Done With Bonaparte
So, I finally completed one of the items on my Bucket List. Actually, it was the only item on my bucket list, so I guess I'm all ready to go to the great gig in the sky now...
...I’d always meant to read Tolstoy’s War and Peace. I’ve always been a fan of Dostoyevsky, especially his masterpiece Crime and Punishment, one of my alltime favourtie books. But I’d never really gotten around to giving Tolstoy a whirl, other than his extremely short novel The Death of Ivan Illyich.
The series of events that got me to start reading this 1400 page small print novel from 1860s Russia are as follows:
I play a computer game called Europa Universalis III, which, to make this digression short, is a game whereby you control any nation from about 1400-1825 on through its economic, political, and most importantly, geographic expansion. It’s fairly complicated and certainly appeals to a niche market of history geeks. (yours truly). Anyways, the game ends during the Napoleonic era and it dawned on me that history buff that I might be, I know very little about the French dictator.
So, in a book store one day in the summer and I stumble across a new and far-too-expensive history book called Napoleaon’s Wars by Charles Esdale. Yeah, I know, it’s not exactly summer reading is it? But I do have a masochistic streak in me some times and decided to start reading it.
In my own nerdy fashion I found it quite fascinating. It was a rather lengthy book (about 600 pages) and come to think of it the second historical non-fiction book I’d read that year. The other was The Pursuit of Glory, Europe 1648-1815; by Tim Blanning which also ended with the end of Napoleon.
Anyways, so as I was saying, whilst not exactly a pot-boiler; I did find the Napoleon book quite interesting. Really it was all new to me. I never knew, for instance, how crucial my native homeland, Malta, was to one of the Napoleonic Campaigns.
So after I finished that book (and it probably took me six or seven weeks) I decided that after a brief pause reading a Boris Akunin novel, the time was right to pick up Tolstoy’s War and Peace since I knew it had a lot to do with Napoleon’s invasion of Russia and sacking of Moscow in 1812.
It was a bit like quitting smoking. There were times I was really moved to put the book down, but the combination of my three qualities: Discipline, Determination and Masochism which helped me give up the nicotine, helped me through the book. Ironically, well for me, I found it interesting that the book opens up sometime around 1804 in a Russian parlour with a group of people meeting one evening and talking about the war and the subject on their minds was the “Malta Affair.”
[To make another digression: Around that time, after Napoleon had taken Malta on his way to Egypt, the English took it back. As part of a peace agreement, the English were supposed to leave Malta then, but refused to honour the pact (they didn’t leave until 1979 if memory serves me right) [Freedom Day, they call it now]. Anyways, before I digress from the digression, Napoleon demanded that Britain honour their agreement to leave Malta, and before you knew it, they were at war again.
But back to War and Peace….before I make this longer than the book itself. Do I recommend it?
It’s a tough novel. Hidden behind those 1400 pages is a nice little love story. There are many moving moments, but there are many digressions as well (now I know where I get it from).
I loved the interaction between the characters the best. As I never tire of pointing out to my family, there’s a great scene early on where two older ladies are talking about the trials and tribulations of raising children “these days” (ie early 1800s). “You’re always afraid for them,” one says. “Especially these days with all the dangers awaiting boys and girls.” That just made me laugh. The more things change the more they stay the same. We think that “these days” are dangerous; yet 200 years ago people thought the same way.
There’s another beautiful scene later on, when the main heroine of the book, Natasha, turns 16 and was coming out in society at a big ball event. Before the Ball, like any teenage girl today, she fussed and fretted about which dress she should wear, how she wanted to wear the latest fashion, and her hair in the latest style. And at the Ball, how she wanted to be the star attraction, how she wanted all the boys’ eyes on her.
The book was extremely detailed that way. There are some other great scenes, including quite a few tear jerkers. There’s a wonderful Christmas time scene, nice and Christmas-card like, with horses and bobtail sleighs and bells, and a beautiful love scene between Nikolay and Sonya.
There are several great battle scenes, and many moving scenes. It wouldn’t be a Russian novel without a good duel scene; and we have lots of death and deathbed forgiveness. And, of course, and we have broken hearts and hysterical women.
But we also have much digression from the main narrative. Pierre’s flirtation with free masonry was a huge waste of time, I felt, and I found the hunting scene, though highly symbolic, rather long and tedious. The story also has far too many characters. One example shall suffice, and consider this next paragraph a bit of a spoiler, should you ever read this book.
Towards the end of the book, a character from one of the main families, the Rostovs, , a young 16 year old named Peter dies in the war. We are supposed to be moved by it. This is a fairly depressing part of the book, when Moscow is burned and many hardships are happening to the main characters, especially to this family. But the trouble with the Peter death is the only time we came across him the book, previously, was about a thousand pages earlier when he was a small boy. I didn’t shed a tear for him.
And the other thing which effects the main narrative is Tolstoy’s habit of throwing philosophical essays on the human condition and on the nature of war throughout the novel. Seriously, there are many times, especially towards the end, where he breaks the narration to discuss various subjects.
But these foibles aside, I did like the book. Nobody forced me to finish it. Like I said, it’s not exactly a “one more chapter before I go to sleep” book. There’ s not much in the way of suspense; but the characters and the detail in this book are second to none. After all, who am I to disagree with the many academics who claim that this is the best novel ever.
So, in short. Do I recommend it? Yes, if you feel you need to accomplish something grand and climbing Mount Everest is a bit out of your league. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. It’s as tough a book as it looks.
After I finished reading War and Peace I decided to pick up something lighter. I returned to paperback fiction with a book by Robert Harris (Fatherland, Archangel) called The Ghost. This book is less than 400 pages, big print and is quite the page turner. I had this done in a week.
But here’s the serendipitous part: There’s a scene where the prime minister of England’s wife is talking to the main character about how difficult it is living in a situation where they are hardly ever home.
“It’s like being married to Napoleon,” she says.
He’s gonna follow me everywhere from now on, isn’t he. :-)
We've paid in hell since Moscow burned
As Cossacks tear us piece by piece
Our dead are strewn a hundred leagues
Though death would be a sweet release
And our grande arm?e is dressed in rags
A frozen starving beggar band
Like rats we steal each other's scraps
Fall to fighting hand to hand
Save my soul from evil, Lord
And heal this soldier's heart
I'll trust in thee to keep me, Lord
I'm done with Bonaparte
What dreams he made for us to dream
Spanish skies, Egyptian sands
The world was ours, we marched upon
Our little Corporal's command
And I lost an eye at Austerlitz
The sabre slash yet gives me pain
My one true love awaits me still
The flower of the aquitaine
Save my soul from evil, Lord
And heal this soldier's heart
I'll trust in thee to keep me, Lord
I'm done with Bonaparte
I pray for her who prays for me
A safe return to my belle France
We prayed these wars would end all wars
In war we know is no romance
And I pray our child will never see
A little Corporal again
Point toward a foreign shore
Captivate the hearts of men
Save my soul from evil, Lord
And heal this soldier's heart
I'll trust in thee to keep me, Lord
I'm done with Bonaparte
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