War and Peace: A Louise and Alymer Maude Translation

by Leo Tolstoy, Original Thinkers Institute, Louise Maude (Translator)

Dive into the grandeur of Leo Tolstoy's magnum opus, 'War and Peace,' presented in the exquisite translation by Louise and Aylmer Maude. Set against the tumultuous backdrop of Napoleonic wars, this monumental saga intricately intertwines the fates of aristocrats, soldiers, and commoners, weaving a tapestry of love, betrayal, and redemption. With its timeless themes and profound insights into the human condition, 'War and Peace' stands as a literary masterpiece that continues to enthrall generations.

549 pages, Hardcover

Published August 25, 2025

About the author

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой; most appropriately used Liev Tolstoy; commonly Leo Tolstoy in Anglophone countries) was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist fiction. Many consider Tolstoy to have been one of the world's greatest novelists. Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer.

His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Reviews

[Vansa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Participating a yearlong readalong of this, so will update as I go along! The first few chapters describe a party where people are anxious about Napoleon's seemingly unstoppable rise, and socialites are trying to get their sons into more favourable postings in the army-very recognisable even today, there's some hilarious writing on Kutuzov being mobbed when he gets to Moscow by ambitious mothers trying to foist their sons on him as adjutants! Interesting that a character is already defending Napoleon as having retained the best aspects of the French Revolution and stopping its excesses-wonder what TOlstoy would have made of the Russian Revolution. Characters give speeches impassionately decrying the lack of appreciation Russia gets as the bulwark against wars when England and Europe want them to be, Dracula gives a similar speech about his part of Eastern EUrope performing that function, all these years later Putin clearly feels the same way. Everyone expects war, and some are looking forward to it.
Now for a section on War. TOlstoy apparently read diaries, letters, apart from speaking to family members of people who served ( as an ex-Serviceman himself, I imagine they would have been willing to speak to him.), who also shared their personal documents and memoirs with him. He read accounts from the French and RUssian sides, and it makes for astounding military history.Hemingway's quote 'gradually, then suddenly' describes TOlstoy's writing about battle-great descriptions of the bureaucracy around theatres of war, soldiers chafing at their lack of information,not to mention supplies(an excellent chapter is on Kutuzov inspecting a regiment to draw attention to their urgent need for better uniforms),the intricate negotiations that commanding officers seem to have to enter into-it's amazing to me that General Suvorov, Commander-in-Chief Kutuzov and Prince Bagration had to be as multilingual as they did(their allies were CERTAINLY not going to learn Russian).War does come to them,and the suddenness of it is written to convey the shock and chaos of battle, even to people trained at it and used to it.I'm not a very visual reader,but this book paints vivid word pictures-even if I didn't want to,the images and sounds leap off the page,for something that I'm reading,it's a multi-sensory experience.THis section culminates in the immersively described battle of Schon Grabern.There's a spectacular bunch of pages as Tolstoy uses the metaphor of a clock, with multiple moving parts being set in motion,one leading to another,it's one of the best pieces of writing I've ever come across.You get the experiences of Nikolai Rostov and Prince Andrei, but also of the rank-and-file, and the brutality of it surprised me,I didn't expect a Victorian translator(a woman at that)to not elide the physical horrors of warfare and the callous way the rank and file are treated,with the wounded being abandoned during their retreat.
This is a successful defence,but the war still goes on.There's a moving/insightful scene before SchonGrabern,where Tsar Alexander inspects the troops,and Nikolai Rostov describes how swept up he gets,and how filled with patriotic fervour all of them are,to be fighting for this young,charismatic Ruler,of the ROmanov noble blood,and how at that moment,all of them were desperate to lay down their lives for him.Tsar Alexander seems to disregard his experienced Generals and campaigners (including Kutuzov, Bagration, Kamensky, Wittgenstein) and listened to his Austrian counterpart, thereby letting Napoleon set the pace-who cleverly led the Allied army to an engagement at the hills near a town called Austerlitz.Tolstoy writes of Kutuzov advising against an engagement multiple times at that juncture,the army being unprepared,the field of engagement bein disadvantageous with the young Tsar disregarding him and insulting him about his courage(a spoiled young prince questioning the bravery of not just a successful and decorated General,but also someone with 2 bullet holes in his face from service defending the country).There's an evocative scene before the battle where positions are being drawn up,and Kutuzov is asleep-he isn't being listened to,he knows he just has to go out there and do his duty.I read on with a feeling of dread, knowing what was in the offing, and the confusion,constant hunger is well-described.Individual leaders seem to be left to their own devices to figure out what to do,with individual feats of bravery being displayed,over a well coordinated attack.The actual battle is described both cinematically but also it really hits you with the very high levels of chaos.Napoleon used the cover of a foggy morning to attack,and it's a haunting scene when the fog lifts and the Russian and Austro-Hungarian are confronted with the magnitude of their opposing army.It descends into complete disorder,with soldiers fleeing or holding their posts as best as they can.Tolstoy masterfully sets the overall landscape,and then zooms into the characters we're following.For all of Nikolai Rostov's ideas of glory and dauntless courage and giving up his life,he shows very human reactions of fright when he actually experiences the violence of battle and just how absolutely unprepared you can be for that.Unlike the last time where he froze,though,this time he carries on with a pointless mission given to him by Prince Bagration,and is confronted with the scale of death and horror at the battlefield,not glory or chivalry at all.He sees that the Tsar who he idolises isn't even in the thick of action,so it's a monumental disillusionment.Prince Andrei on the other hand,who showed his bravery earlier as well,with loading cannons,is filled with patriotic fervour till he's hit by a shell and as he falls,all he can think of is the last thing he sees-the sky continuing on to infinity,unchanging really,while his world mihgt be ending,and how the sky will continue,indifferent to all these men and their actions and dreams and fears.So both these temperamentally very different men suffer through emotional crises,and react very differently to them too.Andrei ends up being a POW and taken to a military hospital,that's visited by Napoleon,who in quite a show of chivalry(to me)makes a speech congratulating the soldiers on their bravery and tells them a POW exchange would happen quite soon and they would probably get to go home.He meets Andrei too,but Andrei is clearly suffering from PTSD,and cannot bring himself to say anything,and meeting his hero means nothing to him after all that,
The chapter ends with a retreat led across a millpond,with horses,men,artillery trying to make their way across the bridge(an echo of an earlier scene where they were struggling towards the battlefield across a crowded bridge).Dolokhov,one of the characters,decides to lead some men across the frozen millpond,to get away from the shelling of the French.And then disaster strikes as the cannonballs start landing on the ice,and in another absolute tour-de-force of writing,TOlstoy describes the devastating scene of ice cracking and men,horses,wagons falling through,pulling no punches in showing you how violent and bloody and frightening it is,the noise of the cannonballs,the screams of men and horses.Both Eisensten and RIdley Scott have clearly read this book or this chapter,the Battle on ice sequence in Aleksandr NEvski and Napoleon clearly draw imagery from this.
Back to peace,of a sort,with Pierre ending up in a marriage in a rather comical scene,that isnt very happy and ends up with him fighting a duel.Rostov is back with his friend Denisov,and doesn't seem to have suffered any lasting effects of his trauma,living it up as a young man about town.There's a hilarious description of Count Rostov preparing to host a lavish dinner,with everyone in Moscow seeming to view Austerlitz as a victory,or at least a victory for the Russians but a defeat for the supposedly cowardly Prussians,Austrians,absolutely everyone else,including Kutuzov,but not as a blunder of the Tsar.All sides declaring victory in war isn't a modern day tendency!Since I'm reading this with a subreddit,there was an interesting post on TOlstoy's own gambling problems that required a part of his estate to be sold off to pay off his debts,and I wonder if that provided the inspiration for Nikolai Rostov's gambling debt-the ease with which it gets paid off does not indicate much hope for maturity from him!There's a weird chapter where Pierre Bezukhov, looking for comfort,and seeking meaning,decides to join the Freemasons,who are delighted to get him in-a naive vulnerable young man in possession of a huge fortune!I did not know that the initiation rituals were so intensely Christian,because there are people in my country who love to flaunt their membership,I would have thought the religiosity would put them off!Pierrw,with the fervour of a new convert,decides he's going to put inot practice the principles of his new friends,and decides to emancipate his serfs,and embark on building projects of schools,hospitals and better housing for them.Of cousre he leaves the complicated details to his estate manager,with no thought to how the estate will run,or what altearnative paid work the serfs will perform.The estate manager of course,who has always been ignoring Pierre,continues to ignore him,while making sure serfs line up anytime Pierre steps out to tug their forelocks and dramatically express gratitude.Of course their pay gets cut-they've been emancipated,so the manager doesn't need to pay them,while also being made to work much harder at Pierre's construcion projects. It's startling,spectacular writing that encapsulates performative liberalism in one chapter-written in the 19th Century.
In dramatic turns of events,Andrei reaches home,when he's been given up for dead by his family,just in time to see his wife,poor Lise,die in childbirth.Andrei is clearly marked by his experiences-his father keeps making gibes at him and the handling of the war,but he does also give him an estate to manage,since he clearly needs to be left alone.Count BOlkonsky is another of thsoe great characters-he's horrible to Marya but also takes efforts to educate her,and tries to protect her from an unscrupulos suitor-in his own cruel way.Pierre visits him,and there's a great chapter where destitute pilgrims,known as 'Gods folk' in RUssia,visit estates for some food and shelter,and are being entertained by Marya,Andrei's much put upon sister.Pierre's earnest effforts at debunking religious superstition,and ANdrei's sarcasm make for very entertaining reading.

[Andy Belanger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This behemoth attempts to personalize the Napoleonic War in Russia through the lives of the Russian gentry. There are beautiful passages, ruminations on war, politics, religion and Russian life, and countless characters. Ambitious in the extreme, Tolstoy works to tell the toll of history.