Features of the composition of war and peace. Novel "War and Peace"

Lesson 3.

The novel “War and Peace” is an epic novel:

issues, images, genre

Target: introduce the history of the creation of the novel, reveal its originality.

Lesson progress

Lesson-lecture by teacher, students take notes.

I. Recording the epigraph and plan:

1. The history of the creation of the novel “War and Peace.”

2. Historical background and the problems of the novel.

3. The meaning of the title of the novel, characters, composition.

"All the passions, all the moments human life,

from the cry of a newborn baby to the last flash

the feelings of a dying old man - all the sorrows and joys,

accessible to man - everything is in this picture!

Critic N. Strakhov

II. Lecture material.

The novel “War and Peace” is one of the most patriotic works in Russian literature of the 19th century. K. Simonov recalled: “For my generation, who saw the Germans at the gates of Moscow and at the walls of Stalingrad, reading “War and Peace” at that period of our lives became an forever remembered shock, not only aesthetic, but also moral...” It was “War and Peace”. "peace" became during the war years the book that most directly strengthened the spirit of resistance that gripped the country in the face of an enemy invasion... "War and Peace" was the first book that came to our minds then, during the war."

The first reader of the novel, the wife of the writer S.A. Tolstaya, wrote to her husband: “I am rewriting War and Peace and your novel lifts me up morally, that is, spiritually.”

What can be said about L.N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” based on the statements heard?

1. The history of the creation of the novel.

Tolstoy worked on the novel War and Peace from 1863 to 1869. The novel demanded from the writer maximum creative output, full exertion of all spiritual forces. During this period, the writer said: “Every day of labor you leave a piece of yourself in the inkwell.”

The story was originally conceived for modern theme“The Decembrists” only three chapters remain from it. S. A. Tolstaya notes in her diaries that at first L. N. Tolstoy was going to write about the Decembrist who returned from Siberia, and the action of the novel was supposed to begin in 1856 (amnesty of the Decembrists, Alexander II) on the eve of the abolition of serfdom. In the process of work, the writer decided to talk about the uprising of 1825, then pushed back the beginning of the action to 1812 - the time of the childhood and youth of the Decembrists. But since Patriotic War was closely connected with the campaign of 1805-1807. Tolstoy decided to start the novel from this time.

As the plan progressed, there was an intense search for the title of the novel. The original, “Three Times,” soon ceased to correspond to the content, because from 1856 to 1825 Tolstoy moved further and further into the past; Only one time was in the spotlight - 1812. So a different date appeared, and the first chapters of the novel were published in the magazine “Russian Messenger” under the title “1805”. In 1866, a new version emerged, no longer concretely historical, but philosophical: “All’s well that ends well.” And finally, in 1867 - another title where the historical and philosophical formed a certain balance - “War and Peace”.

The writing of the novel was preceded by a huge amount of work on historical materials. The writer used Russian and foreign sources about the War of 1812, carefully studied the archives, Masonic books, acts and manuscripts of the 1810-1820s in the Rumyantsev Museum, read the memoirs of his contemporaries, the family memoirs of the Tolstoys and Volkonskys, private correspondence era of the Patriotic War, met with people who remembered 1812, talked with them and wrote down their stories. Having visited and carefully examined the Borodino field, he compiled a map of the location of Russian and French troops. The writer admitted, talking about his work on the novel: “Wherever in my story they speak and act historical figures, I did not invent, but used material from which during my work I accumulated and formed a whole library of books” (see diagram in Appendix 1).

2. Historical background and problems of the novel.

The novel "War and Peace" tells about the events that took place during three stages of Russia's struggle with Bonapartist France. Volume 1 describes the events of 1805, when Russia fought in alliance with Austria on its territory; in the 2nd volume - 1806-1811, when Russian troops were in Prussia; Volume 3 - 1812, volume 4 - 1812-1813. Both are dedicated to a broad depiction of the Patriotic War of 1812, which was fought by Russia in native land. In the epilogue, the action takes place in 1820. Thus, the action in the novel covers fifteen years.

The basis of the novel is historical military events, artistically translated by the writer. We learn about the war of 1805 against Napoleon, where the Russian army acted in alliance with Austria, about the battles of Schöngraben and Austerlitz, about the war in alliance with Prussia in 1806 and the Peace of Tilsit. Tolstoy depicts the events of the Patriotic War of 1812: the passage of the French army across the Neman, the retreat of the Russians into the interior of the country, the surrender of Smolensk, the appointment of Kutuzov as commander-in-chief, Battle of Borodino, council in Fili, leaving Moscow. The writer depicts events that testify to the indestructible power of the national spirit of the Russian people, which suppressed the French invasion: Kutuzov’s flank march, the Tarutino battle, the growth partisan movement, the collapse of the invading army and the victorious end of the war.

The range of problems in the novel is very wide. It reveals the reasons for the military failures of 1805-1806; the example of Kutuzov and Napoleon shows the role individuals in military events and history; with extraordinary artistic expression pictures of guerrilla warfare are drawn; reflected great role of the Russian people, who decided the outcome of the Patriotic War of 1812.

Simultaneously with historical problems era of the Patriotic War of 1812, the novel also reveals current issues of the 60s. 19th century about the role of the nobility in the state, about the personality of a true citizen of the Motherland, about the emancipation of women, etc. Therefore, the novel reflects the most significant phenomena of political and public life countries, various ideological movements (Freemasonry, Speransky’s legislative activities, the emergence in the country Decembrist movement). Tolstoy depicts high-society receptions, entertainment of secular youth, ceremonial dinners, balls, hunting, Christmas fun of gentlemen and servants. Pictures of transformations in the village by Pierre Bezukhov, scenes of the rebellion of Bogucharovsky peasants, episodes of indignation of urban artisans reveal the character social relations, village life and city life.

The action takes place either in St. Petersburg, then in Moscow, then in the Bald Mountains and Otradnoye estates. Military events - in Austria and Russia.

Social problems are resolved in connection with one group or another characters: with images of representatives of the masses who saved their homeland from the French invasion, as well as images of Kutuzov and Napoleon, Tolstoy poses the problem of the masses and individuals in history; the images of Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky - the question of the leading figures of the era; images of Natasha Rostova, Marya Bolkonskaya, Helen - affects women's question; images of representatives of the court bureaucratic horde - the problem of criticism of rulers.

3. The meaning of the novel's title, characters and composition.

Did the heroes of the novel have prototypes? Tolstoy himself, when asked about this, answered negatively. However, researchers later established that the image of Ilya Andreevich Rostov was written taking into account family legends about the writer's grandfather. The character of Natasha Rostova was created on the basis of studying the personality of the writer’s sister-in-law Tatyana Andreevna Bers (Kuzminskaya).

Later, many years after Tolstoy’s death, Tatyana Andreevna wrote interesting memoirs about her youth “My life at home and in Yasnaya Polyana" This book is rightly called “the memoirs of Natasha Rostova.”

In total there are over 550 people in the novel. Without so many heroes, it was not possible to solve the task that Tolstoy himself formulated as follows: “Capture everything,” that is, to give the broadest panorama of Russian life at the beginning of the 19th century (compare with the novels “Fathers and Sons” by Turgenev, “What is to be done? "Chernyshevsky, etc.). The very sphere of communication between the characters in the novel is extremely wide. If we remember Bazarov, then he is mainly given in communication with the Kirsanov brothers and Odintsova. Tolstoy's heroes, be it A. Bolkonsky or P. Bezukhov, are given in communication with dozens of people.

The title of the novel figuratively conveys its meaning.

"Peace" is not only peaceful life without war, but also that community, that unity to which people should strive.

“War” is not only bloody battles and battles that bring death, but also the separation of people, their enmity. The title of the novel implies its main idea, which was successfully defined by Lunacharsky: “The truth lies in the brotherhood of people, people should not fight each other. And all the characters show how a person approaches or departs from this truth.”

The antithesis inherent in the title determines the grouping of images in the novel. Some heroes (Bolkonsky, Rostov, Bezukhov, Kutuzov) are “people of peace” who hate not only war in its literal sense, but also the lies, hypocrisy, and selfishness that divide people. Other heroes (Kuragin, Napoleon, Alexander I) are “people of war” (regardless, of course, of their personal participation in military events, which brings disunity, enmity, selfishness, criminal immorality).

The novel has an abundance of chapters and parts, most of which have plot completeness. Brief chapters and the many parts allow Tolstoy to move the narrative in time and space and thereby fit hundreds of episodes into one novel.

If in the novels of other writers big role While the composition of the images featured excursions into the past, unique backstories of the characters, Tolstoy’s hero always appears in the present tense. The story of their life is given without any temporal completeness. The narrative in the epilogue of the novel ends at the outbreak of a whole series of new conflicts. P. Bezukhov turns out to be a participant in secret Decembrist societies. And N. Rostov is his political antagonist. Essentially, we can start with the epilogue new novel about these heroes.

4. Genre.

For a long time they could not determine the genre of “War and Peace”. It is known that Tolstoy himself refused to define the genre of his creation and objected to calling it a novel. It's just a book - like the Bible.

“What is “War and Peace”?

This is not a novel, still less a poem, even less a historical chronicle.

“War and Peace” is what the author wanted and could express

in the form in which it was expressed

L. N. Tolstoy.

“... This is not a novel at all, not historical novel, not even stories-

A historical chronicle is a family chronicle... it’s a true story, and a family true story.”

N. Strakhov

“...an original and multifaceted work, “combining

an epic, a historical novel and a right essay.”

I. S. Turgenev

In our time, historians and literary scholars have called “War and Peace” as an “epic novel.”

“Novel” features: plot development, in which there is a beginning, development of action, climax, denouement - for the entire narrative and for each storyline separately; interaction of the environment with the character of the hero, the development of this character.

Signs of an epic - theme (the era of great historical events); ideological content- “the moral unity of the narrator with the people in their heroic activities, patriotism... glorification of life, optimism; complexity of the composition; the author’s desire for a national-historical generalization.”

Some literary scholars define War and Peace as a philosophical and historical novel. But we must remember that history and philosophy in the novel are only components. The novel was not created to recreate history, but as a book about the life of an entire people, a nation, it was created artistic truth. Therefore, this is an epic novel.

III. Checking the notes (key points on the questions).

Homework.

1. Retelling of the lecture and textbook materials p. 240-245.

2. Choose a topic for an essay on the novel “War and Peace”:

a) Why can Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky be called the best people their time?

b) "Cudgel" people's war».

V) True heroes 1812

d) Court and military “drones”.

e) Favorite heroine of L. Tolstoy.

f) What do Tolstoy’s favorite heroes see as the meaning of life?

g) Spiritual evolution of Natasha Rostova.

h) The role of a portrait in creating an image - a character.

i) The character’s speech as a means of characterizing him in the novel.

j) Landscape in the novel “War and Peace”.

k) Theme of true and false patriotism in the novel.

m) Craftsmanship psychological analysis in the novel “War and Peace” (using the example of one of the characters).

3. Prepare for the conversation on Volume I, Part 1.

a) Salon of A.P. Scherer. What are the hostess and the visitors of her salon like (their relationships, interests, views on politics, behavior, Tolstoy’s attitude towards them)?

b) P. Bezukhov (chap. 2-6, 12-13, 18-25) and A. Bolkonsky 9th chapter. 3-60 at the beginning of the journey and ideological quest.

c) Entertainment for secular youth (evening at Dolokhov’s, chapter 6).

d) The Rostov family (characters, atmosphere, interests), chapters 7-11, 14-17.

e) Bald Mountains, the estate of General N.A. Bolkonsky (character, interests, activities, family relationships, war), ch. 22-25.

f) What is different and common in the behavior of people at the Rostovs’ name day and in the house in Bald Mountains compared to the Scherer salon?

5. Individual task. Message “Historical commentary” on the contents of the novel “War and Peace” (Appendix 2).

Appendix 1

L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace.” History of creation.

Conclusion:“I tried to write the history of the people.”

1857 - after a meeting with the Decembrists, L.N. Tolstoy conceived a novel about one of them.

1825 - “Involuntarily, I moved from the present to 1825, the era of my hero’s delusions and misfortunes.”

1812 - “To understand my hero, I need to travel back to his youth, which coincided with the glorious era of 1812 for Russia.”

1805 - “I was ashamed to write about our triumph without describing our failures and our shame.”

Conclusion: A huge amount of material has accumulated about the historical events of 1805-1856. and the concept of the novel changed. The events of 1812 were at the center, and the Russian people became the hero of the novel.

Appendix 2

Historical commentary to volume I of the novel “War and Peace.”

In the first volume of the epic novel “War and Peace,” the action takes place in 1805.

In 1789, at the time of the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte (in his homeland, the island of Corsica, his surname was pronounced Buanaparte) was 20 years old, and he served as a lieutenant in a French regiment.

In 1793, a counter-revolutionary uprising supported by the English fleet occurred in Toulon, a port city on the Mediterranean Sea. The revolutionary army besieged Toulon from land, but could not take it for a long time, until no one appeared famous captain Bonaparte. He laid out his plan for taking the city and carried it out.

This victory made 24-year-old Bonaparte a general, and hundreds of young men began to dream of their Toulon.

Then there were 2 years of disgrace, until 1795 there was a counter-revolutionary uprising against the Convention. They remembered the young, decisive general, called him, and he, with complete fearlessness, shot a huge crowd in the middle of the city from cannons. The following year, he led the French army operating in Italy, walked along the most dangerous road through the Alps, defeated the Italian army in 6 days, and then the selected Austrian troops.

Returning from Italy to Paris, General Bonaparte was greeted as national hero.

After Italy there was a campaign in Egypt, Syria to fight the British on the territory of their colonies, then - triumphant return to France, the destruction of the gains of the French Revolution and the post of first consul (from 1799).

In 1804 he proclaimed himself emperor. And shortly before the coronation he committed another cruelty: he executed the Duke of Enghien, who belonged to the French royal house of Bourbon.

Proposed by the revolution and having destroyed its conquests, he is preparing a war with the main enemy - England.

In England they were also preparing: they managed to conclude an alliance with Russia and Austria, whose combined troops moved west. Instead of landing in England, Napoleon had to meet them halfway.

Russia's military actions against France were caused primarily by the tsarist government's fear of the “revolutionary infection” spreading throughout Europe.

However, under the Austrian fortress of Braunau, an army of forty thousand under the command of Kutuzov was on the verge of disaster due to the defeat of the Austrian troops. Fighting off the advanced units of the enemy, the Russian army began to retreat in the direction of Vienna to join forces coming from Russia.

But French troops entered Vienna before Kutuzov’s army, which faced the threat of destruction. It was then that, fulfilling Kutuzov’s plan, General Bagration’s four-thousandth detachment accomplished a feat near the village of Shengraben: he stood in the way of the French and made it possible for the main forces of the Russian army to escape from the trap.

The efforts of the Russian commanders and the heroic actions of the soldiers ultimately did not bring victory: on December 2, 1805, in the battle of Austerlitz, the Russian army was defeated.

"War and Peace" is a broad historical epic, the main character of which is the Russian people. In the diaries of S. A. Tolstoy, direct statements about this by L. N. Tolstoy are recorded. “I try to write the history of the people,” he said. “For a work to be good, you must love the main, fundamental idea in it. So... in “War and Peace” I loved the people’s thought...”

The main idea of the work is the invincible power of people's patriotism. The theme and ideological orientation of the work in this place, as elsewhere, determine its genre, composition, figurative system, language.
In "War and Peace" the life of the Russian Federation was vividly reflected and partly Western Europe the first two decades of the 19th century. Great historical events shift the course of action from the Russian Federation to Austria, Prussia, Poland, the Balkans, from Smolensk to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Russian and German village, from the royal palace, the high society drawing room, the landowner's estate on the battlefield, to the infirmary, to the barracks of prisoners of war. The reader hears echoes of bourgeois French Revolution, pass in front of him European wars 1805-1807 and 1812-1813, great battles of nations flare up, Napoleon's empire collapses. Along with this, the author shows dissatisfaction with their position as serfs, Speransky’s legislative work, the general patriotic upsurge of 1812, the onset of reaction, and the organization of the first secret revolutionary society.

The culmination of "War and Peace" is the Battle of Borodino. This bloody battle, in which the forces of the warring parties were strained to the last limit, became the starting point for the salvation of the Russian Federation, on the one hand, the destruction of Napoleon’s army and the collapse of his power, on the other. Epilogue from which we learn about the organization secret society, is perceived as the beginning of a new novel.

The heroes of the novel are both fictional characters and famous historical figures.

In the light of all these historical events and phenomena, Tolstoy depicts the peasantry and urban poor, the courtiers and landed nobility, advanced noble intelligentsia.

The depiction of the life and characters of people is given liveliness and brightness by wide everyday canvases: the regimental life of soldiers and officers, the infirmary, the life of a fortress village, ceremonial dinner parties in Moscow, receptions and balls in St. Petersburg, lordly hunting, mummers, etc.

The main characters of the novel are taken from the nobility, and the plot develops in the same direction. The entire novel runs through the story of four families: the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, the Kuragins, and the Bez Ukhov family, which changed its composition several times, except for the main character. These four narrative lines form the basis of the plot of War and Peace. However, not only the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, Kuragins, Bezukhov, who are invariably in the author’s field of vision, not only such major historical figures as Kutuzov and Napoleon attract his attention: all 559 characters find their specific place in the novel, their characters and behavior are socially and historically determined. appear briefly and then get lost in the general mass, others pass through the entire work, but all of them are perceived by the reader as living people. One cannot forget or confuse comrade with friend if they are outlined with only a few features, such as, for example, Lavrushka, officer Telyanin. , Princess Kuragina, headman Dron, soldiers dancing in the cold without a sole, and an infinite number of others.

But the main character in this place is the people, the author’s focus is on them mass image. In "War and Peace" there are dazzlingly outlined characters who almost do not protrude from the general mass background. They announce themselves with one or two lines, receive an apt but instantaneous outline, sometimes in two or three strokes, appear on stage only once within a few lines and then disappear, never to return. Showing with exceptional strength and persuasiveness the patriotism, humanity, sense of truth and justice of the Russian people and the best part of the noble intelligentsia gravitating towards them, Tolstoy contrasts them with the court aristocracy, which has become detached from the people and is in a state of hopeless moral decay. At that time masses, experiencing severe suffering and hardship, they strain all their strength to fight the enemy, the courtiers are engaged in catching rubles, crosses and ranks; Countess Bez-ukhova negotiates with the Jesuits and enters the "womb" catholic church"in order to marry a foreign prince, etc. So, in terms of antithesis, the reader is faced with two social world.

The technique of contrast is also used by Tolstoy when comparing the people's commander Kutuzov and the conqueror Napoleon.

Of great importance is the one compositional technique and when depicting other characters, such as Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre, as well as entire groups of different internal character of people (officers different types, such as, for example, Tushin, Timokhin, Dokhturov, on the one hand, and Berg, Zherkov, Bennigsen, etc., on the other).

Reading the novel, you notice that images that have an accusatory character, such as Kuragins, Dolokhov, Berg, Napoleon, Alexander I, are presented statically; characters goodies, like Andrei Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhov, Natasha Rostova, Marya Bolkonskaya, are shown in development, in all the complexity and contradictions of their inner lives. This amazing art of depicting the inner life of a person in its constant movement, this brilliant ability to penetrate into the very recesses of mental life, the like of which we do not know before Tolstoy, was first noted by Chernyshevsky. He wrote about the works of L.N. Tolstoy that the writer is interested “most of all in the psychological process itself, its forms, its laws, the dialectics of the soul.” And further: “This image inner monologue one must, without exaggeration, call it amazing... that side of Count Tolstoy, which gives him the ability to catch these psychic monologues, constitutes a special strength in his talent, unique to him.”

During the hour of his stay in Yasnaya Polyana, V. G. Korolenko once said to Lev Nikolaevich: “You know how to grab this thing moving in human nature and capture it, and this is the most difficult thing."

This internal dynamics of thoughts, feelings, and aspirations of Tolstoy’s beloved heroes throughout the novel is mainly determined by their search for those opportunities in which life would be filled with content, comprehended by broad useful activity, and although their path is uneven, their whole life is moving forward.

L.N. Tolstoy's epic novel is practically the only work of Russian literature of this scale. It reveals a whole layer of history - the Patriotic War of 1812, the military campaigns of 1805-1807. Real ones are depicted historical figures, such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor Alexander I, commander-in-chief of the Russian army Mikhail Ilarionovich Kutuzov. Using the example of the Bolkonskys, Rostovs, Bezukhovs, Kuragins, Tolstoy shows the development human relations, creating families. The people's war is becoming centrally war of 1812. The composition of Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" is complex, the novel is enormous in its volume of information, and is striking in the number of characters (more than five hundred). Tolstoy showed everything in action, in life.

Family thought in Tolstoy's novel

Throughout the novel there are four storylines- four families, changing their composition depending on the circumstances. Kuragins are an image of vulgarity, self-interest and indifference to each other. The Rostovs are an image of love, harmony and friendship. The Bolkonskys are an image of prudence and activity. Bezukhov builds his family by the end of the novel, having found his ideal of life. Tolstoy describes families using the principle of comparison, and sometimes the principle of contrast. But this does not always indicate what is good and what is bad. What is present in one family may be a complement to another. So in the epilogue of the novel we see the union of three families: the Rostovs, the Bezukhovs and the Bolkonskys. This gives new round relationships. Tolstoy says that the main component of any family is love and respect for each other. And the family - main meaning life. There are no great stories of people, they are worth nothing without family, without loved ones and loving families. You can survive in any difficult situations if you are strong, and you are strong with your family. The importance of family in the novel is undeniable.

Popular thought in Tolstoy's novel

The War of 1812 was won thanks to the strength, resilience and faith of the Russian people. The people in their entirety. Tolstoy does not differentiate between peasants and nobles - in war everyone is equal. And everyone has the same goal - to free Russia from the enemy. “The club of the people’s war,” says Tolstoy about the Russian army. It is the people who are the main force that defeated the enemy. What can military leaders do without the people? A simple example is the French army, which Tolstoy shows in contrast to the Russian one. The French fought not for faith, not for strength, but because they needed to fight. And the Russians, following the old man Kutuzov, for the faith, for the Russian land, for the Tsar-Father. Tolstoy confirms the idea that the people make history.

Features of the novel

Many characteristics in Tolstoy's novel are presented through contrast or antithesis. The image of Napoleon is contrasted with the image of Alexander I as an emperor and the image of Kutuzov as a commander. The description of the Kuragin family is also built on the principle of contrast.

Tolstoy is a master of the episode. Almost all portraits of heroes are given through action, their actions in certain situations. The stage episode is one of the features of Tolstoy's narrative.

Landscape in the novel “War and Peace” also occupies a certain place. Description of the old oak is an integral element of the description state of mind Andrey Bolkonsky. We see the calm Borodino field before the battle, not a single leaf moves on the trees. The fog in front of Austerlitz warns us of an invisible danger. Detailed descriptions estates in Otradnoye, natural views that appear to Pierre when he is in captivity - all these are necessary elements of the composition of “War and Peace”. Nature helps to understand the state of the characters without forcing the author to resort to verbal descriptions.

Title of the novel

The title of the novel "War and Peace" contains artistic technique which is called an oxymoron. But the name can also be taken literally. The first and second volumes share scenes of either war or peace. The third volume is almost entirely devoted to war; in the fourth, peace prevails. This is also Tolstoy's trick. Still, peace is more important and necessary than any war. At the same time, war without life in “peace” is impossible. There are those who are there, at war, and those who are left to wait. And their wait, sometimes, is the only salvation for returning.

Novel genre

L.N. Tolstoy himself did not give the exact name of the genre to the novel “War and Peace”. In fact, the novel reflects historical events, psychological processes, social and moral problems, raises philosophical questions, and the characters experience family and everyday relationships. The novel contains all aspects of human life, reveals characters, shows destinies. An epic novel - this is precisely the genre given to Tolstoy’s work. This is the first epic novel in Russian literature. Truly L.N. Tolstoy created a great work that has stood the test of time. It will be read at all times.

Work test

“War and Peace” is a broad historical epic, the main character of which is the Russian people. In the diaries of S. A. Tolstoy, direct statements about this by L. N. Tolstoy are recorded. “I try to write the history of the people,” he said. “For a work to be good, you must love the main, fundamental idea in it. So... in “War and Peace” I loved popular thought

The main idea of the work is the invincible power of people's patriotism. The theme and ideological orientation of the work here, as elsewhere, determine its genre, composition, figurative system, and language.

War and Peace vividly reflected the life of Russia and partly Western Europe in the first two decades of the 19th century. Great historical events transfer the course of action from Russia to Austria, Prussia, Poland, the Balkans, from Smolensk to Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Russian and German villages, from the royal palace, the high society drawing room, the estate of the landowner on the battlefield, to the hospital, to the barracks of prisoners of war. The reader hears echoes of the bourgeois French Revolution, the European wars of 1805-1807 and 1812-1813 take place before him, great battles of nations flare up, and Napoleon's empire collapses. Along with this, the author shows dissatisfaction with their position as serfs, the legislative activities of Speransky, the general patriotic upsurge of 1812, the onset of reaction, and the organization of the first secret revolutionary society.

The culmination of War and Peace is the Battle of Borodino. This bloody battle, in which the forces of the warring parties were strained to the last limit, became the starting point for the salvation of Russia, on the one hand, the death of Napoleon’s army and the collapse of his power, on the other. The epilogue, from which we learn about the organization of a secret society, is perceived as the beginning of a new novel.

The heroes of the novel are both fictional characters and famous historical figures.

In the light of all these historical events and phenomena, Tolstoy depicts the peasantry and urban poor, the court and local nobility, and the advanced noble intelligentsia.

The depiction of the life and characters of people is given liveliness and brightness by wide everyday canvases: the regimental life of soldiers and officers, the hospital, the life of a fortress village, ceremonial dinner parties in Moscow, receptions and balls in St. Petersburg, lordly hunting, mummers, etc.

The main characters of the novel are taken from the nobility, and the plot develops in the same direction. The entire novel runs through the story of four families: the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, the Kuragins, and the Bezukhov family, which changed its composition several times, except for the main character. These four narrative lines form the basis of the plot of War and Peace. However, not only the Rostovs, Bol-konskys, Kuragins, Bezukhovs, who are invariably in the author’s field of vision, not only such major historical figures as Kutuzov and Napoleon, attract his attention: all 559 characters find their specific place in the novel, their characters and behavior are socially and historically determined. Some of them do not appear for long and then are lost in the general mass, others pass through the entire work, but all of them are perceived by the reader as living people. It is impossible to forget or mix with each other if they are outlined even by a few features, such as Lavrushka, officer Telyanin, Princess Kuragina, headman Dron, a soldier dancing in the cold without a sole and an infinite number of others.

But the main character here is the people, the author’s focus is on their mass image. In War and Peace there are clearly defined characters who hardly stand out from the general background. They announce themselves with one or two lines, receive an apt but instantaneous outline, sometimes in two or three strokes, appear on stage only once within a few lines and then disappear, never to return. Showing with exceptional strength and persuasiveness the patriotism, humanity, sense of truth and justice of the Russian people and the best part of the noble intelligentsia gravitating towards them, Tolstoy contrasts them with the court aristocracy, which has become detached from the people and is in a state of hopeless moral decay. While the masses, experiencing severe suffering and hardship, are straining all their strength to fight the enemy, the courtiers are busy fishing for rubles, crosses and ranks; Countess Bezukhova negotiates with the Jesuits and enters the “bosom of the Catholic Church” in order to marry a foreign prince, etc. Thus, two social worlds appear before the reader in terms of antithesis.

The technique of contrast is also used by Tolstoy when comparing the people's commander Kutuzov and the conqueror Napoleon.

This compositional technique is also of great importance when depicting other characters, such as Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre, as well as entire groups of different internal make-up of people (officers of different types, such as Timokhin, Dokhturov, on the one hand, and Berg, Zherkov, Bennigsen, etc. - on the other).

Reading the novel, you notice that images that have an accusatory character, such as Kuragin, Berg, Napoleon, Alexander I, are presented statically; the characters of the positive heroes, like Andrei Bolkonsky, Natasha Rostova, Marya Volkonskaya, are shown in development, in all the complexity and inconsistency of their inner life. This amazing art of depicting the inner life of a person in its constant movement, this brilliant ability to penetrate into the very recesses of mental life, the like of which we do not know before Tolstoy, was first noted by Chernyshevsky. He wrote about the works of L.N. Tolstoy that the writer is interested “most of all in the psychological process itself, its forms, its laws, the dialectics of the soul.” And further: “This depiction of an internal monologue must, without exaggeration, be called amazing... that side of Count Tolstoy, which gives him the opportunity to capture these mental monologues, constitutes a special strength in his talent, unique to him.”

During his stay in Yasnaya. Polyana V. G. Korolenko once told Lev Nikolaevich: “You know how to grab this moving thing in human nature and capture it, and this is the most difficult thing.”

And next to them “acted” people with deadened souls: Kuragins, Drubetskys, Berg, Beningsen, Scherer and many others.

Extremely important compositional role Captivating pictures of Russian nature play in the novel. Nature in Tolstoy’s depiction is always inseparable from man, from his external and internal life.

Tolstoy is also characterized by the combination artistic image with philosophical reasoning.

With the entire set of artistic compositional techniques, Tolstoy achieves a multifaceted, extremely clear reflection of historical events and the life of the indestructible Russian people.

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Composition of the novel "War and Peace"

“War and Peace” vividly reflected the life of Russia and partly Western Europe in the first two decades of the 19th century. Great historical events transfer the course of action from Russia to Austria, Prussia, Poland, the Balkans, from Smolensk to Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Russian and German villages, from the royal palace, the high society drawing room, the estate of the landowner on the battlefield, to the hospital, to the barracks of prisoners of war. The reader hears echoes of the bourgeois French Revolution, the European wars of 1805-1807 and 1812-1813 take place before him, great battles of nations flare up, and Napoleon's empire collapses. Along with this, the author shows dissatisfaction with their position as serfs, the legislative activities of Speransky, the general patriotic upsurge of 1812, the onset of reaction, and the organization of the first secret revolutionary society.

The culmination of “War and Peace” is the Battle of Borodino. This bloody battle, in which the forces of the warring parties were strained to the last limit, became the starting point for the salvation of Russia, on the one hand, the death of Napoleon’s army and the collapse of his power, on the other. The epilogue, from which we learn about the organization of a secret society, is perceived as the beginning of a new novel.

The heroes of the novel are both fictional characters and famous historical figures.

In the light of all these historical events and phenomena, Tolstoy depicts the peasantry and urban poor, the court and local nobility, and the advanced noble intelligentsia.

The main characters of the novel are taken from the nobility, and the plot develops in the same direction. The entire novel runs through the story of four families: the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, the Kuragins, and the Bezukhov family, which changed its composition several times, except for the main character. These four narrative lines form the basis of the plot of War and Peace. However, not only the Rostovs, Bolkonskys, Kuragins, Bezukhovs, who are invariably in the author’s field of vision, not only such major historical figures as Kutuzov and Napoleon, attract his attention: all 559 characters find their specific place in the novel, their characters and behavior are social and historically determined. Some of them appear briefly and then are lost in the general mass, others pass through the entire work, but all of them are perceived by the reader as living people. It is impossible to forget or mix with each other if they are outlined even by a few features, such as Lavrushka, officer Telyanin, Princess Kuragina, headman Dron, a soldier dancing in the cold without a sole and an infinite number of others.

But the main character here is the people, the author’s focus is on their mass image. In “War and Peace” there are clearly defined characters who almost do not protrude from the general mass background. They announce themselves with one or two lines, receive an apt but instantaneous outline, sometimes in two or three strokes, appear on stage only once within a few lines and then disappear, never to return. Showing with exceptional strength and persuasiveness the patriotism, humanity, sense of truth and justice of the Russian people and the best part of the noble intelligentsia gravitating towards them, Tolstoy contrasts them with the court aristocracy, which has become detached from the people and is in a state of hopeless moral decay. While the masses, experiencing severe suffering and hardship, are straining all their strength to fight the enemy, the courtiers are busy fishing for rubles, crosses and ranks; Countess Bez-ukhova negotiates with the Jesuits and enters the “bosom of the Catholic Church” in order to marry a foreign prince, etc. Thus, two social worlds appear before the reader in terms of antithesis.

The technique of contrast is also used by Tolstoy when comparing the people's commander Kutuzov and the conqueror Napoleon.

This compositional technique is also of great importance when depicting other characters, such as Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre, as well as entire groups of different internal makeup of people (officers of different types, such as Tushin, Timokhin, Dokhturov, on the one hand, and Berg, Zherkov, Bennigsen, etc. - on the other).

Reading the novel, you notice that images that have an accusatory character, such as Kuragins, Dolokhov, Berg, Napoleon, Alexander I, are presented statically; the characters of the positive heroes, like Andrei Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhov, Natasha Rostova, Marya Bolkonskaya, are shown in development, in all the complexity and inconsistency of their inner life. This amazing art of depicting the inner life of a person in its constant movement, this brilliant ability to penetrate into the very recesses of mental life, the like of which we do not know before Tolstoy, was first noted by Chernyshevsky. He wrote about the works of L.N. Tolstoy that the writer is interested “most of all in the psychological process itself, its forms, its laws, the dialectics of the soul.” And further: “This depiction of an internal monologue must, without exaggeration, be called amazing... that side of Count Tolstoy, which gives him the opportunity to capture these mental monologues, constitutes a special strength in his talent, unique to him.”

During his stay in Yasnaya Polyana, V. G. Korolenko once said to Lev Nikolaevich: “You know how to grab this moving thing in human nature and capture it, and this is the most difficult thing.”