My True Story, That Book: War and Peace

Unfortunately, some things in life cannot be learned without experiencing and experimenting! I also learned this in my 60s. However, we have a beautiful proverb: "Whatever comes out of a loss is a profit." Unfortunately, I realized the meaning of this saying a little late. Now let's get back to the subject. 

The secret of my writings that I now share with you that changed the course of my life! As a matter of fact, what had happened was that I was now reading books one after the other that I had not read in a lifetime! My passion and curiosity for history played an important role in this. And I started with the classics, and the rest is history. The first book I read was Tolstoy's "War and Peace", one of the masterpieces of the classics. I read and read, I liked it so much that I was taking notes and making comparisons with real life! This book made me love reading, understanding, listening and ultimately writing. 

Why, I asked myself? Why don't you share with your friends the book that caused this beautiful change in me? And I wanted to share with you what this book, which is about 1800 pages, wants to tell in summary. Here you will find the story of that immortal novel that I have prepared for you in this article.

If you haven't read it, I recommend you to read War and Peace. Tolstoy defines his work War and Peace as follows: It is not just a novel. It is less than an epic. War and Peace, in the way it is expressed, is precisely what the author wanted to express and was able to express. 

Over 1,800 pages, two or four volumes. There are not only children's versions or abridged editions of this huge classic, but also a movie with Audry Hepburn and a BBC miniseries with a great cast. Isn't that great? But you can be sure that none of them will give you the pleasure of reading this century-old masterpiece. Because it is not a novel, it is more than a novel. 

Why should you read War and Peace? First of all, for the light it sheds on history. In this unique work, Tolstoy, born in 1828, goes back 20 years before his birth and about 60 years before he wrote the novel. The days when Napoleon Bonaparte was ravaging Europe. Tolstoy mentions Napoleon's attempts to invade Austria and Russia in 1805. Tolstoy describes the years that followed as "the time of our grandfathers". At the beginning, he does a lot of research to shed light on this period. He read letters, biographies and diaries of many of the characters described in the novel, especially Napoleon, and aims to write a novel that he embellishes with the truth. Although War and Peace is not a historical novel, it is a book that everyone interested in history should read. In fact, even for those who do not like history, reading War and Peace is one of the best ways to learn about the Russia of the period. Because it skillfully blends all these historical events and the past with small moments, daily lives, real and fictional characters that many historians ignore. It illuminates a brilliantly executed war tactic. Thanks to war and peace, many Russians even describe the War of 1812 and the famous bloody battle of Borondino as the great Russian victory.

Despite the slaughter of hundreds of locals, the Battle of Borodino is remembered for Napoleon's sad loss and retreat from Moscow. Tolstoy's account of a series of events that would change the history of Europe is more powerful than any other historian! Anyone who is familiar with books knows that there are some books that change your life. And War and Peace is a book that becomes a milestone for its readers. If you read it, you will appreciate what I mean because this novel tests you with a very human emotion, the drive to survive. The feeling of death that makes you put aside worldly concerns, the fear of losing everything you have and everything around you. And in the face of this fear, the humanity that emerges from within. This book is full of brutality and blood-soaked battlefields. But it is also full of moments of happiness, perhaps the most sublime you will ever encounter in literature. Tolstoy tells the story of Prince Andrei lying slumped on the battlefield, looking up at the sky and witnessing for the first time the immense vastness of the Universe. Or of Natashha dancing and singing as if no one was around. 

The world Tolstoy shows us in this monumental novel is a mysterious place where nothing is as it seems. "Today's tragedy prepares tomorrow's triumph": Nelson Mandela, who said that his favorite book was War and Peace, was also inspired by this book, and I would like to mention here that I do not like this person. To be filled with inspiration and to feel peaceful even in our own troubled times. Because the lives of the characters in this novel and witnessing what they go through, the changes they go through, the emotions they are tested with, one by one, will remind you that life is not just about where you live and what you feel. 

Every novel has the influence of the author's life, even if it is deeply hidden. Aside from Tolstoy's extensive research for War and Peace, it is also possible to see the effects of the author's own life and character in this work. Born in 1828 in Tula, Russia, in a magnificent mansion called Yasyana Polyana, "where he wrote War and Peace", Tolstoy was born into an aristocratic family among the nobility and the rich of the time, and lost his mother and father at an early age. The author, who spent his youth keeping a diary, traveling around Europe and gambling away the family fortune after dropping out of university, joined the Crimean War as an officer in 1854. It is probably because of Tolstoy's experiences during this period that the battlefield descriptions in War and Peace are so magnificent. In fact, it is said that Soviet soldiers who were given chapters from War and Peace during the Second World War, after reading the novel in their barracks, were more impressed by Tolstoy's descriptions than by the battlefield they witnessed with their own eyes. 

The peace part comes into play with Tolstoy's descriptions of magnificent cocktail parties, invitations, relationships between men and women and their worldly troubles. The original text of the novel begins with French dialogues. Because for Russian aristocrats at that time, knowing and speaking French was considered a measure of respectability. Throughout the novel, Tolstoy analyzes the aristocrats and their precious concerns and the conflict of these concerns with the war. He knows best the people of his own country, in the midst of which he was born. 

But all this aside, Tolstoy is a historical character. A great family inheritance, a wife who adored him, 13 children, a school he opened, a disciplined code of life that woke him up at 5 a.m. and thousands of pages of writing. And then a man who gave away all his fortune and ended up on the streets, remembered for his long white beard and unkempt appearance. 

Yes, Tolstoy is not an ordinary man. Because he has been on a quest all his life! In War and Peace, especially in the character of Pierre, it is impossible not to see the traces of this search and the depressions. To get to know an extraordinary person like Tolstoy, who never spent any period of his life "in vain", one should read not only War and Peace, but all his novels. In order to understand today's Russia, Tolstoy responds to the criticism of War and Peace as follows: "the novel is a western European style. Russian writers have to write differently because Russians live differently." 

If today you too cannot understand why Russians still have complicated relations with the West, you should read War and Peace. Because in order to understand the pain and loss Russia has suffered and the reasons why they see themselves as different and build a circle around themselves, it is necessary to learn about their deep-rooted past, about the events that made Russia Russia! Napoleon's failed attempt to conquer Russia in 1812, which is described in the novel, creates a deep and profound cultural change that the current Russian leaders use to show the greatness and inviolability of their country. Even today, for example, Putin often implies to the people of his country that they are in danger from the West and even blames the West for the crisis in Ukraine! 

There is also a Universal message in War and Peace that should not be ignored: that humanity is superior to politics. To get to know great characters, War and Peace is essentially about people whose lives have been turned upside down by war, socio-economic and political changes and mental turmoil, and who are looking for a place to cling to. However, this novel does not have a protagonist, there are about 600 side characters and about 10 main characters. Among them are Napoleon, the Russian Tsar, the naive Natasha and the lost Pierre, who have inspired who knows how many novels and movies. And none of them are "Good" or "Bad", which is what makes them so real, so human. And you even witness some of these characters grow up and form a realistic bond with them. Thanks to the fact that the novel spans many years, you watch how dozens of people's lives develop and change. Lives that you would probably never have the opportunity to experience in your normal life. 

These characters reintroduce you to every emotion: love, ambition, betrayal, lust, jealousy, passion, anger. Every human emotion. And because the existential concerns of Tolstoy's characters are entirely similar to those of us in the 21st century, they shine a light on you and your surroundings, giving you an experience that no other novel can provide. At over 1800 pages long, you may consider this feature among the reasons not to read War and Peace. But don't be intimidated by the large volumes. Yes, this is a long novel, but it is not a difficult novel to read. Many people say they had difficulty grasping many of the character names in the first 100 pages of War and Peace. But the novel becomes clearer and softer after the characters pile on top of you. 

Tolstoy has taken great care for his readers. You will not find it difficult to empathize with the intricate narratives or the twists and turns, you will only find it difficult to empathize. It will not feel suffocating and heavy, on the contrary, it will be a novel in which the pages flow like water and you want to reach the end as soon as possible, just like watching a TV series in which you are curious about the next episode. When you reach the end of the first volume, you will be filled with an intense feeling that life goes on. With the proliferation of new possibilities and the mind-opening plot, you, like every reader, will feel that this marvelous novel can go on forever. 

Stay with respectful love.