FOR QUITE a long time I have considered it a great goal to read Leo
Tolstoy's 1400+ page book of War and Peace from cover to cover, and
recently I had succeeded.
Finishing War and Peace was not a very simple task, but it has been
a fruitful one. War and Peace shall forever remain as one of the most
important and most memorable books that had ever graced the world,
and my soul.
War and Peace chronicles the lives of the Russian people before,
during, and after the period of two great wars: that of 1805, and
1812—which was to become Napoleon's most disastrous campaign.
Let us first review those two wars, for they both hold an importance
in the scenes presented in the novel. In 1805, the Russians, working
alongside the Austrians, expected the French to attack in the frontlines.
To their dismay, Napoleon and his band of hoodlums in uniform attacked
on the rear, effectively cutting off any form of retreat. He defeated
both armies in Austerlitz a few months afterwards, with Russia and
Austria making peace on his terms. But in 1812, owing to a feud with
Tsar Alexander I, Napoleon led his troops to Russia with intents to
invade. He believed that the Russians will defend their country with
the fervor that was to be expected from them, but to his surprise,
the Russians led them deeper into the country while burning their
homes and crops. Napoleon captured Moscow, but the only thing he was
able to discover was a seemingly infinitesimal mass of burning houses
and lands. Due to the inhuman condition of the climate and lack of
provisions, the French Emperor was forced to retreat. The Russian
soldiers—who can no longer be restricted by their commanders—attacked
the retreating French Army. Among the 500,000 soldiers that Napoleon
brought to Russia, less than 100,000 were able to return to France.
Tolstoy skillfully renders these events, and many others. He criticizes
both the actions of the French and the Russians, as well as the historians
who record the happenings. He shows us not only the characters, but
also that which lies deep within their hearts and minds. With equal
strength he writes about the lords and beggars. He can shift the point
of view from the solitary anguish of the human soul to a more universal
anguish that every person feels, but neglects to accept. He tells
us also of the tragedies of those wars: that if they were under another
circumstance, the Russian and French soldiers could have been friends
and not adversaries—if only Napoleon did not choose to aggravate
Alexander, and if Alexander did not feel insulted… things could
have been different in 1812. In the epilogue, Tolstoy discusses many
facts that historians seem to shun and gives as brief glimpse at the
resuming lives of the characters.
Speaking of characters, each of them comes with their own virtues
and weaknesses: The intelligent but naïve Pierre; the happy and
innocent living Natasha; frivolous Dolokhov; valiant Denisov; critical
Andrei Bolkonsy; strikingly handsome but remorselessly stupid Anatol
Kuragin; wicked conspirators Prince Vasily and Anna Mikhailovna; pious
Marya Bolkonsky; to name a few. Every character has that unique faculty
of impressing you or making your head ache awfully (I wanted so much
to strangle that bastard Anatol to death).
It is quite hard to describe Tolstoy without going through so many
pages. One of the closest descriptions we people of the twentieth
and twenty-first century have would probably be that of my friend
and fellow writer Dennis
Aguinaldo: "Tolstoy's way of writing is panoramic,"
as he said, and nothing could be more true in my opinion.
War and Peace is, primarily, a historical novel. Deep into the core,
it is more than that. Besides being historical it is at the same time
psychological, philosophical, and religious. It is just as Henry James
once called it, "War and Peace is a wonderful mass of life."
