Jul 06, 2003 04:13 PM
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(Updated Jul 06, 2003 04:21 PM)
Book Review
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
The first thing that strikes one on seeing this tome is its sheer size. War and peace is an epic story on Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Russia and the corresponding daily life of Russian royalty.
With no single hero, heroine or main protagonist, the book throws up characters like the world weary Prince Andrew Bolkonsky with his caustic wit, foolish but lovable Count Pierre Bezukhov with his diverse ways or the immensely lovable Natasha Rostov with her ineffable charm. These and the lives of other similar people in noble descent caught in the inescapable quagmire of life, death, love, and heart break are intricately portrayed in this work of gargantuan proportion. Be it the life-threatening patriotism of Petya Rostov or cruel infidelity of Countess Helene Vassili the novel encompasses the rainbow of human emotions through more than 500 characters.
Simultaneously, Tolstoy embarks on a commentary detailing the struggle between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander, between France and Imperial Russia, for control of central Europe. The striking descriptions of campaigns, strategies, generals, flanking movements, signed and dishonoured treaties, siding and betrayal of allies all of them endeavour to transport one to the time and scene of battle itself. Such is the power of Tolstoy's imagery.
The novel is generously interspersed with what can be called theoretical dialogues on the character of history and war emphasizing that both cannot be influenced by man alone and that they happen of their own accord by destiny. This book is not so much to entertain, than it is to edify
knowledge and moral teaching. To quote Tolstoy War and Peace is not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less an historical chronicle. War and Peace is what the author wished and was able to express in the form in which it is expressed.
To weigh this book on its merits and demerits would be doing great disservice to the author. To have read War and Peace is to have been enriched by the finest of the 18th century chronicles known to man, ranked right up there with Iliad. Go indulge!
-Vishal Pipraiya
