, and Prince Andrew scorns the German theory of war; reading On War alongside shows the strategist's view Tolstoy rejects.

• the-red-badge-of-courage

  Nicholas Rostóv's first battle at Schön Grabern, with its confusion, fear and flight, anticipates Crane's psychological account of a young soldier under fire.

• napoleons-maxims-of-war

  Napoleon's own maxims show the confident, directing intelligence that Tolstoy's Napoleon believes he possesses and that the novel's philosophy of history denies.

• les-miserables

  Hugo's long Waterloo digression, published in 1862, is the great French counterpart to Tolstoy's essays on Austerlitz and Borodinó and on Napoleon's place in history.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The lofty sky over Andrew at Austerlitz in Book Three and its return in his later thoughts.
• The old oak tree on the road to Otrádnoe in Book Six, bare and then in leaf.
• Natásha's dance at Uncle's lodge in Book Seven and her evening at the opera in Book Eight.
• Pierre's movements across the field of Borodinó and through burning Moscow.
• The places where Tolstoy stops the story to argue about history, gathered at last in the second epilogue.

Key terms and names

Austerlitz

Battle of December 1805 in Moravia where Napoleon defeated the Russian and Austrian armies and where Prince Andrew is wounded.

Borodinó

Village west of Moscow where the great battle of 26 August 1812 (Old Style) was fought; Andrew is mortally wounded there.

Freemasons

Secret brotherhood of moral and mystical self-improvement that Pierre joins in Book Five through the old Mason Bazdéev.

Bald Hills

The Bolkónski estate where the old prince lives with Princess Mary and where Lise dies.

Partisans

Irregular detachments under officers such as Denísov and Dólokhov who harass the retreating French in Books Fourteen and Fifteen.

Philosophy of history

Tolstoy's theory, set out in essays and the second epilogue, that events result from countless individual wills and that rulers only seem to command them.

Content note

Suitable for upper high school: battle wounds and amputation, the shooting of prisoners, a duel, an unhappy marriage and an attempted elopement are described without explicitness.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension How does Pierre become one of the richest men in Russia, and how does this lead to his marriage to Hélène?
2. Comprehension What does Prince Andrew see and think as he lies wounded at Austerlitz?
3. Comprehension How is Natásha's engagement to Andrew broken, and how do they meet again?
4. Interpretation Why does Pierre find in Karatáev what he did not find in Freemasonry?
5. Interpretation Why does Andrew forgive Anatole in the surgeons' tent after Borodinó?
6. Interpretation Is Tolstoy's Kutúzov a wise leader or a passive one, and how does the novel want us to see him?
7. Big Question If history is shaped by countless ordinary choices rather than by great men, what does that mean for an ordinary life?
8. Big Question What makes a life meaningful: glory, knowledge, love or faith?

Faith Connections

• Matthew 5:44 (Scripture)

  Andrew, wounded at Borodinó, remembers the command to love one's enemies as he weeps over the suffering Anatole, and later reflects on this love in his last days.

• Ecclesiastes 1:2 (Scripture)

  At Austerlitz Andrew thinks that all is vanity except the infinite sky, an echo of the Preacher that turns him away from his dream of glory.

• 1 Corinthians 1:27 (Scripture)

  God chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise: Pierre's wisdom comes from the unlettered Karatáev rather than from the learned Masons.

• Augustine, City of God V (Great Conversation)

  Augustine's discussion of providence, foreknowledge and free will offers a classical Christian account of the problem Tolstoy addresses in the second epilogue, with a different conclusion about human freedom.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: If every historical event requires the coinciding wills of millions, and if the commands of rulers are carried out only when they match those wills, then rulers do not cause events; therefore the historian must look for laws of dependence rather than for the free acts of great men.

Rhetorical device: analogy. In the last chapter of the second epilogue Tolstoy compares the idea of free will in history to the belief that the earth stands still, as in the book's closing sentence.

Debate: Resolved: that Tolstoy's Kutúzov is a better model of leadership than his Napoleon.

Memory Work

And there is no greatness where simplicity, goodness, and truth are absent.

Love hinders death. Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Trace Pierre's search for meaning from his inheritance to his captivity, and argue what finally answers it.

Comparison with The Death of Ivan Ilyich: Compare Prince Andrew's death in War and Peace with Ivan Ilyich's: how does each man come to accept death, and what part does love play?

Medical Lens

The novel is a broad record of medicine in the Napoleonic era. Field dressing stations after Austerlitz and Borodinó show probing of wounds and amputation without anaesthesia; Nicholas's visit to Denísov in a typhus-ridden military hospital in 1807 gives one of the century's bleakest hospital scenes. The death of the little princess in childbirth at Bald Hills, with a Moscow accoucheur arriving too late to change the outcome, reflects the risks of confinement among the nobility. Tolstoy is openly skeptical of physicians: in Book Nine he describes the doctors who treat Natásha's illness after the broken engagement as wizards who prescribe by habit, while conceding that their attentions comfort the family; her symptoms of wasting, sleeplessness and despair are given in terms of moral and spiritual crisis, and later labels of depression are interpretive. Andrew's slow death from his Borodinó wound, nursed by Natásha, is a detailed literary study of dying. The French retreat shows starvation, frostbite and the shooting of exhausted prisoners. The old prince's decline and stroke in 1812, and the grief of Countess Rostóva after Pétya's death, round out a wide picture of illness, grief and care.

• Book Three, Ch. XIX

  Andrew, wounded at Austerlitz, is carried to a dressing station, probed, and commended by Napoleon to his surgeon Larrey, who judges him unlikely to recover.

  WAR Wounds Physicians Doctors
• Book Four, Chs. VIII–IX

  Lise's labor and death in childbirth at Bald Hills as Andrew returns home.

  Childbirth Maternal Death Dying
• Book Five, Ch. XVII

  Nicholas visits Denísov in a crowded military hospital where typhus is raging and amputees lie untended.

  Fever Infection Surgery
• Book Nine, Ch. XVI

  Natásha's illness after the broken engagement and Tolstoy's reflections on the limits of the doctors who attend her.

  Physicians Doctors Grief
• Book Ten, Ch. XXXVII

  The surgeons' tent after Borodinó, where Andrew sees Anatole's leg amputated.

  Surgery WAR Wounds
• Book Twelve, Chs. XV–XVI

  Andrew's last days at Yaroslavl, nursed by Natásha and Princess Mary.

  Death Dying
• Book Fourteen, Chs. XII–XIV

  Pierre's march with the prisoners in the French retreat: hunger, sore feet, cold, and the shooting of Karatáev.

  Starvation Nutrition Death Dying

Creative Prompts

• Essay

  Compare Prince Andrew's two experiences of being wounded, at Austerlitz and at Borodinó, and explain what he learns from each.

• Fiction

  Write a letter from Natásha to Princess Mary after Andrew's death, in the weeks before news of Pétya arrives.

• Classroom

  Map the 1812 campaign from the Niemen to Moscow and back, marking where each main character is at Borodinó and during the burning of Moscow.

Further Reading

• Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

  Tolstoy's next great novel, set in the society of the 1870s.

• The Hedgehog and the Fox, Isaiah Berlin

  Classic essay on Tolstoy's view of history in War and Peace.

• The Life of Tolstoy, Aylmer Maude

  Biography by the novel's translator, who knew Tolstoy personally.

• 1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow, Adam Zamoyski

  Narrative history of the campaign the novel depicts.