Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace
An epic novel that needs no introduction as I'm sure you've read it. OK, it's all about Russian life from a nobility perspective centred around Moscow and St Petersburg as Napoleon and his armies (where did Napoleon keep them? up his sleevies) make their way to and into Moscow in the early 1800s (unfortunately no jokes like that by Tolstoy, ah well I guess he didn't have room). It follows a few main characters and their families during this disruptive period and the amazing thing about this classic is the number of characters that Tolstoy incorporates into the story each with a description worthy of the main characters in many other novels including peasants, servants, soldiers and others. I won't attempt to summarise the storyline(s) of the characters as they weave in and out of each other tossed together and apart by the vicissitudes of war. But that seems to be the point that Tolstoy is making and that he explicitly states in chapters where he gives his view on history, monarchs, wars and generals: these massively influential actions are not the result of decisions by individuals rather that their actions are the result of and determined by immeasurable and various factors influencing the millions of people across countries as a whole. So battles are not won by generals standing on hills unable to see the detail or make decisions on that lack of knowledge as the battlefield is shrouded in cannon smoke. Rather that if a few infantrymen panic and shout All Is Lost and run backwards then the battle could be lost, whereas they could have shouted All Is Won and pressed onwards to victory. So wars are won or lost through millions of individual actions going back through history rather than under the control of monarchs, revolutionary figures and generals. Tolstoy shows this in the way that Napoleon gets to Moscow following the Russian retreat and then as there is no resistance and nowhere else to go he needs to retreat himself through a Russian winter and through countryside that's been scorched with the loss of nearly the entire army. Maybe that's a little simplistic and to get the full effect of that argument start reading the half million pages that make up War and Peace in this edition. At least I've got the hang of the changing Russian names that crop up in Russian novels. The theme of mass movements not being due to single people throughout the novel is analysed outside of the novel in the 2nd epilogue, which itself is the size of a decent novel. It depersonalises our heroes' ability to influence their situation and gives Tolstoy's theory on history, as well as other sciences, regarding the personal choice of action which goes back to the novel suggesting that our heroes end up in predictable situations due to this inevitability, rather than Tolstoy being sentimental and wanting a happily ever after ending. The reasons for their situations are due to what previous situations decreed, and their destiny although he doesn't use that word. This goes into the philosophy of man's freewill and how that sits with the inevitability of life and history. I think that's what the novel and epilogue are all about anyway. I'm sure there are a lot of theories and readings of the book that I've not read. It's the sort of novel that I'll put on the bookshelf for posterity but how likely am I to pick it up again.
As an aside, there seem to be a lot of references and phrases that have been used in modern culture throughout the novel although it's difficult to know if they were also in use before the translation which must be from a while ago as it had Tolstoy's approval. The standout one for me is the the prediction of the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses. See Book X, Chapter XVII second paragraph.
Matt would have been proud of me. WAP ticks all the boxes for a good novel that we used to joke about. Very long. Classic. Russian is the cherry on top. RIP.
