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WAR_AND_PEACE
November 20, 2000
Rev: February 11, 2005
About "War and Peace" by Tolstoy.
Published
1865-1869
Gathering some bits and pieces:
Tolstoy managed to (November 20, 2000)
write a novel that Or at least, he argues
attacks the idea of for a view of history
heroism and yet it that undercuts the
clearly has a hero. possibility of heroism.
Prince Andrew is a sympathetic,
competent character who is (If I'm gonna spell
nevertheless caught up in the same Tolstoy with a "y",
madness as everyone else in the novel. I might as well go
all the way with
"Prince Andrew")
Or: subject to
the same
implacable
And the novel still historical
works as a novel. forces as the
rest of
humanity.
Some good bits:
July 31 2000
Pierre gets interested in some
liberal ideas, but is unable to do
much about them. But Prince
Andrew is influenced by Pierre to
actually take some steps toward
freeing the serfs under his control. (Andrew is the novel's
Competent Man...)
July 31 2000
The upper classes had so much
sympathy for France! Many of them
speak French much better than they
do Russian. For them, the war with
Napoleon was very much a war with
the country they regarded as the
seat of culture: this was
practically a civil war.
(August 17 2005)
Strange that they went
along with it without
complaint. Perhaps: they (January 28, 2006)
wanted to *play the
game*... they wanted to Upon re-reading, I see
fight as well as the that Tolstoy shows different
French because they factions at work among
wanted to be the French. the upper class, where
one salon -- the most useless,
the most shallow, in this
Also notably, one account -- would have liked
faction of the to sue for peace and
peasants has no become subjects of Napoleon.
problem with changing
masters... The Real Russians, however
experience an eruption of
patriotism, and are determined
to fight to the death.
May 17, 2002
Rev: February 11, 2005
The "inside story" of the Freemasons,
the initiation ritual.
Pierre had hopes of finding a use
for the Freemasons for idealistic They accuse him of
purposes, but instead he finds "illuminism".
everyone else wants to use as a
vehicle for social networking.
People have joined his chapter just
so they can hob-nob with rich people
such as himself.
May 17 2002
And it was pretty funny to read
Tolstoy ranting at length about
how grossly over-rated Napoleon's
"genius" was.
This goes along well
with H.G. Wells' take BONY_DREAD
in his "Outline"...
An oddity:
Ultimately, Tolstoy's
point is that the will of He argues that the
the great are irrelevant correlation between great
compared to the will of men and great events
the people. doesn't imply causality,
and asserts that it goes
But all of his the other way: The will of
characters are the people creates and then
members of the destroys the great.
upper class.
We see very little DIFFERENTIAL_OF_HISTORY
of "the people".
I'm very interested in Tolstoy's
notion of potency though a
respect for your own impotency, KUTUZOV
e.g. in the case of Kutúzov.
But it's not clear if it means
anything to Tolstoy but faith
in providence. SURFING_HISTORY
Pierre's epiphanies about
freedom == misery, and how
happiness is achieved
through poverty and AGAINST_FREEDOM
imprisonment are not
without interest...
But there might be an
objection or two raised
to that, eh? Some
people might find it a
bit suspicious even: a
member of the upper
class preaching the
virtues of servitude.
In general, there seems to
be a pattern of unconvincing
religious material in ANNA_KARENINA
Tolstoy's fiction.
(Compare and
A corner that he contrast:
backs himself into? Nicholas and
Levin?)
If intelligence is useless,
reading a snare and a delusion,
history a lie, genius a myth,
freedom a guarantee of suffering,
and all human ambition and striving
empty vanity...
That's a pretty grim world to
face without faith in providence
to fall back on.
Some random quotations follow.
And some not random ones.
HISTORYS_SLAVE
WARRING_PIECES
CARBONUNDRUM
AGAINST_FREEDOM
DERANGEMENT
MOTIVATION
TOYING_WITH_TRUTH
TOYING_WITH_TECH
TERRIBLE_KNOWLEDGE
KUTUZOV
DIFFERENTIAL_OF_HISTORY
TREED
BIG_SKY
These are from several different
sources, indicated by the codes:
"WC" = Wordsworth Classics edition.
"GP" = Gutenberg Press edition. The translator isn't
specified for either
"RE" = Penguin paperback edition, the WC or the GP (?!)
Rosemary Edmonds, trans. (1957)
The WC claims their
translation was
Tolstoy approved.
There are some
differences
Russian has between
a reputation translations
as a logical but they seem
language, very slight.
and Tolstoy
gives the "command"
impression vs. "order"
of a man
trying to MOTIVATION
be clear,
rather than I would guess
stylish or that there's
poetic. little controversy
about how to
translate
"War and Peace".
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