Riassunto
Riassunto di Guerra e pace
A chi è rivolto
For readers who love novels with many lives in them, and anyone drawn to family, war and big ideas in one book. Love, loyalty, battles and the search for meaning bring these lives together.
Che cos’è questo libro
War and Peace is a Russian novel by Leo Tolstoy, written in the 1860s and published in parts before it appeared as a whole in 1869. It follows five noble families through the years when Napoleon's armies threatened Russia, from 1805 to the invasion of 1812 and beyond. Tolstoy was born in 1828, so he wrote about his parents' and grandparents' world, which he studied through letters, memoirs and visits to the battlefields.
The book holds hundreds of characters, but a few stay close to you. Pierre Bezukhov is a clumsy, kind young man who wants to know how to live. Prince Andrei Bolkonsky is proud and clever, and he is tired of ordinary life. Natasha Rostova is a warm, quick girl who is just learning what she feels. Around them move generals, servants, soldiers, gossips and the emperors themselves.
What you get here is the road through the whole book. You will meet the main people, follow their loves and mistakes, and see the great battles from both the general's tent and the soldier's trench. You will also see what Tolstoy argues about history, which is the idea that gives the title its weight. Let us begin where Tolstoy does, in a glittering St Petersburg drawing room in the summer of 1805, where the talk of war is still just talk.
In questo riassunto
- 1A drawing room where war is only gossipFree
- 2Pierre inherits a fortune and a trap
- 3The Rostovs show love and loyalty
- 4At Austerlitz, Andrei looks up at the sky
- 5Natasha's first ball and the promise of love
- 6Pierre searches for meaning among the Masons
- 7Napoleon invades and Moscow waits
- 8History is made by many hands
- 9How Tolstoy builds a world on one page
Punto chiave 1 di 9
A drawing room where war is only gossip
The novel opens in July 1805 at a party given by Anna Pavlovna Scherer, a lady-in-waiting at the Russian court. The guests speak French, the language of polite society, and they talk about Napoleon as if he were a bad guest who has spoiled the evening. Tolstoy shows at once that this is a world of manners, rank and careful talk. Everyone knows who matters and who does not.
Two young men stand out in the room. Prince Andrei Bolkonsky is handsome, dry and bored. He is married to the charming Lise, who is expecting a child, and he finds the empty talk around him hard to bear. He tells his friends he is going to the army, partly because he wants glory and partly because he wants to escape his home.
The other is Pierre Bezukhov, the unacknowledged son of a very rich count who is dying in Moscow. Pierre has just come home from years of study abroad. He is large, shortsighted and awkward, and he speaks too warmly about Napoleon in front of people who hate the name. Yet Anna Pavlovna's guests see that he is honest, and Andrei is drawn to him as the one real person in the room.
We also meet Prince Vasili Kuragin, a smooth courtier with a handsome daughter, Hélène, and two troublesome sons. Vasili talks about marriages and appointments the way others talk about the weather. Tolstoy lets you see how families like his arrange the lives of their children as a kind of business. The warmth and the calculation sit side by side.
This first part sets the pattern for the whole novel. Tolstoy begins with people in private rooms and lets the great events arrive later, at the edge of every conversation. By the time the armies move, you already know the people who will have to live through it. That is why the war, when it comes, feels so close.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Pierre Bezukhov
- Pierre is an awkward, kind young man, a friend of Prince Andrei, and an outsider in fashionable society.
- Prince Andrei Bolkonsky
- Prince Andrei is Pierre's intelligent, dissatisfied friend, Princess Marya's brother, and an officer seeking purpose beyond society.
- Natasha Rostova
- Natasha is the lively, affectionate daughter of the Rostov family, Nikolai's sister, and Sonya's cousin.
- Nikolai Rostov
- Nikolai is Natasha's impulsive brother, a young cavalry officer whose loyalties bind him to family and regiment.
- Princess Marya Bolkonskaya
- Princess Marya is Andrei's devout sister, living under their demanding father's authority and finding strength in faith.
- Sonya
- Sonya is the Rostovs' orphaned cousin, a quiet member of their household who is devoted to Nikolai.
- Hélène Kuragina
- Hélène is Anatole Kuragin's beautiful, socially ambitious sister, whose fashionable circle draws Pierre into its orbit.
- General Kutuzov
- General Kutuzov is the experienced Russian commander under whom Andrei serves, attentive to soldiers rather than grand theories.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 573,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 38 h 15 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Guerra e pace
What is War and Peace about?
It follows several Russian noble families, mainly the Bezukhovs, Bolkonskys and Rostovs, through the Napoleonic Wars from 1805 to 1812 and after. It mixes love, family life and battle with Tolstoy's argument about how history works.
Is War and Peace a true story?
No, the main characters are invented, but the setting is real. Napoleon, Tsar Alexander I and General Kutuzov appear, and the battles of Austerlitz and Borodino really happened. Tolstoy built the novel from historical research and family memory.
Is War and Peace hard to read?
The prose itself is clear and the scenes are vivid.
Who are the main characters in War and Peace?
The central figures are Pierre Bezukhov, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and Natasha Rostova. Others include Nikolai Rostov, Princess Marya, Sonya, Hélène Kuragina and General Kutuzov. Napoleon and Tsar Alexander also appear as historical figures.
What is the main message of War and Peace?
Tolstoy argues that history comes from the combined actions of countless ordinary people rather than from a few great leaders. The novel also suggests that meaning is found in family, honest feeling and simple daily life.