War & Peace

                 War & Peace is one of those books I have always heard people joke about reading.  A huge piece of literature (both in fame and page amount), it is something that, comparatively speaking, very few have read or even attempted to read.  I certainly haven’t, although I did consider it after watching the recent miniseries that aired on TV.  Actually, I watched the miniseries twice.  The first time was when it was on television.  The second was on DVD.  I did this because so much happens that I felt with the commercial interruptions I kept missing something.  The continuity was always gone.  While I did enjoy War & Peace while it was on TV, I must say it was so much better on DVD.  Without the commercials, I could follow the story much more easily.  With a story as big as War & Peace, that is a good thing to be able to do.       

                The story of War & Peace starts at a ball.  Everyone is there mingling and talking about the upcoming Russian war against Napoleon.  Sticking out like a sore thumb is poor Pierre Bezukhov (Paul Dano).  An illegitimate son of a very wealthy count, he has high ranking friends, but unorthodox views.  Unlike the others around him, Pierre admires Napoleon.  This puts him, along with his natural awkwardness and his status in life, as a bit of an outcast.  Then his father dies, proclaiming Pierre his heir.  Suddenly everyone cannot say enough good things about Pierre.  They will all do anything for his attention.  Flattered by everyone’s change of opinion, Pierre’s lack of knowledge in the ways of the upper classes causes him to be a prime target for getting taken advantage of.  He does not suspect that any of these people are up to anything other than what it appears.  This naiveté leads to all sorts of problems for Pierre.  One of the biggest is he gets tricked into marrying a woman who before would barely give him the time of day.

                Hélène Kuragina (Tuppence Middleton) is not a good woman, to say the least.  Only out for Pierre’s money and status, she makes sure to spend as little time with him as possible.  She freely sleeps with other men, including Pierre’s friend and houseguest, Fedor Dolokhov (Tom Burke).  There is also an implication that she is sleeping with her brother Anatole (Callum Turner).  I don’t know if Pierre every finds out about the brother, but he does about Dolokhov.  Angry, Pierre challenges Dolokhov to a duel.  Not a killer or dueler at heart, Pierre wounds his friend, which sends him into a tailspin.  Distraught over what he has done, Pierre doesn’t know what to do with himself and his life.  So he sets out to find the answer.       

                In the meantime, Pierre’s friend Prince Andrei Bolkonsky (James Norton) is off fighting in the war.  He has left his pregnant wife, a woman he does not feel much love for anymore, with his family.  As Lise (Kate Phillips) is very anxious about the pregnancy and Andrei being away, his family is to care for her while he is at war.  In Andrei’s mind that time away could easily be forever.  He is not really worried about whether he will live or die, which leads him to put himself into dangerous situations.  During one of them, Andrei is hurt and suspected dead.  Not wanting to upset his wife, Andrei’s sister, Princess Marya (Jessie Buckley), decides not to tell Lise about Andrei’s suspected death.  This is a good thing because on the night Lise goes into labor, Andrei arrives at the door.  He is able to see Lise one last time before she dies giving birth to their son.  Then, wracked with guilt over how he treated his wife, Andrei escapes to the country, leaving Marya to raise his child.

                That, however, is not all.  There is another group of Pierre’s friends that are also part of the story.

                Like Andrei, Nikolai Rostov (Jack Lowden) is set to go off and fight in the war.  On the night before he is to leave, Nikolai professes his love for his cousin, Sonya (Aisling Loftus).  Wrapped up in all the good feelings of love, his sister, Natasha (Lily James), kisses their friend Boris Drubetskoy (Aneurin Barnard), and declares them engaged.  Boris does not seem overly pleased with this, which would have been quite the opposite had the object of her affections been Pierre.  He has admired Natasha for a long time, but as he is married to Hélène, he will not do anything about it.  This leaves Natasha to turn her affections from Boris to Andrei when the time arrives. 

Still feeling guilt over Lise, Andrei surprises himself by falling madly in love with Natasha.  They agree to marry and look forward to being husband and wife until Andrei’s father steps in.  Not approving of Natasha’s lower social status, Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky (Jim Broadbent) states he will only approve of the marriage if Andrei goes away on business for a year.  If upon his return both Andrei and Natasha still wish to marry, then Prince Bolkonsky will give his blessing.  For some reason, despite his love for Natasha, Andrei agrees to this plan.  Natasha reluctantly does as well, even though the thought of being apart for so long and not married devastates her.  Neither one suspects that after a year apart Natasha’s sadness over the separation will turn to anger.  This anger leads Natasha down a path that cannot be reversed, with Andrei refusing to forgive her, and Natasha’s reputation possibly tarnished forever.

Through all of this there are a lot of political happenings that affect everyone, no matter what their status in life.  I have already mentioned the fighting in the war, but with that comes invasions, forced movements from houses, and many people are killed.  So much happens to so many people that you really do have to watch the miniseries in order understand it all.  Unless you want to read the book, of course. 

It would be interesting to see how well the book lines up with the miniseries.  I’m sure some things are different, and I’m curious to see how much.  Am I curious enough to actually read War & Peace?  I don’t know.  Maybe I am.  Some day.