"So... What's Next?" ...or... Inching Toward the Finish Line

"He had to remain in Moscow, concealing his name, meet Napoleon, and kill him, so as either to perish, or to put an end to the misfortunes of all Europe, which proceeded, in Pierre's opinion, solely from Napoleon."

- Leo Tolstoy (III.3.xvii)

Day Count: 107

Page Count: 901

Yes, I am still reading War and Peace! No, I have not finished it yet (though I am getting closer every day)! No, I have not given up blogging (even though my posts have been non-existent for the better part of this month)!

Reading War and Peace has been like a marathon, pacing myself so as not to try to do too much too quickly. I'm certain that I could have tried to sprint right through it, but there is so much going on - so many amazing characters, so much history recounted through such floral prose - that to take it any faster would mean to miss so much more than I'm sure I'm missing now on my first read. (In my experience, most nuance can't really be sussed out until later readings.)

Still, my initial goal of reading War and Peace in a year should be met relatively easily. In fact, it's my hope that I'll have the book finished by the end of next month... which brings to mind the question of what I'll do next. After all, did I not say in my very first post that I was devoting all of 2011 to the reading of War and Peace? (I went back and checked just to make sure - I did say that.) What am I going to do when I close the book - literally - on War and Peace and am left with nothing to read (particularly at the beginning of the busy "summer reading" season)?!

Fret not, faithful readers (all few of you)! The end of War and Peace will not be the end of my readings in Tolstoy! In fact, I've decided to keep this blog going for a while longer and devote it not just to War and Peace, but to the writings of Tolstoy in general. I will be "Tackling Tolstoy" on a much larger scale than originally planned.

After War and Peace, I'm planning on picking up the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation of Anna Karenina (which I do own: a gift from my department head):

Again, I've chosen the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation (which won the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Award and, perhaps less impressively, was chosen as an official Oprah's Book Club selection) because of the level of enjoyment I've gotten out of reading their translation of War and Peace. Now, Anna K has far fewer pages than War and Peace (which is a 1215 page book, while Anna K sports only 864 pages), which means I'm not anticipating another 5 month ordeal for reading that one. Maybe four. So, what then? Those are the two most important of Tolstoy's works!

While researching that, I noticed that there was a recent translation (by the Dynamic Duo of Russian Lit themselves) of Tolstoy's short story collection The Death of Ivan Ilyich:

Again, shorter than the previous two books, my hope is to have the three major works of Tolstoy read before the end of 2011, truly making this the Year of Tolstoy! (Plus, if I have some time at the end of the year - a week or two free, perhaps - I'd love to check out some of Tolstoy's religious essays like "The Kingdom of God is Within You" or Isaiah Berlin's essay on Tolstoy's view of history, "The Hedgehog and the Fox" as a way of rounding out my year.)

To that end (that is, the end of finishing War and Peace), it is my hope that by this time tomorrow, I will be over three-quarters of the way through Tolstoy's epic - another colossal milestone! - which is, at present count, a scant ten pages away (though math was never a strong suit of mine). I feel confident that my projection goals of finishing by May are both attainable and reasonable and I look forward to sharing my thoughts as I begin the last quarter of this adventure!

Coming soon (though, in reality, who can say when?): Part Three of the War and Peace and Religion series - featuring the Rostovs and the Bezukhovs!

"So... How's It Going?"

"It was strange for Princess Marya to think that now, at a moment when such grief filled her soul, there could be rich and poor people, and that the rich would not help the poor."

- Leo Tolstoy (III.2.x)

Day Count: 92

Page Count: 729

Last night, I went out with my friend Kelly and, while out, ran into some other friends that I had not seen in far too long a while. As the night went on, I was able to catch up with these friends and get to hear how their lives had been going and share with them what I had been up to. At one point, my friend Kari turns to me and simply says, "So... how's War and Peace going?"

I have to admit now that this question brought a smile to my face. While I had not seen Kari and her husband Richard in about a year, she has still been following my Twitter updates via Facebook. She hasn't checked out this blog yet (for shame!), but she admitted enjoying the direct quotes I'd been posting, which made me feel good. It reminded me of why I'm using the Internet in this experience in the first place - not necessarily for notoriety or kudos (though I wouldn't be adverse to those things), but for the accountability that reading something like this publicly provides.

This question led to a conversation about what it was that I really loved about War and Peace - which, at this moment, has be Tolstoy's overall realism. His characters are not caricatures or over-simplifications, but real people who struggle with real problems in genuine and believable ways. Someone like Lise Bolkonsky - the 'little princess' - who, in life, felt like the most frivolous and expendable human being imaginable, becomes, in death, a pitiable and heartbreaking individual. The same could be said for the 'old prince,' Nikolai Bolkonsky: in life, he was an irascible and cantankerous brute; in sickness and death, he softens, seeking redemption and forgiveness for his many sins. Even the ruthless brute Dolokhov, who cheats Nikolai Rostov out of the Rostov family fortune and has an affair with Pierre's wife Helene, is redeemed by his taking care of his ailing mother and deformed sister.

Even Tolstoy's greatest characters are deeply flawed. The heroic Andrei is constantly disillusioned with life, seeking fulfillment in people who ultimately let him down. The noble Pierre is a morbidly obese bundle of insecurities, easily swayed and struggling to find meaning wherever he can. The beautiful Natasha - as mentioned earlier, the 'paragon of femininity' - falls for the 'bad boy,' Anatole Kuragin, forsaking her fiancee, Andrei. The pious and righteous Marya loses her faith after her father's death and is often slave to her own petty thoughts and jealousies.

Tolstoy pulls you into his world. You feel as though these people are not fabrications of a man's imagination, but people who actually existed and went through these various obstacles and made these decisions. You want to know how things turn out for them - whether or not Andrei will ever find meaning for his life or Pierre will ever man up. They become more than characters in a book; they become people that you know and interact with on a personal level... and that is pretty incredible!

So, if you see me around and are looking to strike up a conversation, ask me how War and Peace is going... just be prepared for a good conversation to follow. :)