War and Peace

War and Peace
By Leo Tolstoy

This book is about family and its ability to cope with the winds of war as they see it off in the horizon moving its way to sweep through their beloved city of Moscow. Tolstoy paints a picture of Russian family life as the concerned women see their men off to war. I am reminded of the Iliad as Paris prepares to face Achilles in a battle outside their city and the lamenting of his mother. On the war front Tolstoy uses a few battles between Austrian and French armies to provide a sense of distant Napoleon thunder on the horizon. That little man who was know to lead the fallen by the ear to personally demonstrate his superiority; artfully described in the book. This thunder is curiously blended with a 1800s Russian intrigue for French culture; a left over from the days of Antoinette is my guess. In battle scenes you become familiar with the colorful randomness of your survival and at times the unforeseen victorious army. A first person view is used to describe the soldiers in their view of war and of their leader and his strategy to attack or defend. In the defense of Moscow, Napoleon somehow prevails yet mysteriously retreats back to France. It was portrayed as a costly over extension of his army and country.

Character introduction takes the opportunity to draw relationships, paint blossoming love affairs, lay in intriguing social dealings, which enables an understanding of general hierarchy of Russian society that is about to become tested by war. Tolstoy colors a refined sense of self-respect in most characters that is also vested upon one another. The honor you read about in a battle is delineated from the core values of the society and family of Russian culture. He makes the reader yearn for those times of formality.

While inside their homes each family is discussing the ramification of what this brooding storm will do to their lives; Moscow itself is in disbelief that Napoleon could reach this far away city. The king is assembling armies both from regimental and volunteer sectors of the country. Dukes’ and Barons’ ranks are partially assembled as they assign their subjects, derived either through direct employment or land contract, to duty. Because you are a Nobel, you automatically are an officer upon reporting to duty. Military training was assumed through your standing in life. Of course there is the formal career soldier in charge of the overall battle. Imagine you a Baron reporting to the Field General and stating your status while pointing to your men and him replying with the orders of final assembly, “fine sir you are now a Captain and will be supplied with extra men to complement those you brought with you to take a flanking position in those hills.”

As a prelude to the Moscow battle a few key characters go off to fight foreign battles in Russia’s aid to the Austrians against the French. Tolstoy does this I believe to make the defense of Moscow all the more perilous and sobering. You’re put on edge with preparation sharpened by an urgency derived your first hand experience of battle and the uncertainties of war. You the reader come to appreciate a new understanding of those who have come back home from war. The dialogue of these veterans as they move their families to safe places is sharp and sincere at the same time. Love for one another is mixed with plans of survival. All this commotion is without the children suspecting a thing. A core family value I find lost in our modern American society.

Personal Battle Plans
Tolstoy
“”If men are ever inclined to think about their actions, the moment when they are leaving home and embarking up a course of life that is certain to induce a serious frame of mind. Generally, at such moments, the past comes up with review, and plans for the future are made.””

Battle Line
Tolstoy

“”One step beyond that line, which is like the burn that divides the living from the dead, and there is the unknown suffering and of death. And what is there? Who is there? Beyond that field, and that tree, and that roof glittering in the sun? No one knows. No one wishes to know, and it is terrible to cross that line, and I know that sooner or later I'll have to cross it, and shall know what is on the other side of death. Yet I am strong, and full of life, just as other men.””

As the French mysteriously left their vanquished city, in retreat back to France a touching love story is told and I believe Tolstoy’s moral message was found in the slow death of Prince Andrei from a wound inflicted upon him in a battle outside Moscow. Being patched up in a field hospital you gain hope that this hero will return to his beloved Natasha and live a life Tolstoy set you up to wish for. As the two discover the depth of their love in tragedy, I’ll provide an excerpt, as I believe it bears out my point.

Tolstoy

“”During the tormenting hours of loneliness and delirium he had spent since being wounded, the more he pondered over his new found source of eternal love, the more he became alienated from earthly life, though the process was an unconscious one. To love everything, all men, always to sacrifice self for loves sake meant to love no one in particular, meant not to love this mundane life. And the more he imbued himself with this source of love, the more he let go of life, and the more absolutely he broke down that terrible impediment which, if love is absent, hold between life and death…It was the unexpected discovery that he still prized life which presented itself in the guise of his love for Natasha and the last victorious attack of horror before the unknown.””

Prince Andrei found in his love for Natasha and her return love a selfish love for things he cherished. To live life fully you must give your love freely and fully to the one you cherish and hold her love in return in kind. This thought made his passing sensible, as he had found that love. That sensibility put the reader back in the frame of mind to put the lives of Moscow society back together. Like a storm that blows across you own fields, the sun will follow. The warmth of family living leaves you with an inclination to live your life in the sun. To fully appreciate the meaning of these words one must endure the book itself.