War and Peace (Penguin Classics) Paperback – Illustrated, February 24, 2009

プーチン大統領の愛読書であり「世界最大の小説」と称されてる本書を私ごとき豚児が書評をかける故もないのですがその素晴らしさに圧倒され筆をとりました。多少の小説は読みました、「風と共に去りぬ」、「大地」そして「誰がために鐘はなる」、全て素晴らしい作品ですが、「戦争と平和」がこれらに与えた影響は多大です。トルストイ以前の哲学と宗教に加え科学的見地を加えた世界観・人間観が全く新しい見方をもたらしてます。仏語を日常に使用し、王室と女性にしか興味のないロシア貴族階級が、ナポレオンの侵攻にどう対応するのかが、本書の主題です。愛国心に満ちた若き貴公子が初陣であっけなく頭を射貫かれ、狡猾な老将軍たちは巧みに戦場から離れる対比。信仰心の塊だった貴婦人は、愛人のできた父親の伯爵から冷たく扱われ信仰の意味を失う。最大の謎はナポレオンが略奪と大火のみが残り、栄誉・富の一切ないモスクワまで何故侵攻したのか？彼の「意志」がそうさせたのか？それともモスクワ侵攻は「運命」だったのか？人間と歴史を「意志と運命」の相反する観点から展開させ記述し、本質に迫る描写には圧倒される。気になったのはトルストイが強調してる「Good of living and the love of death」の一節。「love of death」は東洋思想には有りません、これが現在のロシア・ウクライナ戦争にどんな影響を与えるのか？本書は現在も生きてます。

Andrzej Wajda's “The Promised Land” was a very strange film to me. It is a 179 minute-long film and tells the story of a Pole, a German, and a Jew struggling to build a factory in the raw world of 19th century capitalism.In the last scene, the now wealthy partners order police to shoot striking workers, and the leader of the strike is shot down. The leader runs bloodstained and breathless with a red flag in his hand.Strange to say, what impressed me most was the last one minute of the leader running bloodstained and breathless. In a moment of extravagance, I thought that this leader was the main character of this film, even though his performance was only one minute out of 179 minutes.In the same way, what impressed me most in “War and Peace” was the last epilogue. Seven years have passed since the end of the story and one must be surprised at how things and people have changed. For example, there is no Natasha who was so sweet, so unpredictable, and so delightful.“Natasha was so neglectful of herself that her dresses, the way she did her hair, her untimely remarks, her jealousy---she was jealous of Sonya, of the governess, of every woman, pretty or plain---were stock jests among her friends. The general opinion was that Pierre was tied to his wife’s apron strings, which really was the case.”In comparison to the great story, this epilogue is miserable and tragic. But no matter how wonderful the story is and no matter how miserable the epilogue is, I am bound to think that the truth is rather in the epilogue.Tolstoy did not write thus, I think, in bitterness, but because he knew that this is what it would all come to. And he had to tell the truth.

WAR AND PEACE successfully captured life's promises, challenges, joys, triumphs, and losses in a way that no other novels has done before and after. In this novel with more characters than any other I can imagine; the main characters are Pierre Bezuhov, Prince Andrey Bolkonsky, and Natasha Rostov, who are all affected by the destabilization of the war Napoleon brought upon Russia in the early nineteenth century. It is around them that the other characters revolve. Even though the sheer size of this novel of over a million words may discourage readers to pick it up, the consuming nature of the story keeps a reader glued to the book from the opening pages. The sheer power of this romantic and adventurous story made this classic story to survive as perhaps the best of all times.The essence of Power, which is what leads individuals to move nations is the ultimate question of War and Peace. And this individuals or great men of history, are in reality the slave of history. That underlying fact can be found in other Russian stories. UNION MOUJIK, TARAS BULBA, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT,MASTER AND MAN feature that concept. The war part of the story features remarkable military campaigns such as those by Napoleon and his Russian counterpart, Emperor Aleksandr, as they employed their different strategies in the quest for victory on the lands of Russia.War and Peace is entertaining as well as enlightening and is considered by many to be the master of all Russian novels. Its overview of Russian life and culture involving peasants and the aristocracy gives a true to life portrayal of humanity. You can find glimpses of other Great Russian novels in this story. In short, this epic cannot be forgotten after you have read it.

Maude訳 とよく似た翻訳で、Maude 訳でわからない箇所を当たるにはうってつけの翻訳。それにしてもロシア語と英語の近さがうらやましい。