The Literature Book

179

See also: Eugene Onegin 124 ■ A Hero of Our Time 151–52 ■ Dead Souls 152 ■ Crime and Punishment 172 –7 7 ■

The Idiot 199 ■ Anna Karenina 200 ■ The Brothers Karamazov 200–01 ■ Uncle Vanya 203

Peter the Great, tsar from 1682 to

1725. Peter oversaw the adoption
      of Western customs, learning, and
      even language, to the extent that—
      by the early 19th century—the
      primary tongue spoken by the
      Russian aristocracy was French.
      The traditional literature of
      “old Russia,” notably the folk epic,
      was displaced by writing that
      focused on more modern themes,
      and the Russian language itself
      developed new literary forms that
      carried through to the 19th century.
      However, Russian writers did much
      more than ape the conventions of
      Western literature. They reacted
      to and defied its assumptions, and
      carved out their own uniquely

Russian forms of expression,

which often looked back to the

themes of earlier folktales, and

sometimes even challenged the

very concept of writing as art. In

the West, the writers of Russia’s

Golden Age were regarded with

curiosity—they were certainly

brilliant, but they were also

considered savage and unschooled.

The first flowering of the Golden

Age early in the 19th century

included works from writers such

as Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai

Gogol, and Ivan Turgenev. A

second blossoming in the 1860s

and 1870s produced the greatest

works of the period, including

Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and

Punishment (1866)—a visceral

exercise in psychological realism—

and Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1869)

and Anna Karenina (1875 –77). ❯❯

DEPICTING REAL LIFE

Tolstoy’s expansive epic War and Peace explores Russian identity

and history through the experiences of, and interactions between,

the members of five noble families—the Bezukhovs, the Bolkonskys,

the Rostovs, the Kuragins, and the Drubetskoys.

Prince Nikolai

Bolkonsky

Count Kirill

Bezukhov

Prince Andrei

Bolkonsky

Lise

Bolkonskaya

Princess Marya

Bolkonskaya

Nikolai

Rostov

Petya

Rostov

Vera

Rostova

Mademoiselle

Bourienne

Old Prince

Bolkonsky

Princess

Bolkonskaya

Old Count

Ilya Rostov

Old Countess

Natalya Rostova

Natasha

Rostova

Pierre

Bezukhov

Aline

Kuragina

Vasili

Kuragin

Liza

Bezukhova

Mashenka

Bezukhova

Unnamed

daughter

Petya

Bezukhov

Helene

Kuragina

Hippolyte

Kuragin

Anatole

Kuragin

Princess Anna

Drubetskaya

Prince Boris

Drubetskoy

If no one fought except

on his own conviction,

there would be no wars.

War and Peace

Sister or cousin

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