60 Fun Facts About War and Peace

In which year was the complete novel first published?

An earlier version had been serialised from 1865; Tolstoy then rewrote the whole thing, and his wife Sophia copied out as many as seven full manuscripts.

Under what title was the first part of an early draft serialised in The Russian Messenger?

Tolstoy disliked that version and let parts appear with a different ending before rewriting everything between 1866 and 1869.

Which historical conflict provides the novel's backdrop?

It runs from 1805 to 1820, from the first campaigns against Napoleon through the burning of Moscow to the years after the retreat.

How many aristocratic families' interlocking stories does the novel follow?

They are the Bezukhovs, Bolkonskys, Rostovs, Kuragins and Drubetskoys; many were modelled on Tolstoy's own grandparents and their friends.

Who is the socially awkward, illegitimate son of a rich count at the centre of the novel?

Tolstoy based him more than any other character on himself; he was educated abroad and returns to Russia a misfit.

Where does the novel open in July 1805?

The hostess is Anna Pavlovna Scherer, confidante of the dowager empress, and most of the main characters walk in through her salon door.

Which real Russian commander does Prince Andrei become aide-de-camp to in order to escape his marriage?

Prince Mikhail Kutuzov is one of roughly 160 real people named or referred to in the novel.

At which 1805 battle is Prince Andrei badly wounded while trying to save a Russian standard?

Lying wounded he meets Napoleon, his former hero, and finds him petty beside the 'lofty, righteous and kindly sky' above.

How old is Natasha Rostova when she is introduced, believing herself in love with Boris Drubetskoy?

Tolstoy introduces her as 'not pretty but full of life'; she is an accomplished singer and dancer.

Which orphaned cousin, raised by the Rostovs, is in love with Nikolai Rostov?

Nikolai promises to marry the dowry-less girl even as his family faces ruin, but ends up marrying Princess Maria instead.

What is the name of the Bolkonsky family's country estate?

Nikolai Rostov and Princess Maria eventually settle there and raise Prince Andrei's orphaned son.

A resentful fellow officer ruins Nikolai Rostov by luring him into a card debt of how many roubles?

He had just been turned down by Sonya, and takes his revenge at the card table.

Whom does Pierre marry after inheriting his fortune, despite knowing it is wrong?

She is rumoured to be involved with her own brother Anatole, tells Pierre she will never bear his children, and dies late in the book of an overdose of an abortifacient.

Whom does Pierre wound in a duel over rumours about his wife?

The result is a shock, since his opponent is a seasoned duellist and Pierre has barely held a pistol.

Which secret society does Pierre join during his spiritual crisis?

A mason named Osip Bazdeyev talks him into it; the lodge's rules of forgiveness later persuade him to take his wife back.

How does Prince Andrei's wife Lise die?

Andrei returns from hospital to find her dying; the child, Nikolai, survives and is later raised by his aunt Maria.

Where does Prince Andrei meet Natasha and fall for her vivacious charm?

His father dislikes the Rostovs and insists the couple wait a year before marrying, which proves fatal to the engagement.

Which handsome, secretly married rake tries to elope with Natasha, wrecking her engagement?

He had abandoned a Polish wife; Sonya foils the elopement at the last minute and Natasha attempts suicide.

What celestial event streaks across the sky as Pierre realises he loves Natasha?

Dave Malloy's stage musical Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 is built from this stretch of the book.

Pierre convinces himself through numerology that Napoleon is which figure from the Book of Revelation?

He decides he himself has an end-times role, and later wanders occupied Moscow with a half-baked plan to assassinate the emperor.

Which great 1812 battle does Pierre watch as a civilian from beside a Russian artillery crew?

He ends up carrying ammunition; Tolstoy calls it a moral victory for Russia even though the army withdrew the next day.

Fleeing Moscow, what does Natasha have her family load onto their carts instead of possessions?

Unknown to her, the badly wounded Prince Andrei is among them.

What is Pierre doing when the French arrest him in burning Moscow?

He had just rescued a small girl from a burning house; his plan to assassinate Napoleon never gets further than his own head.

Which saintly peasant does Pierre befriend as a prisoner of the French?

In him Pierre finally finds an honest man without pretence; the fever-ridden peasant is shot by the French during the retreat.

Which young Rostov is killed in the skirmish that frees Pierre from the French?

The raiding party is led by two hussar officers; earlier Petya had snatched a biscuit thrown by the Tsar from a Kremlin balcony.

Where do the Rostovs nurse the dying Prince Andrei after fleeing Moscow?

He is reunited with Natasha and forgives her before losing his fear of death and dying.

Whom does Nikolai Rostov marry in the epilogue, rescuing his ruined family?

He finds marrying for money repugnant but genuinely loves her; they raise Prince Andrei's orphaned son alongside their own children.

In which year does the epilogue's wedding of Pierre and Natasha take place?

The book closes in 1820 with hints that Pierre and young Nikolenka Bolkonsky will be swept into the Decembrist uprising.

Which later uprising is hinted at in the closing chapters as the future of Pierre and young Nikolenka?

Tolstoy originally planned a novel about the Decembrists and worked backwards until he reached 1805.

Roughly what fraction of the novel is written in French rather than Russian?

Tolstoy cut the French entirely from an 1873 edition, then restored it; some translators such as Briggs still leave it out.

How many chapters does the novel contain?

Twenty-four of them are philosophical essays with no plot at all, which some abridged editions simply drop or shunt into an appendix.

Roughly how many characters appear in the novel?

The story moves from family drawing rooms to Napoleon's headquarters and the court of Alexander I.

Which German philosopher did Tolstoy acknowledge as a main inspiration while writing the second half?

He told the poet Fet that what he had said in the novel was also said in The World as Will and Representation, only 'from the other side'.

Tolstoy may have borrowed the novel's title from an 1861 work by which French thinker?

Another theory points to Suetonius, who called the emperor Titus a master of 'war and peace'; nobody knows why Tolstoy changed the name.

Which of his own works did Tolstoy call his 'first true novel', denying War and Peace was one at all?

He called War and Peace 'not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less a historical chronicle'.

Which war had Tolstoy served in, giving him first-hand knowledge of the Russian army for the novel?

His Sevastopol Sketches came out of that siege; the novel's action is set 55 years before he wrote it.

In his philosophical chapters, which view of history does Tolstoy champion?

He argued Napoleon's actions showed no tactical genius, only luck and the collective movements of hundreds of thousands of men.

Which character is so unfamiliar with Russian that she has to take lessons in her own country's language?

The nobility often knew only enough Russian to command servants; as the book goes on, French use dwindles as Russia turns on France.

Which fellow Russian novelist called War and Peace 'a Russian Iliad'?

Turgenev, whose efforts spread the book across Europe, called it 'one of the most remarkable books of our age'.

Which French novelist wrote that he 'used to utter shrieks of delight' while reading the book?

Virginia Woolf finished it and declared Tolstoy 'the greatest of all novelists'.

Which German novelist called it 'the greatest ever war novel in the history of literature'?

John Galsworthy went further and called it simply the best novel ever written.

The first English version, in 1886, was made not from the Russian but from what?

Clara Bell worked from Irina Paskévitch's 1879 French text; Constance Garnett and the Maudes, who came later, knew Tolstoy personally.

Which husband-and-wife team published a much-praised English translation in 2007?

The Maudes' 1920s Oxford version was the last by translators who had actually met Tolstoy.

Who directed the four-part Soviet film of 1965-67 and also played Pierre?

He first offered Pierre to Olympic weightlifter Yury Vlasov, who quit saying he could not act; the army lent thousands of soldiers as extras.

The Soviet epic cost 8.29 million roubles and won which Oscar?

It sold about 135 million tickets in the USSR and is often called the grandest epic ever filmed.

Which 19-year-old ballerina was cast as Natasha in the Soviet film over several famous actresses?

She had just graduated from the Vaganova ballet academy; a teenage Nikita Mikhalkov was cast as Petya.

Who played Natasha in King Vidor's 1956 Hollywood-Italian film?

Jean Simmons had turned it down; her 50-year-old co-star was criticised for playing the 20-year-old Pierre.

Which actor, then 50, was criticised for playing the 20-year-old Pierre in the 1956 film?

Director King Vidor had wanted Paul Scofield or Peter Ustinov, whom producer Dino De Laurentiis rejected as not 'marketable'.

Who played Pierre in the BBC's 2016 six-part adaptation written by Andrew Davies?

Lily James was Natasha and James Norton was Prince Andrei; the 1972 BBC version had cast Anthony Hopkins as Pierre.

Which composer wrote an opera based on the novel that premiered complete in Leningrad in 1955?

It was the first opera ever performed in public at the Sydney Opera House, in 1973.

Dave Malloy's 2012 musical Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 is described as what kind of show?

Phillipa Soo, later of Hamilton, was the original Natasha at the tiny Ars Nova theatre in Manhattan.

What was the name of the estate where Tolstoy was born and where he wrote the novel?

It lies about 200 kilometres south of Moscow; he founded 13 peasant schools there after the serfs were freed in 1861.

Tolstoy began the novel in 1863, the same year he did what?

His new wife Sophia, sixteen years younger, would copy the enormous manuscript out by hand up to seven times.

Which historical event opens the novel's political backdrop in 1804?

The salon guests are debating Napoleon's killing of the Bourbon prince when the book begins.

What is the last battle referred to in the novel before the characters turn to rebuilding Moscow?

The French crossing of the Berezina river in November 1812 was the ruinous end of the retreat from Moscow.

Who hosts the Saint Petersburg soirée at which the novel opens in July 1805?

She is maid of honour and confidante to the dowager empress Maria Feodorovna, and schemes with Prince Vasily Kuragin.

At which engagement does Nikolai Rostov, a new hussar ensign, get his first taste of battle?

Boris Drubetskoy then introduces him to Prince Andrei, whom the impetuous Rostov promptly insults.

Who played Pierre in the BBC's 1972-73 television serial of the novel?

The faithful adaptation even included minor characters such as Platon Karataev, played by Harry Locke.

Prokofiev's War and Peace was the first work publicly staged at which new venue in 1973?

The opera was prompted by a 1938 proposal from German director Erwin Piscator, with a libretto by Mira Mendelson.

Which ballerina starred in the first Russian film version, directed by Vladimir Gardin in 1915?

Gardin himself also starred; in 1970 the WBAI radio station had over 140 people read the entire novel on air.