Example Book Review Essay: "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy is a Russian author whose well-known classic novels include “War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina”.

His major work, “War and Peace”, appeared between the years 1865 and 1869. The epic tale depicted the story of five families against the background of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. This is a panoramic study of early 19th-century Russian society, noted for its mastery of realistic detail and variety of psychological analysis.

Tolstoy’s fiction grew originally out of his diaries, in which he managed to express his own feelings and actions so as to control them.

“War and Peace” is a beautiful examination of a person’s place in history, society and the world. Tolstoy has a very special writing technique. He writes in a beautifully descriptive style and captures the thoughts and feelings of people.

Tolstoy is a very talented and eloquent writer. His style is easy, captivating and penetrating. He probes the life and times of the aristocrats with dignity and balance.

“In historical events great men – so-called – are but labels serving to give a name to the event, and like labels they have the least possible connection with the event itself. Every action of theirs, that seems to them an act of their own free will, is in an historical sense not free at all, but in bondage to the whole course of previous history, and predestined from all eternity.” (from “War and Peace”)

Originally published as Voyna i mir Tolstoy’s epic historical novel is about five aristocratic families–particularly the Bezukhovs, the Bolkonskys, and the Rostovs — who are portrayed against a vivid background of Russian social life during the war against Napoleon (1805-14). As events proceed, Tolstoy systematically denies his subjects any significant free choice: the onward roll of history determines happiness and tragedy alike.

The novel moves from family life to the headquarters of Napoléon, from the court of Alexander to the battlefields of Austerlitz and Borodino.

However, the theme of war is subordinate to the story of family existence, which involves Tolstoy’s optimistic belief in the life-asserting pattern of human existence.

In this novel we can read a theory of history, concluding that there is a minimum of free choice; all is ruled by an inexorable historical determinism. While today it is considered a novel, it broke so many novelistic conventions of its day that many critics did not consider it as such.

“War and Peace” presents a new kind of fiction where we can find many characters caught up in a plot that covered nothing less than the grand subjects indicated by the title, combined with the equally large topics of youth and age.

This novel consists of 365 chapters (roughly 1500 pages), some only a few pages in length. Leo Tolstoy tells us of birth and death, balls and battles, gossip and tragedy, military strategy and political philosophy.

The whole novel is characterized by uncomplicated style, careful construction, and deep insight into human nature. His chapters are short, and he paid much attention to the details of everyday life.