Roman L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" has become one of the most famous works of not only domestic but also world literature. Having recreated a large-scale picture of events from which Europe shuddered at the beginning of the 19th century, the author was able to masterfully convey the experiences of his heroes, draw vivid images and tragic fates of the representatives of the people. To achieve this effect, Tolstoy needed several years of hard work.
War and Peace: The Birth of Design
The first evidence that allows us to talk about the time of the beginning of Leo Tolstoy’s work on his most famous novel dates back to September 1863. In a letter to the father of Sophia Andreevna, the wife of the writer, the researchers found mention of Tolstoy's idea to create a novel related to the events of 1812. Apparently, the author discussed his plans with loved ones.
A month later, Tolstoy himself wrote to one of his relatives that he felt free and ready for the upcoming work. The writer calls the work a novel that tells of the beginning of the 19th century. Judging by the letter, Tolstoy pondered the idea of the work from the beginning of autumn, giving it all the strength of his soul.
Intense and fascinating work on the novel "War and Peace" lasted seven long years. The history of the creation of the work can be judged by the Tolstoy archive, which has preserved several thousand sheets, scribbled in fine, elaborate handwriting. From this archive, one can trace how the creator’s plan was born and changed.
The story of the creation of the novel
From the very beginning, Leo Tolstoy hoped to create a work about one of the participants in the December uprising, who returns home after three decades of Siberian exile. The action was supposed to begin in the late 50s, a few years before the abolition of serfdom in Russia.
Initially, the work was to be called "Three Pores", which corresponded to the stages of the formation of heroes.
Later, Tolstoy revised the storyline and stopped at the era of the Decembrist uprising, and then went on to describe the events of 1812 and 1805. As conceived by the author, his heroes had to go through all the events that are most important for the country. To do this, he had to shift the beginning of the story conceived half a century ago.
As the author himself testified, during the first year of work on the work, he tried several times and again threw creating its beginning. To date, one and a half dozen versions of the first parts of the book have survived. Tolstoy more than once fell into despair and indulged in doubts, losing hope that he could express in words the thoughts that he wanted to convey to the reader.
In the process of creative work, Lev Nikolaevich studied in detail a myriad of factual materials, including memoirs, letters, real historical documents. He managed to collect an extensive and solid collection of books describing events related to the war of 1812.
Leo Tolstoy personally traveled to the site of the Battle of Borodino in order to study and take into account in the descriptions the essential details that could revive the narrative.
Tolstoy’s initial plans included drawing a country's history over several decades in the form of an artwork. But in the process of writing the novel, the author decided to narrow the time frame and focus only on the first one and a half decades of his century. But even in such a truncated form, the book gradually turned into an epic work. The result was a grand epic novel that marked the beginning of a new direction in Russian and world prose.
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