"Literature deals with the intrusion of the extraordinary into the ordinary. This intrusion may begin in a work's very first sentence, as in Kafka's The Trial: "Somebody must have made a false accusation against Joseph K., for he was arrested one morningwithout having done anything wrong." Alternatively, it may be hinted at in the first sentences and more internally oriented, as in Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground: "I am a sick man ... I am a spiteful man. No, I am not a pleasant man at all. I believe there is something wrong with my liver. However, I don't know a damn thing about my liver; neither do I know whether there is anything really wrong with me." Tolstoy avoids such dramatic openings and introduces the extraordinary into the ordinary bymeans of storytelling. Literature, he believes, tells us stories about experiences that take us, temporarily or permanently, out of our comfort zone, off well-trodden paths. The story can be simple or complex, funny or tragic, about a small incident or the shattering of one's world. Using an example from Tolstoy's own What is Art , the story could be about a boy who encounters a wolf in the forest yet manages to run back to the safety of his home to tell the story to his parents, or to anyone who is willing to listen. In War and Peace, the story is about a series of brutal wars that Russia fought against France between 1805 and 1812, in which the Russian troops were pushed to the brink of defeat but eventually managed to overpower Napoleon's invading army and reestablish peace"--
This book consists of eight essays written by world-renowned Tolstoy specialists; the essays provide an in-depth consideration of the central topics of Tolstoy's masterpiece. Tolstoy's War and Peace explores the concepts of war and peace, historical truths, freedom, friendship, love, living, and dying. Underlying all of these discussions is the examination of Tolstoy's preoccupation with the pursuits of truth, goodness, and beauty in a world replete with deceptions, destructions, and artificiality. As a body of work, these essays together suggest that Tolstoy's novel leaves room for the possibility of objective values and judgments, as well as for the possibility of discerning some fundamental truths regarding the value and meaning of human life.
This collection of eight essays by world-renowned philosophers and literary critics thoroughly examines the philosophical perspectives of Leo Tolstoy's immortal novel War and Peace. By examining the narrative structure, as well as the struggles and destinies of the central characters, the authors offer in-- depth analyses of the multilayered topics of this work. These topics range from those of war and peace, of the possibility of historical truths, and of freedom and determination, to the issues about friendship, love, living, and dying. Underlying all these discussions is the examination of Tolstoy's preoccupation with the pursuits of truth, goodness, and beauty in a world replete with deceptions, destructions, and artificiality. Taken together, the essays suggest that Tolstoy's novel leaves open the door for the possibility of objective values and judgments, as well as for the possibility of discerning some fundamental truths regarding the value and meaning of human life. The novel's accounts of complex and multifaceted interactions among facts and values, as well as of the intrusion of the extraordinary into the ordinary, challenge readers to reflect on fundamental truths in the context of such interactions and intrusionsif they can only give full attention to what is present, rather than be carried away by constant anticipations of what may come next.
