War and Peace

A detailed Summary of War and Peace

War and Peace - one of the greatest novels in the world, written by giant of Russian literature count Leo Tolstoy. Leo Tolstoy, the son of Count Nicholas Tolstoy, was born in 1828 at the family estate Yasnaya Polyana about 100 miles south of Moscow. His greatest novel War and Peace was published in 1869, after his work had undergone several changes in conception and he had "spent five years of uninterrupted and exceptionally strenuous labour".

The epic War and Peace describes the lives of five aristocratic families during the Napoleonic Wars between Russia and France. His subtle psychological insights and realistic details create an entire world from various points of view. Tolstoy summarizes the moral evil of the war in these words:

An event took place opposed to human reason and to human nature. Millions of men perpetrated against one another such innumerable crimes, frauds, treacheries, thefts, forgeries, issues of false money, burglaries, incendiarisms, and murders as in whole centuries are not recorded in the annals of all the law courts of the world, but which those who committed them did not at the time regard as being crimes.

There are three main screen versions of War and Peace: the 1956 version by King Vidor, 1967

Commander-in-chief of Russian army general Kutuzov is one of the few successes of the movie. Physically infirm but wise, powerful but unsophisticated, Kutuzov is really what we know about him from history.

Russian version and another American movie of 1973. The 1956 version is not the best ever done but it was the first significant screening of the novel. The director of this movie is King Vidor, cast: Audrey Hepburn as Natasha Rostova, Henry Fonda as Pierre Bezukhov, and Mel Ferrer as Andrew Bolkoski. The script was done by six writers including Vidor and, in general, follows the plot of the novel. However, a lot of scenes from the novel are omitted and some minor characters are not shown. Thou I think it is a good adaptation, considering the length of the book and the short length the movie actually had to be. Star-studded cast and spectacular battle scenes (directed by Mario Soldati) certainly beautify the film. When watching the movie you should also take into account the fact that the figurative technique of 1956 seems outdated to modern viewer.

Another important character in the novel is Andrew Bolkonski. Mel Ferrer succeeds in showing the image of young man with strong beliefs and willingness to serv

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Approximate Word count = 822
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Movies

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War and Peace

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