War and Peace, Volume 1: Impressions

It took me roughly three months of rather slow, on-and-off reading to cover the first volume of the book. I did find myself taking a few considerably long pauses over that time but was glad to eventually keep coming back and get through the first quarter of this massive book.

Despite the frightening size of the novel, it is a somewhat easy and straightforward read. After a little bit of research, I have settled on Anthony Briggs' translation.. There are a number of great translations of the novel, including Pevear and Volokhonsky whose version I used for Crime and Punishment.

Some parts of the volume were a little tedious (e.g. the first scenes describing the build up to the battle of Schöngrabern) and I have struggled to stay interested. However once I got going, I realised the crux of the novel is perhaps less about following a strict plot but rather about noticing a steady build up of personalities within it, and observing how their characters evolve in tandem with the unfolding events.

As many of you already know, War and Peace takes place during the early 19th century and depicts Napoleon’s battles in Europe, with the backdrop of an upper class aristocracy, living and enjoying life in Russia. The volume alternates between scenes of “peace” in St. Petersburg and Moscow and “war” taking place around Austria in 1805. The Battle of Austerlitz, described towards the end of the volume, was one of Napoleon’s important and decisive battles, fought against much larger Russian and Austrian armies. The concluding chapters of the volume describe that battle, which culminated in Russian defeat with a number of Russian generals taken as prisoners.

Tolstoy was a historian in his own right, having himself witnessed the end of Crimean war in 1856. However, he was not interested in accounts of facts and dates, areas that traditional historians cover. He was deeply interested in the personal stories of individuals living in those times. As Orlando Figes, a British historian and author noted:

“Tolstoy’s interest in history developed long before his career as a novelist. But history-writing disappointed him. It seemed to reduce the richness of real life. For whereas the ‘real’ history of lived experience was made up of an infinite number of factors and contingencies, historians selected just a few to develop their theories and explanations. Tolstoy concluded that the histories of his day represented ‘perhaps only .001 per cent of the elements which actually constitute the real history of people.’ He was particularly frustrated by the failure of historians to illuminate the ‘inner’ life of a society — the private thoughts and relationships that make up the most real and immediate experiences of human beings. Hence he turned to literature.” - Orlando Figes

The book kicks off by introducing us to the main families through three engagements; first of which being a party at Anna Pavlovna’s home. Anna ran her soirées with precise strategy, much like a general on the battlefield.

“… she resumed her duties as hostess, watching and listening carefully, ready to render assistance at any point where the conversation was beginning to flag. Just as the foreman of a spinning-mill settles the workers down and then strolls about the place on the lookout for a breakdown or any funny noise from a spindle, the slightest squeak or knock that would bring him rushing over to ease the machinery or make an adjustment, so Anna Pavlovna patrolled her drawing-room, walking over to any group where the talk was too little or too loud, and easing the machinery of conversation back into its proper, steady hum with a single word here or a tiny manoeuvre there.”

All the families we meet are part of Russian nobility (дворянство), which play a central role in the novel. The nobility at that time drew most of their wealth from land and peasants which made up over half of the population at the time. Until the emancipation of the Russian serfs in 1861, the Russian system tied peasants irrevocably to their landlords. The landlords in turn often lived well, often beyond their income, in luxurious townhouses, on magnificent country estates doing very little but socialising and going from one soiree to the other. Their lives could be nicely characterised by “wine, women and song”. Some worked in the state bureaucracy and others such as Andrey Bolkonsky or Nikolay Rostov, as we will see serve in the army.

Part of Tolstoy’s magic is in describing the intricate details of the relationships of those characters as they go about their daily business.

One that caught my eye very early in the novel was Vasili Kuragin’s dealing with a request for a favour from Princess Anna Mikhaylovna Drubetskaya, a well-connected but impoverished old acquaintance. Every aspect of that interaction and the underlying thoughts of both personalities are described in such a detail, that it almost feels as if you are part of the action.

Although Prince Vasily’s reluctance to deal with the elderly lady verged on impoliteness, even impatience…

… influence in society is capital, which must be carefully conserved so it doesn’t run out. Prince Vasily was aware of this, and, realizing that, if he were to petition for everybody who petitioned him, all too soon he would be unable to petition for himself, he rarely made use of his influence.

He could see from her actions that she was one of those women – especially mothers – who, once they get their teeth into something, are not going to let go until they get their own way, and if they don’t get their own way they are going to go on pestering every minute of every day, and they might even make a scene. This last consideration gave him pause.

Anna Mikhaylovna called after him, smiling like a young flirt, which might have suited her in days gone by, but now ill became her scrawny face. She had obviously forgotten her age, and habit had told her to let go with all her ancient womanly wiles. But the moment he had gone her face resumed its former cold, affected expression.On two occasions, we move away from high society in Moscow to Austria, where we witness preparations for the first battles against Napoleon’s army.

In those ‘war’ chapters perhaps the most noticeable is Tolstoy’s emphasis on a great divide between the grand, noble and romantic ideas characters hold about concepts such as national unity, war, and leadership, and the disappointing reality experience later. The striking example of this is with Andrey Bolkonsky, the most thoughtful, the most reflective and committed in battle, who is eventually stuck by the French army and rescued by Napoleon. After he has fallen, he no longer sees Napoleon as his hero but as “…a small, insignificant man compared with what was happening between his soul and this lofty, infinite sky with clouds racing across it…with his petty vanity and joy in victory.”

The ‘sky reference’ is also the first time we are introduced to theme of spirituality in the book.

What is it? am I falling? are my legs giving way under me?’ he thought, and fell on his back. He opened his eyes, hoping to see how the fight between the French and the artillerists ended, and wishing to know whether the canon had been taken or saved. But he did not see anything. There was nothing over him now except the sky—the lofty sky, not clear, but still immeasurably lofty, with gray clouds slowly creeping across it. ‘How quiet, calm, and solemn, not at all like when I was running,’ thought Prince Andrei, ‘not like when we were running, shouting, and fighting not at all like when the Frenchmen and the artillerists, with angry and frightened faces, were pulling at the swab—it’s quite different the way the clouds creep across this lofty, infinite sky. How is it I haven’t seen this lofty sky before? And how happy I am that I’ve finally come to know it. Yes! everything is empty, everything is a deception, except this infinite sky. There is nothing, nothing except that. But there is not even that, there is nothing except silence, tranquility. And thank God!…'”

The war scenes also explore leadership, especially the fact that men who are admired as superhuman heroes have the same mundane, everyday aspects as common men. This is brilliantly depicted towards the end of the volume with Alexander I (Russia’s tsar at the time) who loses the battle and is left by himself alone on the battlefield, in a way that even Nikolay Rostov, who has long admired the tsar is now ashamed to approach.

By the time we complete reading the first volume, we would have gotten to know the characters and perhaps even begun to favour or identify with one or two of them. We would also identify some of the main themes that are starting to emerge, all set amongst the historical backdrop of 19th century Europe