Tolstoy's epic
masterpiece intertwines the lives of private and public individuals
during the time of the Napoleonic wars and the French invasion of
Russia. The fortunes of the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys, of Pierre,
Natasha, and Andrei, are intimately connected with the national history
that is played out in parallel with their lives. Balls and soirees
alternate with councils of war and the machinations of statesmen and
generals, scenes of violent battles with everyday human passions in a
work whose extraordinary imaginative power has never been surpassed.
The prodigious cast of characters, seem to act and move as if connected by threads of destiny as the novel relentlessly questions ideas of free will, fate, and providence. Yet Tolstoy's portrayal of marital relations and scenes of domesticity is as truthful and poignant as the grand themes that underlie them.
The prodigious cast of characters, seem to act and move as if connected by threads of destiny as the novel relentlessly questions ideas of free will, fate, and providence. Yet Tolstoy's portrayal of marital relations and scenes of domesticity is as truthful and poignant as the grand themes that underlie them.
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