A 2021 War and Peace Journey
I started reading the 361 chapters of this phenomenal epic work (Briggs translation) at the beginning of the year, an easy one chapter a day, and consulting daily with the @brianedenton ebook - an insightful commentary on each chapter (available on Kindle; highly recommended) - and listening daily to the enthusiastic @anderlouis Hemingway List podcast on which Ander reads (sometimes from the Ander Louis Bogan Australian translation) and discusses each chapter. In August, I discussed the first half of the book with Brian on my podcast. (Tell Me What You’re Reading) Brian has read War and Peace 10+ times and is deeply knowledgeable.
On September 15, I also embarked on a glorious 85 day adventure through the P&V translation, along with a phenomenal @apublicspace global reading community - #TolstoyTogether - led by Yiyun Li (who has read War and Peace 15 times; also deeply knowledgeable), and guided by the newly published “Tolstoy Together: 85 Days of War and Peace with Yiyun Li”. So, this has been a year filled with Tolstoy for me (“Tolstoy Twice!”, at least).
2021 lessons include the benefits of slow reading (and of re-reading), which provided the ability to focus on the details so important to Tolstoy, the joy of reading together with a global community of online commenters, and the brilliance of Tolstoy’s creations and reflections, including the French speaking, and ever so pampered, Russian aristocracy, and their elaborate soirées; the huge numbers of serfs serving the aristocracy, and expendable serfs at that; the great battles of the Napoleonic Wars; the horrors of war and the distinction between the officers and the troops; Prince Andrei’s remarkable anti-war diatribe; debunking the Great Man Theory; the presumptuous young turks outdone by.wisdom borne from experience; Napoleon’s pomposity (and Tolstoy’s disdain); apparent disdain as well for everything German; the growth and evolution (or decline in some cases) of Tolstoy’s characters, Natasha and Andrei; Natasha and Helene, Dolokov and Anatole; Pierre and Andrei; Pierre and Natasha; and so many more and so much more.
On January 1, I intend to start again at the beginning, a chapter a day, learning more about the 550+ characters (550+ characters!) who inhabit the parlors and battlefields that Tolstoy created over 150 years ago, and also about the universal and timeless human condition, both in times of war and in times of peace, that Tolstoy explores throughout the book. @brianedenton and I will also soon record another “Tell Me What You're Reading” podcast discussion about the second half of the book. What a great journey! #tolstoytogether #apublicspace #thehemingwaylist #bookwormsinthewild
My twitter reflections during the journey.
My 2021 War and Peace Journey on Twitter
@bookwormsITW #bookwormsinthewild
#TolstoyTogether
May 22 Nice to start off this morning with some light reading. I’ve gotten myself mixed up in an effort to read Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” over the course of a year, one chapter a day (with invaluable guidance from @anderlouis and @brianedenton ). Highly recommended!
Ander Louis·May 23 Replying to @bookwormsITW When you get mixed up with the wrong crowd... Smh.
May 23 Very much the right crowd! BTW @anderlouis I started late and have been scrambling to catch up to be able to pace at a chapter a day. Should be in tune in a week or so.
Jul 12 @nytimesbooks @michaelpollan re War and Peace - I’ve been reading it one chapter a day, accompanied by @brianedenton chapter by chapter commentary (avail on Kindle). 361 chapters. Takes about a year. Go for it. Let me know what you think.
Aug 7 War and Peace, c. 1400 pages; daunting task unless reading 1 chapter/ day as @brianedenton does every yr. Brian is an authority on tales of aristocracy in 1805 Moscow + of ensuing Napoleonic wars. Podcast discussion, “Tell Me What You’re Reading”
·Aug 8 @brianedenton e-book: text + reflective essays re science/ cruelty of war; natural landscapes; Great Man Theory; Narrative Fallacy; history + fiction; futility of Mets; lit + biblical references. “Tell Me What You’re Reading”, wherever you listen to podcasts.
·Aug 10 War and Peace chapters + commentary on The Hemingway List podcast daily, by @anderlouis . @brianedenton chapter reflections linked on subreddit. (THL = 16 writer must reads, inc. War and Peace.) “Tell Me What You’re Reading”, wherever you listen to podcasts.
·Aug 10 The “Hemingway List” put together by EH in 1934 for an aspiring writer.
·Aug 11 @brianedenton describes his annual War and Peace journey; “Tell Me What You’re Reading”, wherever you podcast. Another way is #apublicspace 85 day virtual book club with Yiyun Li, starting Sept 15. Guide to be released Sept 14.
·Oct 12 “On the faces of the young men … expression of … disdainful deference … seemed to say to the older generation: We’re prepared to respect and honor you, but remember all the same that the future is ours.” Tolstoy!
·Oct 14 "Napoleon sat his horse poorly and unsteadily"; his "face wore an unpleasantly false smile"; he removed a glove from "his small white hand"; "small, plump hand"; "the little man with white hands". Tell us how you really feel LT!
@APublicSpace ·Oct 14 The best moments of Andrei’s life, in his memory, are listed as the sky at Austerlitz, his wife dying, Pierre on the ferry, and Natasha: the glory of fame and death moving aside for friendship and love. (I nearly forgot how much he loves Pierre!) —Yiyun Li
·Oct 14 "his wife dying" included in the best moments of his life!
Zulma Ortiz Fuentes ·Oct 17 #TolstoyTogether Pierre on seeing Andrey and Natasha together is “suddenly assailed by a worrying feeling of joy mixed with bitterness.” Hmm… So many breadcrumbs I didn’t notice on my first read.
·Oct 17 Agreed. I missed so much first time through!
·Oct 18 “Don’t leave”, Natasha to Andrei as he left for 1 yr before their marriage. Same from my fiancé as I left for the Army during the Vietnam War. If Andrei stayed, he would’ve faced the wrath of his father. I would’ve gone to jail
·Oct 20 Did we just read that Rostov neighbor Ilagin traded 3 families of house serfs to acquire his hunting dog?! The sheer number of serfs we’ve been reading about serving the aristocracy is astonishing! And expendable serfs at that.
·Oct 20 “Uncle,” Ilagin and Nikolay hunted a hare- a competition of money and manliness. Each of them pretended indifference to the result, while all fought for being the first to kill the hare.
·Oct 21 The same “sham indifference” experienced in fly fishing for trout!
·Oct 21 I enjoy having a ride, you know; get together with company like this .. what could be better. But this counting of skins, who brought in how many-it’s all the same to me .. Or that I should get upset that another man’s dog catches it and not mine-all I want is to admire the chase.
Maureen McGranaghan ·Oct 23 Boris' proposal is excruciating. His humanity lies in his hesitation, though he's hardly considering Julie as a person. (She's no better.) Part of me wants him to achieve his goal and those almighty estates (inherently dramatic tension). But oh Boris...
·Oct 23 “I can always arrange it so that I see her rarely”, thought Boris. Oh Boris!
·Oct 24 The despicable Anatole ("You know ... I adore little girls; she'll get all flustered") and Helene … shades of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Maureen McGranaghan ·Oct 25 Anatole is the face, Hélène the warmth and charm, and Dolokhov the Cyrano...leads me to wonder who is Natasha falling in love with? She has no idea--it's a hybrid person!--and she would have had an even ruder awakening finding herself with Anatole.
·Oct 25 Grifter.
·Oct 25 Anatole, Dolokov and Helene the enabler: a nasty trio.
·Oct 26 She was quite smitten with Helene.
·Oct 26 Pierre’s intense feelings for Natasha. “It seemed to him that he had a stronger feeling for her than a married man ought to have for his friend’s fiancé.” Lots to unpack here Pierre.
·Oct 30 Rostov, “If only once in my life I could chase down a seasoned wolf”; then chasing French dragoons “with the feeling with which he raced to intercept a wolf”; but, tormented, remorseful when he sabered a young Frenchman.
·Oct 30 The cause of war (and of an apple falling off a tree): "No one thing is the cause."
·Nov 3 Dron, in separate appeals, to Alpatych and to Princess Marya. “Release me! Take the keys from me, release me, for Christ sake!” Dron’s motivation? Stress of the job? Fear of the French and a desire to run? What’s up with Dron?
·Nov 3 “She recalled all her life with him, and found in his every word, his every act, an expression of his love for her.” A generous reflection at a very emotional time? The way I see it, the old prince was pretty tough on Marya.
Diane Zorich ·Nov 6 Pierre approaches the frontline w/ air of a dilettante. He’s there “to have a look." "…it’s interesting.” He "wanted to see the battle.” Maybe everyone is staring at his hat because they can’t believe the absurdity of the fop in front of them? (Too harsh a take?)
·Nov 7 I’m still unsettled by Pierre‘s aristocratic privileged tour of the battlefield. An officer asks “And you are what - a doctor?“… Pierre, “No, I’m just here“.
·Nov 7 Prince Andrei’s remarkable anti-war diatribe, “War isn’t courtesy, it’s the vilest thing in the world, and we must understand that and not play at war.“
·Nov 7 Tolstoy’s continued assault on the Germans. This time the excellent example of the German valet.
·Nov 8 An officer asks “And you are what - a doctor?“… Pierre, “No, I’m just here“. Not good Pierre.
@APublicSpace· ·Nov 8 The best quality of Pierre is how he makes others feel toward him, despite their initial judgmental attitude toward him. In today’s reading, it’s this little family of officers and soldiers who try to keep Pierre safe under the cannonballs. —Yiyun
John ·Nov 10 I think we have to have a bit of suspension of disbelief here and allow Tolstoy to use this device to convey Pierre’s non-military pov & as part of his story. It is one of the few fairly implausible aspects but serves a purpose although definitely a bit strange
·Nov 10 Agreed. Strikes me as very odd.
Varun Gauri ·Nov 11 Slow plot day. Curious: What are people's takeaways, as writers, from this reading of W&P? My list is a work in progress:
1. Repeating physical, especially bodily, details can create a strong sense of character (Lize's lips, Helene's shoulders, Pierre's girth)
2. Subplots can be as energetic as plots if they are full of characters' choices (Denisov feeling insulted, rashly fighting, nearly dying)
3. The space between a feeling and the character's interpretation of it is a fascinating source of agency and plot (Andrey interprets his boredom with Petersburg salon society as quietism/nihilism, applies that insight to officers' careerism, joins the front lines, and dies)
(Also, Natasha's love of "ecstatic pleasure" leads her to believe that is what life is for, that she deserves it, so she pursues Anatole while Andrey is away, leading to her dishonor, and perhaps Andrey's death)
4. Repeated speech also generate the sense of a consistent character (Uncle's "Fair for the chase!")
5. Tolstoy attributes an "intelligence" or articulateness to facial expressions and gestures (many examples). But these only work against, and after, characters have undertaken actions and decisions, which allow the reader to believe in the speaking body
6. Contradictory and complex motives for characters are the rule, not the exception (Andrey re-enlists because military service is familiar and honored, but also, partly hidden to himself, to avenge Anatole Kuragin)
7. There is so much sad amusement in how characters rationalize all the background evil in the world ("over zealously" applying an order that permits soldiers to take peasant homes)
8. Characters' reflections are interesting only when they are linked to decisive action (many examples)
·Nov 11 Love your list. Here”s another - Tolstoy’s constant use of similes, and metaphors, makes the text visual. One of my favorites, “Suddenly something happened; the little officer said ‘Ah’ and, curling up, sat on the ground like a bird shot down in flight”.
Yan_W ·Nov 11 Sometimes it was hard for me to enter the chapters with LT’s editorial comments. Regarding this novel was first published in a serial format, I always wonder if Tolstoy wrote these chapters as a break of creating new plots.
It would be interesting to read it in the original serial format.
·Nov 11 I feel as if that is what we are doing over 85 days.
·Nov 17 Consistent with a theme throughout the book, Ramballe exhibits disdain for the Germans, “He’s a German, but a good fellow if there ever was one, but German.”
·Nov 17 Napoleon’s instructions, “drawn up quite vaguely and confusedly”. Tolstoy tells us six times (!) over a few pages that “Not one of these instructions was or could be carried out”.
Katie Wilson ·Nov 19 Sonya's behavior in chapter 8 makes me wonder who she'd be if she didn't depend on the Rostovs. Anyone else rethinking what might have been if Sonya accepted Dolokhov's proposal?
·Nov 19 Dolokhov ... that would have been a mess.
·Nov 19 I'm getting close to finishing. Phenomenal. Check out my podcast discussion of War and Peace.
·Nov 20 but … “with Princess Marya it was impossible for him to picture a future life, because he did not understand her, but only loved her.” Blind love? Blinded by her wealth and the manipulation of the old countess?
·Nov 20 Prisoners about to be executed “could not believe it … did not understand or believe [their lives] could be taken from them”. Andrei at Austerlitz who also could not believe that his battle opponents would want to harm him? #bookwormsinthewild
·Nov 21 Yikes. Was that Nikolai?
John·Nov 29 It occurs to me that while there is no doubt LT held Kutuzov in high regard & believed he deserved credit for the success over the French, he may have deliberately exagerrated K’s qualities to highlight the incompetence of the other military & politcal leaders
·Nov 29 Mission accomplished.
Ann Ritchie ·Nov 29 “God in heaven! Look at all them stars! Means a hard frost.” And then everybody was silent’. I got so cold reading these chapters I had to turn the hearing way up!
·Nov 29 In P-V: "Ohh! Lord, Lord! What an awful lot of stars! It'll be freezing cold ..." Vivid, all of it is so vivid.
Varun Gauri·Nov 20 Character transformations ledger: Prince Andrey (embittered man falls for lovely girl, then renounces her): totally believable Natasha (beautiful, sensual girl falls for a prince, then despairs at his remoteness and pursues a rake): for sure
·Nov 20 Well done.
katherine writes ·Nov 19 I find the way Nikolay and Marya see each other to be SO romantic, and it’s exactly why Sonya should be with someone else. Nikolay sees how singular and special Marya is; to him Sonya is merely ordinary #TolstoyTogether
·Nov 24 Epic takedown of Napoleon by Tolstoy, referring to Napoleon’s judgments as “stupid and destructive” three times on one page! #bookwormsinthewild
Nov 24 “Most important episode of the war of 1812, movement of Russian army … to the Kaluga road” to get to “abundance of provisions in Kaluga”. As always, an army marches on it’s stomach, ironically a saying attributed to Napoleon.
·Nov 29 Reflecting, on love of everything French: LT regard for the sky: disdain for Napoleon; regard for Kutuzov; high aristocracy; huge #s in service; huge #s of peasants; horrors of war; freezing soldiers assuring that officers are warm; etc.
@APublicSpace·Nov 29 Ten more days of reading! We've had some wonderful support from indie bookstores around the continent, and from other writer friends. We'll post links of the past events--please consider ordering a copy of TOLSTOY TOGETHER, 85 DAYS OF WAR AND PEACE from them!
·Nov 29 Great to have this guide to add to the joy of reading the Tolstoy masterpiece. Thank you Yiyun Li and @APublicSpace
John·Nov 30 I have managed to slow read and loved slow reading for 77 days & mostly stuck to the schedule but today I was unable to resist reading to the end of Volume IV & speeding up at the same time and I am sure I am not alone. No spoilers.
·Nov 30 It was hard to resist jumping ahead, but I did, and now I’m looking forward to waking up early and getting back to it.
·Nov 30 Sure sign we are coming to the end; references, all on one page, to the deaths of Kutuzov (wounds + fatigue after grand mission accomplished); Petya (saddest of all; reckless, youthful exuberance); Prince Andrei (as a warrior); Helene (meh).
katherine writes ·Nov 30 I think I need to adopt a little more of Pierre’s newfound attitude — not bothering to argue with people who will never be convinced, enjoying the weirdness of each individual, and appreciating that we’re all a mess of contradictions :)
·Nov 30 An ideal perspective.
Maureen McGranaghan ·Dec 1 'Do you drink vodka, Count?' asked Princess Marya, and these words suddenly dispersed the shadows of the past." There you go. A remedy for all occasions (as long as you have it on hand!).
·Dec 2 There was a lot of vodka consumed by everyone in these thousand pages.
Zulma Ortiz Fuentes·Dec 2 The death of Count Ilya messed me up. Esp this: “On the last day, racked with sobs, he asked his wife and his absent son to forgive him for squandering their property, the worst of the sins that lay on his conscience.” Heavy burden to die with.
Dec 2 That was a very sad moment.
John·Dec 2 “Natasha’s marriage to Bezukhov in 1813” and “Once Pierre & his wife ..”. We know it is supposed to happen but we can’t be sure it actually will after Volume 4 ended with Pierre off to Petersburg. This confirmation it did I find comforting & happy endingish
·Dec 2 Brought a big smile to my face this morning.
Emily Vivas·Dec 2 After six days with no electricity because of the devastation caused locally by storm Arwen, I’m back on line. Reading by head torch and candle light was fine but I missed #TolstoyTogether and worried you would finish without me.
Dec 2 Leave no reader behind!
·Dec 3 Harsh realities of control + indentured servitude (also Nikolai‘s style as a “master”): “when it was possible to send a house serf as a soldier in place of a muzhik, he did it without the slightest hesitation“; “neighboring muzhiks came asking him to buy them“.
·Dec 3 I miss them all already.
Emily Vivas·Dec 4 Oh god, this is so familiar!
·Dec 4 Tolstoy‘s ability to capture the human condition is quite extraordinary.
·Dec 4 As is the fact that the human condition today is very much the same as it was in the early 1800s.
·Dec 4 Really moved by Nikolenka’s “admiration and passionate love” for his “Uncle“ Pierre, and that he “wanted to be learned and intelligent and kind, like Pierre.” I think Prince Andrei would be pleased.
John ·Dec 5 I was a bit taken aback by Marya’s diary entry where in Briggs she wrote that she told her eldest ‘she didn’t love him’. Checked P/V & it is ‘like’ not love. For me this is a case where just one word can sometimes make a huge difference between translations.
·Dec 5 I’ve been wondering about writers and translators. Some translations are done when a book is written; maybe the writer has some influence over translation. Some, when the writer is gone. The story is the writer’s, but the choices made about the words we read are also critical.
John ·Dec 5 “Did you see her ?” Natasha asks Pierre with reference to her jealousy. What have I missed or forgotten, who is the ‘her’ referring to ? #TolstoyTogether
apublicspace @APublicSpace Dec 5 I have always felt baffled by that, with several question marks in the margin, but I have accepted that it is something that will remain a mystery to us, but not to the husband and wife...YL
·Dec 5 I have felt sometimes during my reading that either I was missing something or, preferably, that Tolstoy was employing what, years later, has been referred to as Hemingway’s “iceberg principle“.
John ·Dec 6 I am enjoying Epilogue 2 but that is as much as anything because I love Tolstoy’s writing & would probably even enjoy reading his shopping list. I do find his views on history & causes fascinating & I do see common ground with YN Harari’s ‘Imagined Realities’ 1/2 #TolstoyTogether
John Sapiens is brilliant. I may read it again soon in the light of LT’s views on historians
Thank you @MoMcGran and @John73014818, I am building a reading list for 2022 and will now add Sapiens.
Dec 7 LT challenges us (which came first, chicken or the egg), swipes at NB (“series of orders or expressions of his will .. directed in the most diverse and indefinite way”), vents vs war (“how is it that … people commit … wars, killings?“)
Dec 8 Thanks to Yiyun Li, to #apublicspace and to those in the community who contributed to the journey over the last 85 days.
Dr. Marilyn Tomato, Esq.·Dec 8 #TolstoyTogether. So maybe I was the rare reader to be captivated by W&P epilogue. Tres interested in what informed Tolstoy in the construction of the novel's narrative. Certain to being reading more Tolstoy this winter.
·Dec 8 I was fascinated as well. So interesting to read what he was thinking about when he was writing W&P. Lots to synthesize. I put Anna Karenina on my list for 2022 reads.
