| Voyna i mir (1865-69; War and Peace)
contains three kinds of material--a historical account of the Napoleonic
wars, the biographies of fictional characters, and a set of essays about
the philosophy of history. Critics from the 1860s to the present have wondered
how these three parts cohere, and many have faulted Tolstoy for including
the lengthy essays, but readers continue to respond to them with undiminished
enthusiasm.
The work's historical portions narrate the campaign
of 1805 leading to Napoleon's victory at the Battle of Austerlitz, a period
of peace, and Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812. Contrary to generally
accepted views, Tolstoy portrays Napoleon as an ineffective, egomaniacal
buffoon, Tsar Alexander I as a phrasemaker obsessed with how historians
will describe him, and the Russian general Mikhail Kutuzov (previously
disparaged) as a patient old man who understands the limitations of human
will and planning. Particularly noteworthy are the novel's battle scenes,
which show combat as sheer chaos. Generals may imagine they can "anticipate
all contingencies," but battle is really the result of "a hundred
million diverse chances" decided on the moment by unforeseeable circumstances.
In war as in life, no system or model can come close to accounting for
the infinite complexity of human behaviour. |
Tolstoi |