Napoleon in his study at the Tuileries
Before I even finished reading Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, I knew what my next read had to be: Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. I knew that the two were contemporaries who embodied the idea of Russia in their writings, and they appeared to have great respect for one another. Upon hearing of Dostoevsky’s death, Tolstoy wrote, “I never saw the man, and never had any direct relations with him, yet suddenly when he died I understood that he was the nearest and dearest and most necessary of men to me.”
But I had no idea how interrelated their most famous novels are. Apparently the two men used the same publisher to serialize their novels. While Tolstoy was ensconced in his country estate, slowly struggling to write and rewrite his massive epic, originally called 1805, his fortunate publisher Mihail Katkov had another talented author mired in a financial crisis caused by gambling debts and desperate for income. This other author dashed off a note with the idea for Crime and Punishment and Katkov quickly bought it. Imagine being the publisher who featured the serialized version of Dostoevsky’s masterpiece in his journal beginning in January of 1866 and in successive publications switched back and forth between that and the ongoing saga created by Tolstoy! It is almost impossible that these two authors were published at the same time by the same editor in the same periodical without having an impact on each other.
It seems in my first few pages of reading that the first topic they both share is Napoleon, although Tolstoy’s idea of Napoleon almost seems to counter the “Napoleonic genius” figure of Raskolnikov’s philosophy. At the very least, there are character viewpoints ranging from genius to fool regarding this man who is such an omnipresent figure at this particular period of Russian history.
The setting and mood of this novel, at least so far, are dramatically different. Tolstoy’s characters move in elite circles. They have wealth and titles and political clout. Everybody has something that deserves complaint, but there is much more in the way of drawing room manipulation and much less crushing poverty. It is a substantially easier read, though I don’t know if this can be attributed to the translation or the original author, but I must say I am relieved. I don’t think I could read 1384 pages of Crime and Punishment.
Wow, that’s a long book . . .
On the Shoulders of Giants 