"War and Peace" written L. N. Tolstoy
Agreement of the predicate with the subject - the name literary work has its own characteristics.
We are speaking: “On the eve” was written by I.S. Turgenev(adverb the day before becomes a neuter noun); "Guilty Without Guilt" resumed in the theater's repertoire(we agree with the leading word in the title); "The Living and the Dead" by K. Simonov were filmed(we agree as it is done with homogeneous subjects).
But in the title "War and Peace" written by L.N. Tolstoy we agreed on the predicate not with the "homogeneous subjects" that make up the name, but with the first "subject", although the second belongs to a different grammatical gender. Can we, following this model, say: ""Ruslan and Lyudmila" written Pushkin"; ""Romeo and Juliet" written Shakespeare"? The question is not easy: none of the theoretically options(masculine, feminine, plural) is not acceptable.
In such cases, the generic name should be added ( poem, drama, play, opera etc.) and coordinate the predicate with it. In this way we will save ourselves from difficulties and curiosities such as "Sheep and Wolves are sold out"; "The Twelve Apostles [frigate] were in the roadstead."
The addition of a generic name is also recommended for names such as " Do not sit in your sleigh", consisting of a group of words in which the leading word is not distinguished, suitable for agreeing with the predicate. So it's better to say this: The play “Don’t get into your sleigh” is being staged in Moscow at the Maly Theater.
Sometimes an inseparable group of words that form a name is perceived as a single whole in the meaning of a noun, and then the predicate is put in the form of a singular neuter gender: “Do not scold me, dear” was performed a second time.
What does the title of the novel "War and Peace" mean?
The novel "War and Peace" was originally conceived by Tolstoy as a story about the Decembrists. The author wanted to talk about these wonderful people and their families.
But not just to talk about what happened in December 1825 in Russia, but to show how the participants in these events came to them, which prompted the Decembrists to revolt against the tsar. The result of Tolstoy's study of these historical events became the novel "War and Peace", which tells about the emergence of the Decembrist movement against the backdrop of the war of 1812.
What is the meaning of Tolstoy's "War and Peace"? Is it only to convey to the reader the moods and aspirations of people for whom the fate of Russia after the war against Napoleon was important? Or is it to show once again that "war ... is an event that is contrary to human reason and all human nature"? Or maybe Tolstoy wanted to emphasize that our life consists of contrasts between war and peace, meanness and honor, evil and good.
About why the author called his work that way, what is the meaning of the name "War and Peace", now one can only guess. But, reading and re-reading the work, you are once again convinced that the whole narrative in it is built on the struggle of opposites.
The contrasts of the novel
In the work, the reader is constantly faced with the opposition of various concepts, characters, destinies.
What is war? And is it always accompanied by the death of hundreds and thousands of people? After all, there are wars that are bloodless, quiet, invisible to many, but no less significant for one particular person. Sometimes it even happens that this person does not even realize that military operations are taking place around him.
For example, while Pierre was trying to figure out how to behave properly with his dying father, in the same house there was a war between Prince Vasily and Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya. Anna Mikhailovna "fought" on the side of Pierre only because it was beneficial to herself, but still, thanks to her, Pierre became Count Peter Kirillovich Bezukhov.
In this “battle” for a portfolio with a will, it was decided whether Pierre would be an unknown, useless, bastard thrown overboard the ship of life, or become a rich heir, count and enviable groom. In fact, it was here that it was decided whether Pierre Bezukhov could eventually become what he became at the end of the novel? Perhaps if he had to live on bread and water, then his life priorities would have been completely different.
Reading these lines, you clearly feel how contemptuously Tolstoy treats the "military actions" of Prince Vasily and Anna Mikhailovna. And at the same time, a good-natured irony is felt in relation to Pierre, who is absolutely unadapted to life. What is this if not a contrast between the "war" of meanness and the "peace" of good-natured naivety?
What is the "world" in Tolstoy's novel? The world is the romantic universe of the young Natasha Rostova, the good nature of Pierre, the religiosity and kindness of Princess Mary. Even the old prince Bolkonsky, with his semi-military arrangement of life and nitpicking of his son and daughter, is on the side of the author's "peace".
After all, decency, honesty, dignity, naturalness reign in his “world” - all the qualities that Tolstoy endows his favorite heroes. These are the Bolkonskys and the Rostovs, and Pierre Bezukhov, and Marya Dmitrievna, and even Kutuzov and Bagration. Despite the fact that readers meet Kutuzov only on the battlefields, he is clearly a representative of the "world" of kindness and mercy, wisdom and honor.
What do soldiers defend in war when they fight against invaders? Why do sometimes absolutely illogical situations occur when “one battalion is sometimes stronger than a division,” as Prince Andrei used to say? Because in defending their country, soldiers are defending more than just “space”. And Kutuzov, and Bolkonsky, and Dolokhov, and Denisov, and all the soldiers, militias, partisans, they all fight for the world in which their relatives and friends live, where their children grow up, where their wives and parents are left, for their country. This is precisely what causes that "warmth of patriotism that was in all ... people ... and which explained ... why all these people calmly and as if thoughtlessly prepared for death."
The contrast, emphasized by the meaning of the title of the novel "War and Peace", is manifested in everything. Wars: alien and unnecessary to the Russian people, the war of 1805 and the Patriotic people's war 1812.
The confrontation between honest and decent people - the Rostovs, Bolkonskys, Pierre Bezukhov - and the "drones", as Tolstoy called them - the Drubetskys, Kuragins, Berg, Zherkov, is sharply manifested.
Even within each circle there are contrasts: the Rostovs are opposed to the Bolkonskys. The noble, friendly, albeit ruined Rostov family - to the rich, but at the same time lonely and homeless, Pierre.
A very striking contrast between Kutuzov, calm, wise, natural in his fatigue from life, an old warrior and a narcissistic, decoratively pompous Napoleon.
It is the contrasts on the basis of which the plot of the novel is built that capture and lead the reader throughout the story.
Conclusion
In my essay “The Meaning of the Title of the Novel “War and Peace,” I wanted to discuss these contrasting concepts. About Tolstoy's amazing understanding of human psychology, the ability to logically build the history of the development of many personalities throughout such a long narrative. Lev Nikolaevich tells a story Russian state not just as a historian-scientist, the reader seems to live life together with the characters. And gradually finds answers to eternal questions about love and truth.
Artwork test
During his last visit to China in September of this year, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev puzzled a student of the Institute foreign languages the city of Dalian, immersed in the reading of Leo Tolstoy's epic novel War and Peace. “He is very interesting, but voluminous. There are four volumes,” warned her Russian leader.
Without a doubt, almost 1900 pages of "War and Peace" are somewhat straining in their volume, like a security guard at the entrance to a disco.
If in Russia this work is mandatory for studying in high school, then in Spain it is read at best to the middle. And yet, perhaps this is one of the best novels of all time. “When you read Tolstoy, you read it because you can’t leave the book,” said Vladimir Nabokov, convinced that the volume of a work should by no means conflict with its attractiveness.
In connection with the centenary of the death of Leo Tolstoy celebrated this year in Spain, his immortal novel (El Aleph publishing house, translated by Lydia Cooper), which many rightly consider the Bible of literature, has been republished. This is a real encyclopedia of Russian life of the nineteenth century, where the innermost depths of the human soul are explored.
"War and Peace" captivates us because it explores the age-old philosophical problems that worry people: what love means and what evil is. These questions confront Bezukhov when he thinks about why evil people they unite so quickly, but the good ones don’t,” said an expert on Tolstoy’s work, a professor of literature at Moscow State University in an interview with El Mundo newspaper. Lomonosov Irina Petrovitskaya.
Ten years ago, Petrovitskaya was in Barcelona, where she had an allergy attack, as a result of which she experienced a state of clinical death and ended up in one of the hospitals in Tarragona. “When I was there, I was amazed by the Spanish doctors. When they found out that I was a teacher at Moscow University, they, fighting for my life, said: “Tolstoy, War and Peace, Dostoevsky… It was very touching,” she recalls.
Being in a hospital bed, she experienced the same thing that Prince Andrei Bolkonsky experienced when he lay wounded on the battlefield after the battle of Austerlitz, look up at the sky and Napoleon approaching him. Then he suddenly realized the secret of height, the infinite height of the sky and the short stature of the French emperor (“Bonaparte seemed to him a small and insignificant creature compared to what was happening in his soul and the high and endless sky, over which clouds floated”).
"War and Peace" is an electric shock for the soul. The pages of this novel are replete with hundreds of advice (“rejoice in these moments of happiness, try to be loved, love others! There is no greater truth in the world than this”), reflections, reflections (“I know only two real evils in life: torment and illness ”, says Andrei), as well as live dialogues about death.
"War and Peace" is not only an excellent textbook on the history of the Napoleonic Wars (in 1867 Tolstoy personally visited the Borodino field to get acquainted with the place where the battle took place), but, perhaps, the book of the most useful tips of all ever written, which is always ready to come to your aid.
"Who am I? What do I live for? Why was born? These questions about the meaning of life were asked by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, explains Irina Petrovitskaya, returning to Tolstoy's thought (reflected in War and Peace) about a person's sense of responsibility for the fate of the world. This is one of the characteristic features of the Russian soul, to which many classical works, in particular Anna Karenina, another of Tolstoy's masterpieces.
“They do not strive only for personal well-being in this world, but they want to understand what they can do for all of humanity, for the world,” emphasizes Petrovitskaya.
His characters
Empowering your heroes eternal life, Tolstoy completes his miracle like the creator, "God the Creator" of literature. Since the heroes of his works leave the pages and pour into our lives with each new reading of the novel. Life energy springs from them when they love, meditate, duel, hunt hares, or dance at society balls; they radiate life when they fight to the death with the French on the Borodino field, when they look in amazement at the vision of Tsar Alexander I (“My God! How happy I would be if he ordered me right now to throw myself into the fire,” thinks Nikolai Rostov), or when they think about love or glory (“I will never admit this to anyone, but, my God, what can I do if I don’t want anything but glory and love of people?” Prince Andrei asks himself a question).
“In War and Peace, Tolstoy tells us that there are two levels of existence, two levels of understanding of life: war and peace, understood not only as the absence of war, but also as mutual understanding between people. Either we are in opposition to ourselves, people and the world, or we are in reconciliation with it. And in this case, the person feels happy. It seems to me that this should attract any reader of any country,” says Irina Petrovitskaya, adding that she envies those who have not yet enjoyed this work, so Russian in spirit.
The heroes of War and Peace, who are constantly in search of themselves, always see life in their eyes (Tolstoy's favorite trick). Even when their eyelids are closed, as, for example, Field Marshal Kutuzov, who appears before us as the most ordinary person, falling asleep during the presentation of the plans for the battle of Austerlitz. However, in Tolstoy's epic novel, by no means everything boils down to questions of being and tragedy.
Humor
Humor hovers over the pages of War and Peace like smoke over a battlefield. It is impossible not to smile when we see the father of Prince Andrei, who has fallen into senile dementia and changes the position of his bed every evening, or when we read the following paragraph: “They said that [the French] took everything with them from Moscow government agencies, and [...] at least for this alone Moscow should be grateful to Napoleon.”
“In the 21st century, this book should be considered as a cult book, as a touching bestseller, because first of all it is a book about love, about love between such a memorable heroine as Natasha Rostova and Andrei Bolkonsky, and then Pierre Bezukhov. This woman who loves her husband, her family. These are concepts that no one can live without. The novel is filled with tenderness, love, everything earthly, love for people, for each of us,” the writer Nina Nikitina, head of the House-Museum, explains with enthusiasm " Yasnaya Polyana", where Leo Tolstoy was born, lived, worked and was buried, who died in 1910 in the house of the head of the Astapovo railway station.
According to Nikitina, all four volumes of "War and Peace" radiate optimism, because "this novel was written in Tolstoy's happy years of life, when he felt like a writer with all the strength of his soul, as he himself claimed, thanks to the help of his family, first of all his wife Sophia, who constantly copied the drafts of his works.
world work
Why is War and Peace considered such a worldwide work? How did it become possible for a handful of Russian counts, princes and princesses of the 19th century to still own the souls and hearts of the readership of the 21st century? “My 22-23-year-old students are most interested in love and family issues. Yes, in our time it is possible to create a family, and this is one of the thoughts embedded in Tolstoy's work, ”concludes Petrovitskaya.
“Don't marry never, never, my friend; I advise you. Do not marry until you can tell yourself that you have done everything to stop loving the woman you have chosen[...],” says Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, the prototype of the Russian hero, to Pierre Bezukhov, a diametrically opposite character, clumsy and melancholic ( his goggles are always going down, he constantly bumps into the dead on the battlefield). He was played by Henry Fonda in the 1956 cinematic adaptation of the novel. The conversation between them takes place in one of the Moscow secular salons shortly before the Napoleonic invasion of Russia in 1812, but if you strain your ears, you can still hear it today on the bus on the way to work.
Candidate of Philological Sciences N. Yeskova
I think many do not even suspect that there is such a "problem": they believe in the simplicity of their souls that Tolstoy's novel is about war and the absence of war. Some even dare to admit that they are more willing to read "the world."
However, in Lately a version arose that such an understanding simplifies the meaning of the great epic, that everything is much deeper, that the author by the word "world" meant the people, society and even the universe. This version did not appear out of nowhere (one of its "sources" will be discussed later).
In our time, with his desire to revise everything and the whole, this version has even become "fashionable". No, no, yes, and you will meet in the periodical press a statement in favor of a "deeper" understanding of Tolstoy's novel. I will give two examples.
In an article devoted to the new production of Prokofiev's opera "War and Peace" at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, the author remarks among other things: "... let's remember that the world in the title of the novel is not at all the antonym of war, but society and, more broadly, the Universe" ( "Literary Gazette"). That's what it says: "remember"!
Here's an interesting confession. "When I found out (probably by a student) about the meaning that Tolstoy put into the title "War and Peace" and lost due to the new spelling, I was, as it were, wounded, it was so habitual to perceive it precisely as an alternation of war and non-war." (S. Borovikov. In the Russian genre. Above the pages of "War and Peace" // "New World", 1999, No. 9.) The author of this statement would get rid of the feeling of being wounded if at least once in his life he "held in his hands" pre-revolutionary novel edition!
We have come to what will be discussed further. It is well known that two homonymous words, now spelled the same, differed in pre-revolutionary orthography: spelling peace- With And(the so-called "octal") conveyed a word meaning "lack of quarrel, enmity, disagreement, war; harmony, harmony, unanimity, affection, friendship, goodwill; silence, peace, tranquility" (see. Dictionary V. I. Dahl). Writing peace- With i("decimal") corresponded to the meanings "the universe, the globe, the human race."
It would seem that the question of what "world" appears in the title of Tolstoy's novel should not even arise: it is enough to find out how this title was printed in pre-revolutionary editions of the novel!
But an incident happened, which I want to talk about, without stinting on details, in order to put an end to the "problem" forever.
In the already old 1982 (when the TV show "What? Where? When?" was not yet an "intellectual casino" with millions of bets), "experts" were asked a question related to the great novel. The first page of the first volume appeared on the screen, in the upper part of which was the title: "WAR and PEACE". It was proposed to answer how the meaning of the second word in the title of the novel should be understood. The answer was that, judging by the spelling peace, Tolstoy did not mean "absence of war", as naive readers believe. The stern voice-over of the presenter V. Ya. Voroshilov summed up that until now, many did not understand deeply enough philosophical meaning great work.
In a word, everything was explained "exactly the opposite". The title of the novel, according to the old orthography, was written through and (mir). The "incident" with the title of Mayakovsky's poem "War and Peace" is well known, which he had the opportunity to contrast orthographically with the title of Tolstoy's novel. After the spelling reform of 1917-1918, this has to be reported in a footnote.
Let us return, however, to what was said above: on the TV screen, millions of viewers saw the inscription "WAR and PEACE". What edition of the novel was demonstrated? There was no answer to this question from television, but the commentary on the novel in the 90-volume complete works contains an indication of this edition of 1913, edited by P. I. Biryukov - the only one in which the title was printed with i (see t 16, 1955, pp. 101-102).
Turning to this edition, I found that the writing peace presented in it only once, despite the fact that in four volumes the title is reproduced eight times: on the title page and on the first page of each volume. World is printed seven times and only once - on the first page of the first volume - world (see illustration). It was this page, shown on the television screen, that was called upon to revolutionize the understanding of the meaning of the great novel!
My then attempt to expose the error of "experts" on the pages " literary newspaper" failed. And on December 23, 2000, in a program dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the "intellectual club" "What? Where? When?", the question, designated as "retro", sounded. The same page with the inscription "WAR and PEACE" appeared on the screen, the same question was repeated and the same answer was given.
The TV viewer who sent this page to the "experts" might not have known that the title of the same volume had the world printed on it! But experts did not bother to check the question. And with an interval of twenty years, the same mistake was repeated.
In conclusion, I will make one assumption. In the popular book by S. G. Bocharov "L. Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" (M., 1987) there is a statement: "The title of Tolstoy's future book was as if foreseen in the words of the Pushkin chronicler:
Describe, without further ado,
All that you will witness in life:
War and peace, government of sovereigns,
Saints holy miracles ... "
(S. 146, footnote.)
Perhaps these words of the great poet prompted Tolstoy the name of his great epic?
Acclaimed as the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is a perennial best-seller with regular reprints, almost a century and a half after it was first published. Here are just a few reasons why Tolstoy's epic still attracts, enlightens, and inspires readers of all ages and backgrounds, and why you might want to put it at the top of your reading list too.
1. This novel is a mirror of our time.
At its core, War and Peace is a book about people trying to find their footing in a world turned upside down by war, social and political change, and mental turmoil. The existential anguish of Tolstoy and his heroes is familiar to us, living at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and his novel can tell us something that is important for us right now. This book shows how moments of crisis can either "catch" us or help us discover deep sources of strength and creativity within ourselves.
2. This novel is a fascinating historical lesson.
If you like history, you will love War and Peace for its striking and instructive depiction of a time of great change. Tolstoy revives the past, immersing you in long-forgotten trifles Everyday life, something that historians usually overlook. And he does it so well that even Soviet soldiers who were given chapters from War and Peace to read during World War II claimed that Tolstoy's description of the war captivated them more than the actual battles that took place before their eyes. Thanks to War and Peace, most Russians regard the War of 1812 and the famous bloody battle of Borodino as their unique victory. Tens of thousands of their compatriots were killed on the Borodino field, but this battle turned out to be a foretaste of Napoleon's fatal retreat from Moscow - a turning point that forever changed the course of European history, and described by Tolstoy as powerfully as no historian could ever succeed.
Photo: Dennis Jarvis / CC 2.0
3. This novel helps to understand today's Russia.
If you want to understand why Russians today have such a difficult relationship with the West, read War and Peace. Tolstoy's interpretation of Napoleon's failed attempt to conquer Russia in 1812 is so deeply ingrained in the Russian cultural code that subsequent Russian leaders used it more than once to illustrate both the greatness of their country and its vulnerability to external threats ... But in War and Peace there is and something else: the preaching of an all-encompassing philanthropy that goes far beyond the framework of any politics. Tolstoy offers a model of patriotism free from nationalism that would be worth listening to.
4. This is one of the wisest self-improvement books you will ever read.
War and Peace is not only a great novel. It is also a guide to life. What Tolstoy offers is not so much a set of answers to various life tasks, but rather a worldview. He encourages us not to be satisfied with other people's advice and recipes, but to join him and his heroes in search of deeper meanings, continue to ask ourselves important questions and find our own, reliable experience in everything. “History,” Tolstoy seems to be telling us, “is what happens to us. And our destiny is what we ourselves do with all this.”
Photo: Dennis' Photography / CC 2.0
5. It's an engaging read.
"War and Peace" is a novel filled with a volume of human experience that no other work of modern fiction even dreamed of. Over the course of three hundred and sixty-one chapters, written with cinematic imagery, Tolstoy moves smoothly from the ballroom to the battlefield, from the wedding to the place of the mortal battle, from privacy to crowd scenes. In Tolstoy's world, you see, hear, and feel everything: the sunrise is on fire, the cannonball is whizzing by, the horse team is gallantly racing, this is someone's miraculous birth, this is someone's cruel death, but this is everything that happened between them. Everything that a human being can experience can be described by Tolstoy in War and Peace.
6. You will get to know a lot of interesting people.
More precisely, almost 600. How often do we manage to meet so many people from various spheres of life in a short time? And each of these people, even the most insignificant of them, is absolutely alive and recognizable. There is not a single unambiguously bad or flawlessly good character in War and Peace, which is what makes them so real and human. Even Napoleon - a character almost villainous - is described at least interestingly. At some moments, Tolstoy invites us to look into his soul and feel his pain, as near Borodino, where Napoleon, examining the field strewn with corpses, is fully aware of both his own cruelty and his own impotence. As a writer, Tolstoy strictly follows his vow: "to tell, to show, but not to judge", therefore the characters he created are so "breathing", so alive.
Photo: wackystuff / CC 2.0
7. This novel will make you enjoy life.
This book contains, on the one hand, descriptions of human cruelty and blood-drenched battlefields, and on the other hand, examples of the most powerful moments of extraordinary bliss that can only be found in world literature. Here is Prince Andrei, prostrate on the battlefield, for the first time in his life looks into the sky and sees in it the amazing immensity of the Universe; here is Natasha - she dances and sings as if no one sees her; or here Nikolai Rostov, in the heat of hunting for wolves, feels himself a predatory beast. “People are like rivers,” Tolstoy once wrote. - The water is the same in all and everywhere the same, but each river is sometimes narrow, sometimes fast, sometimes wide, sometimes quiet. So are people. Each person carries in himself the rudiments of all human properties and sometimes manifests one, sometimes another, and is often completely unlike himself, remaining one and himself. The world depicted by Tolstoy in his greatest novel is a place full of secrets, where things are not always what they seem, and today's tragedy only paves the way for tomorrow's triumph. This thought inspired the conclusion of Nelson Mandela, who called War and Peace his favorite novel. She comforts and inspires us - already in our own troubled times.
