War and Peace: 3-Volume Boxed Set; Introduction by R. F. Christian

Sydney M. Williams “Autumn Days (and Nights) with Tolstoy” December 10, 2023 “An historian and an artist describing our historic epoch have two quite different tasks before them. As an historian would be wrong if he tried to present an historical person in his entirety, in all his relations with all sides of life, so the artist would fail to perform his task were he to represent the person always in his historical significance.” Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) War and Peace, Appendix, 1868 In the Introduction to my copy of War and Peace, the late Tolstoy scholar Reginald Frank Christian of St. Andrews University wrote: “Many years later he [Tolstoy] told Gorky [Maxim Gorky] that ‘without false modesty, War and Peace is like the Iliad…” Professor Christian added that he had “deliberately refrained from calling War and Peace a novel,” and noted that Tolstoy claimed Anna Karenina, published ten years later, to be his first novel. Tolstoy wrote about what he knew. Born into the aristocracy fifteen years after Napoleon had been pushed out of Russia, he had first-hand war experience in Crimea, where he arrived in the fall of 1854 in time for the siege of Sevastopol. What Tolstoy created in War and Peace is epic – a combination of fiction, history and philosophy – and deserves its classical status. In early September, I read Peggy Noonan’s column in The Wall Street Journal, “My Summer with Leo Tolstoy.” The first thing I did, after deciding to read the book, was ditch the one-volume paperback I had purchased a few years earlier and bought a more-easily-handled three-volume set translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude. At story’s end, I empathized with Ms. Noonan’s quote of George Will, who on completing Moby Dick wrote: “To think I might have died without reading it!” . Tolstoy wrote of war: “On the 12th of June 1812, the forces of Western Europe crossed the Russian frontier and war began…” “One step beyond that boundary line which resembles the line dividing the living from the dead, lies uncertainty…You fear and yet long to cross that line, and know that sooner or later it must be crossed…” He wrote of people, of four families, but especially of two individuals: Countess Natásha Rostóva, a “…strikingly poetic, charming girl, overflowing with life!” and Count Pierre Bezúkhov, a large, young, unhappily married man who searches for life’s purpose: “To that question What for? a simple answer was now always ready in his soul: ‘Because there is a God, that God without whose will not one hair falls from a man’s head.’” As well, Tolstoy pondered social, ethical, and religious concerns of the time, and he philosophized about the difficulty to understand the why of events like Napoleon’s invasion of Russia: “The higher the human intellect rises in the discovery of these purposes, the more obvious it becomes that the ultimate purpose is beyond our comprehension.” At over 1,500 pages, War and Peace is daunting, but it is captivating in all aspects. Like Dostoevsky and Chekhov, Tolstoy’s characters have names difficult for American ears. But they are descriptive and credible. Readers will not soon forget Andrew’s death, Sónya’s unrequited love, nor Mary’s loyalty. To those interested in the Napoleonic Wars, Tolstoy provided a window on that era from Russia’s perspective. And for us, living in traumatic times, his questions, thoughts, and timeless wisdom on life deserve our reflection. I spent many hours with Tolstoy, and I am glad I did.

It's technically perfect! The cardboard box isn't as hard as I thought, but it's good. The content itself doesn't need comments.

The splitting up of the book into 3 volumes makes it easier to handle, and often single volume versions compress the text making it harder to read comfortably. The books themselves were in good condition, but the slipcase was a bit bashed, but it was secondhand so acceptable.

I first came across this book on Amazon when my brother wanted to purchase a book (decline and fall of the roman empire), after having purchased that book, War and Peace was recommended to me, I quickly read the cover and decided to purchase it just a few days later. The book remained on my shelf for about 3 months until one day I was sitting bored at home and decided to start reading books. I picked up War and Peace after skimming through a couple of my books and in just one day I read about 30 to 40 pages, and after two weeks I had finished the entire book. There are two things that kept me reading this book; the first thing that kept me reading this book was the philosophy. The philosophical part of the book had me lost in the pages to the point that I wasn't even aware of my own life and was just focused on the words written in the pages, and afterwards reflecting on what I had just read was soul quenching. The Philosophy within the book was so strange, it was as if I knew what Tolstoy was trying to point out, but it just needed to be written down so that I could comprehend it, if that makes sense. Second were the characters within the book, Prince Andei, Pierre, Dolokhov and many others. In the beginning, not being familiar with the characters, I was a patient observer, then after continuing my reading and seeing the characters develop and go through their struggles in life allowed me to sympathize with them despite being disapproving of them at first, and although their lives were set in the late 18th and early 19th century, I related to them in every way because their struggles were no different from our very own despite the times, like when Pierre (SPOILERS START HERE) was somewhat pressured to marry Helene and then later finding her ungrateful, or when Dolokhov after being shot despite being the kind of person he was felt love for his sister and mother and towards his friends, and especially Prince Andrei who so vehemently wanted to carry out revenge against Anatole for what he did to him but then sympathizing with him when he saw his leg cut off. (SPOILERS OVER). Now who is looking forward to reading this book, don't spoil it for yourself if you haven't already and read it from there, believe me each moment will be like wondering what will happen next.

The review is for the quality of the cover and the print. The book itself is a slow read, 3 chapters in and they still haven't left the drawing room.