War and Peace

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Thanks to British narrator Frederick Davidson's performance, it is safe to say that there will not be a better recording of Tolstoy's masterpiece for some time. The heart of this drama is the metamorphosis of five familiesAsome peasant, some aristocraticAamid the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. Each individual is immersed in experiences and conversations elucidating Tolstoy's themes of self-sacrifice and self-indulgence, anguish and ecstasy, diplomacy and deception, and religion and perdition. The complexities of character and plot are sometimes enigmatic, and names are often exhausting to recollect, but the genius of this book is everlasting. The impressive dialog sparkles with humor and wit, and the vivid scenes of battle are riveting. An entire universe is created by one of the foremost thinkers of the 19th century, and Davidson's exquisite narration heightens the perfection of this novel, regarded as one of the greatest in literature. Highly recommended for all collections.ABarbara Mann, Adelphi Univ., Garden City, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
作者简介：
GEORGE C, IBIAN was Goldwin Smith Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature at Cornell University. His honors included Fulbright, Guggenheim, American Philosophical Society, and Rockefeller Foundation fellowships. He is the author of The Man in the Black Coat: Russia's Lost Literature of the Absurd, The Interval of Freedom: Russian Literature during the Thaw, and Tolstoi and Shakespeare. He is the editor of the Norton Critical Editions of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Gogol's Dead Souls, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, and of The Portable Nineteenth-Century Russian Reader. Professor Gibian's articles appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, the Christian Science Monitor, and Newsday, among others.

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy (born Sept. 9, 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, Russian Empire-died Nov. 20, 1910, Astapovo, Ryazan province) Russian writer.

Considered one of the world's greatest novelists, Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy is famous for works that include the 19th century classics War and Peace (1865-69) and Anna Karenina (1877-78). Although he was born into nobility, Tolstoy spent much of his life as a champion of Russia's peasant class, notably in the field of education. He began his literary career in the 1850s, publishing a trilogy about his own life: Childhood (Detstvo, 1852), Boyhood ( Otrochestvo, 1854) and Youth (Yunost', 1857). Tolstoy served in the Russian army during the Crimean War, and his book Sevastopol Sketches (Sevastopol'skie Rasskazy, 1855-56) was well-received in literary circles and praised for its realistic depiction of war. After travelling throughout Europe, Tolstoy returned to the family estate and devoted himself to raising a family and writing his great psychological novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina. From the 1880s until his death, he devoted himself to more spiritual and philosophical matters, writing several essays on ethics and morals and coming to terms with his own Christian conversion (described in 1879's Confessions). His other works include the novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1884) and the novel Resurrection (1899-1900).

The text of this revised "Critical Edition" of Tolstoy's novel is based on the Maude translation. The editor has revised the text and updated and expanded the annotations. Three maps of Napoleon's campaigns and battles in Russia are included. The "Backgrounds and Sources" section includes the publication history of "War and Peace", selections from Tolstoy's letters and diaries and three drafts of his introduction to the novel. The book also includes 20 critical essays that provide diverse perspectives on the novel.

From Library Journal

Thanks to British narrator Frederick Davidson's performance, it is safe to say that there will not be a better recording of Tolstoy's masterpiece for some time. The heart of this drama is the metamorphosis of five familiesAsome peasant, some aristocraticAamid the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. Each individual is immersed in experiences and conversations elucidating Tolstoy's themes of self-sacrifice and self-indulgence, anguish and ecstasy, diplomacy and deception, and religion and perdition. The complexities of character and plot are sometimes enigmatic, and names are often exhausting to recollect, but the genius of this book is everlasting. The impressive dialog sparkles with humor and wit, and the vivid scenes of battle are riveting. An entire universe is created by one of the foremost thinkers of the 19th century, and Davidson's exquisite narration heightens the perfection of this novel, regarded as one of the greatest in literature. Highly recommended for all collections.ABarbara Mann, Adelphi Univ., Garden City, NY

Book Description

In Russia's struggle with Napoleon, Tolstoy saw a tragedy that involved all mankind. Greater than a historical chronicle, War and Peace is an affirmation of life itself, `a complete picture', as a contemporary reviewer put it, `of everything in which people find their happiness and greatness, their grief and humiliation'.

Tolstoy gave his personal approval to this translation, published here in a new single volume edition, which includes an introduction by Henry Gifford, and Tolstoy's important essay `Some Words about War and Peace'.

Synopsis

The text of this revised "Critical Edition" of Tolstoy's novel is based on the Maude translation. The editor has revised the text and updated and expanded the annotations. Three maps of Napoleon's campaigns and battles in Russia are included. The "Backgrounds and Sources" section includes the publication history of "War and Peace", selections from Tolstoy's letters and diaries and three drafts of his introduction to the novel. The book also includes 20 critical essays that provide diverse perspectives on the novel.

Book Dimension
Height (mm) 233　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Width (mm) 142

Preface
The Text of War and Peace
Backgrounds and Sources
　Map: The Campaign of 1812
　Map: BorodinÛ
　Map: Napoleon in Russia—1812
　The Publication History of War and Peace
　The Author on the Novel Extracts from Tolstoy’s Letters and Diaries (1865–1868)
　　[Letter to A. A. Fet—January, 1865]
　　[Diary-March 2, 1865]
　　[Diary-March 19, 1865]
　　[Diary-March 23, 1865]
　　[Diary-March 28, 1865]
　　[Letter to L. I. Volkonskaya—May 3, 1865]
　　[Letter to P. D. Boborykin—July or August, 1865]
　　[Letter to A. E. Bers—November, 1865]
　　[Letters to M. S. Bashilov—April 4 and December 8,1866; February 28, 1867]
　　[Letter to A. A. Fet—November 7, 1866]
　　[Entry in Tolstoy’s Notebook—November 27, 1866]
　　[Letter to P. I. Bartenev—August 16–18, 1867]
　　[Letter to P. I. Bartenev—November 1, 1867]
　　[Letter to P. I. Bartenev—December 6, 1867]
　　[Letter to P. I. Bartenev—December 8, 1867]
　　[Letter to M. P. Pogodin—March 21 or 23, 1868]
　Drafts for an Introduction to War and Peace
　　[Draft 1]
　　[Draft 2]
　　[Draft 3]
　Some Words about War and Peace
Criticism
　Dimitri Pisarev • The Old Gentry
　Nikolai Strakhov ·[The Significance of the Last Part of War and Peace] ·[The Russian Idea in War and Peace]
　Ivan Turgenev • Comments on War and Peace
　Constantine Leontiev ·[The Greatness and Universality of War and Peace]
　V. I. Lenin • Leo Tolstoy as a Mirror of the Russian Revolution
　Henry James ·[Loose Baggy Monsters] ·[A Monster Harnessed]
　Victor Shklovsky ·[Details in War and Peace]
　Boris Eikhenbaum ·[The Genre of War and Peace in the Context of Russian Literary History] ·　　[Tolstoy’s Essays as an Element of Structure]
　Isaiah Berlin ·[Tolstoy’s Attitude Towards History in War and Peace] ·[Tolstoy’s Worldview in War and Peace]
　Dmitry S. Mirsky • About Tolstoy ·[On Tolstoy: Materialism, Spiritualism, and Russianness]
　Kathryn Feuer • The Book the Became War and Peace
　Richard F. Gustafson • States of Human Awareness
　Gary Saul Morson ·[Narrative and Creative Potentials in War and Peace]
　Caryl Emerson ·[Where Bakhtin Misses the Mark on Tolstoy]
　Lydia Ginzburg • Casual Conditionality
A Note on Russian Literary Criticism
Leo Tolstoy: A Chronology
Selected Bibliography 、