In one
of his most famous essays, Friedrich Schiller distinguished between
naïve poets and sentimental poets, the former writing spontaneously
without planning anything and the second being very self-aware of
their writing and the problems raised by their work.
Having
read the first volume of “War and Peace”, I could not help but
think that Tolstoj must be necessarily included in the naïve
category, only to realise that this cannot be possible, that a writer
like Tolstoj would have known where his story would go. While reading
the first volume of Tolstoj’s grandiose effort, I constantly had
the impression that the author was consciously writing about the
pursuit of one’s happiness in life, but that he did not always have
a clear-cut idea of where and how Pierre, Prince Andréj, Nikolaj
Rostòv or Nataša could find it. I might be terribly wrong, because
Tolstoj kept revising and rewriting episodes of the book for a very
long time, so he must have had some idea of where he was going.
At the
centre of the story there is history of course: the Napoleonic wars
that saw Russia fighting alongside Austria against the French play a
big role in the 'war parts', but it is the ultimate meaning of
history that is at stake in this book. What is history and can common
people ever be a part of it? “War and Peace” is also a huge
canvas of Russian aristocracy, of its falseness and affectation above
all. Ironically enough, while princes and counts converse in good
French, Russia is at war with Napoleon, who is regarded as a
charlatan of an emperor and cannot compete with his Russian
counterpart, Alexander I. At the centre of the question, there are
ideas about Russian identity and the influence of Europe. The
characters in the story seem to be more spontaneous when they speak
Russian or when they try to live a genuine, simple life that does not
involve discussing politics or philosophy. It is not by chance that
every major character is looking for happiness, whether through
masonry, marriage or war achievements.
“War
and Peace” has many, maybe too many characters. For at least 300
pages you need to write them down on a piece of paper and constantly
look at it. In spite of this, some of them really stand
out: Pierre, the clumsy,
illegitimate son of a wealthy count, who is lost and confused to the
point of entering masonry was created
with tenderness and affection by Tolstoj, who clearly saw much of
himself in him. Then there is Prince Andréj Bolkonskij, a
young officer with a pregnant wife and an eccentric father, and two
siblings, Nikolaj and Nataša. He is a somehow idealistic young man
who is in love with his orphan cousin Sonja to the despair of his
impoverished parents, while Nataša, still a child at the beginning
of the book, grows into a very beautiful young woman who is at a loss
regarding her marriage. There are also some purely depraved
characters like Hélène Kuraghina and her brother Anatole,
libertines who clearly represent the moral corruption of the society
of the time (Tojstoj wrote the novel in the 1860s, but set it in the
earlier decades, which he probably found more interesting because of
the historical events).
This is a complex novel which blends history with a family
saga literally throbbing with life. It contains elements of
philosophy, social sciences, politics and god knows what more. So far
it has been an enriching experience to read it, but it has been
rather demanding. Sometimes it feels like you are reading a very long
director's cut, where episodes do not apparently lead to anything
important or where you simply miss the point the author is trying to
make, but I think it is just because Lev Tolstoj sometimes is in over my head.
I have this on my reading list. I need to read it some time soon. Some writers are always elusive and they write not only for reading enjoyment of the ordinary reader or should I say the average reader.
ReplyDeleteQuesto libro mi fa sempre ricordare i tempi del liceo. Lo leggevo con cucchiaiate di nutella e una coperta come quella di Linus. Fuori nevicava e mi sembrava di essere in Russia. Uno dei più straordinari romanzi di sempre
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