War and Peace - Month One (Resources!)

 

I started reading War and Peace on January 1st, 2023, with the #whiskyandperseverence challenge hosted by Footnotes.and.Tangents on Instagram. There are over 500 of us from many different countries and I am loving it.  It's a completely unrushed, gentle, one-chapter-per-day reading, and it gives you time to truly savor Tolstoy's writing and the amazing story. 

I'm currently on the 19th chapter.  

If you have ever considered reading War and Peace but have felt overwhelmed by its size or perhaps thought it would be dry or difficult - I urge you to give it a go!  Tolstoy's writing is colorful and interesting.  The characters are MANY and there are also many different names for each character (it's a Russian thing!) However, if you have a few notes in place (or annotate as you go) you will be able to stay on top of things. 

I am sharing some character maps and other information that might have spoilers of who gets together in the book - so please skip over these if you do not want any surprises! 

First, let's look at the Aristocratic Families in the novel: 

This one includes more of the main characters along with any matches and love triangles. I found this one on Course Hero. 

AND - there are plenty of historical figures in War & Peace too!  I found this copy, below, on Wikipedia. 

My favorite character so far is Pierre.  He is young, funny, awkward, daring, well-educated and recognizable. His father is a very rich Count; however, Pierre is illegitimate. It is said that Tolstoy based Pierre, more than any other character, on himself! At the beginning of the book, he is seeking a career but not having much luck.  He is, however, having a very good time with his young friends and doing a lot of visiting in society. 

The novel takes place during Napoleonic era and follows five aristocratic families, as you can see in the top character map. This was about sixty years prior to Tolstoy's birth, but he did in person interviews with people who lived through the French invasion of Russia as well as read many written resources about Napolean.  You can see above by the amount of real characters in War and Peace how much rich history is in the novel and how much Tolstoy put into researching. 

War and Peace was written originally in Russian with a lot of dialogue in French. I am reading the translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky.  I think it is terrific so far.  

Here is a blog post about the different translations: Tolstoy Therapy

ALSO - some great resources on Spotify: 

My favorite playlist of songs to listen to while I read HERE 

Tipsy Tolstoy

Audiobook 

And of course, on You Tube! 

How to Read War and Peace

Annotating War and Peace

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to War and Peace.  But of course - this is only month one!  I will post an update each month with how this reading challenge is going and list more resources. 

Please follow challenge progress HERE! 

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