Features of the genre of the work of war and peace. Genre and plot originality

Novel "War and Peace" - a work of large volume. It covers 16 years (from 1805 to 1821) of the life of Russia and more than five hundred different heroes. Among them there are real characters of the described historical events, fictional characters and many people to whom Tolstoy does not even give names, for example, "the general who ordered", "the officer who did not get there." Thus, the writer wanted to show that the movement of history does not occur under the influence of any specific personalities, but thanks to all participants in the events. In order to combine such a huge material into one work, the author created a genre that had not been used before by any of the writers, which he named epic novel.

The novel describes real historical events: the Austerlitz, Shengrabenskoye, Borodino battles, the conclusion of the Tilsit peace, the capture of Smolensk, the surrender of Moscow, partisan war and others, in which real historical personalities manifest themselves. Historical events in the novel also play a compositional role. Since the Battle of Borodino largely determined the outcome of the war of 1812, 20 chapters are devoted to its description, it is the culmination center of the novel. The work contains pictures of the battle, giving way to the image of the world as the complete opposite of war, peace, as the existence of a community of many, many people, as well as nature, that is, everything that surrounds a person in space and time. Disputes, misunderstandings, latent and overt conflicts, fear, hostility, love ... All this is real, alive, sincere, like the heroes of a literary work themselves.

Finding themselves nearby in certain moments of their lives, people who are completely different from each other suddenly help themselves to better understand all shades of feelings and motives of behavior. Thus, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and Anatol Kuragin will play an important role in the life of Natasha Rostova, but their attitude towards this naive and fragile girl is different. The situation that has arisen allows us to discern a deep chasm between the moral ideals of these two men from high society. But their conflict does not last long - seeing that Anatole was also wounded, Prince Andrew forgives his rival right on the battlefield. As the action of the novel develops, the worldview of the characters changes or gradually deepens. Three hundred thirty-three chapters of four volumes and twenty-eight chapters of the epilogue add up to a clear, definite picture.

The novel is not narrated in the first person, but the presence of the author in each scene is palpable: he always tries to assess the situation, to show his attitude to the hero's actions through their description, through the hero's inner monologue or through the author's digression-reasoning. Sometimes the writer gives the reader the right to understand what is happening himself, showing the same event from different points of view. An example of such an image is the description of the Borodino battle: first, the author gives a detailed historical information about the alignment of forces, about the readiness for battle on both sides, tells about the point of view of historians on this event; then he shows the battle through the eyes of a non-professional in military affairs - Pierre Bezukhov (that is, he shows a sensual, not logical perception of the event), reveals the thoughts of Prince Andrei and Kutuzov's behavior during the battle. In his novel, L.N. Tolstoy sought to express his point of view on historical events, to show his attitude to important life problems, to answer the main question: "What is the meaning of life?" And Tolstoy's call on this issue sounds so that one cannot but agree with him: "We must live, we must love, we must believe."

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Artistic features of the novel

The moral and philosophical meaning of the work

Any literary work can be attributed to any genre - epic, lyric, dramatic. “War and Peace” is a large and complex work. What genre should it be attributed to?

Some see in the work primarily a historical novel, which tells about the invasion of Napoleon's troops in Russia, as well as about the people who lived at that time. But is it? “War and Peace” is not just a story about historical events. This is noticeable even if you look closely at the composition of the novel. Description of the life of ordinary families, such as Rostovs, Bolkonskys and others, alternates with descriptions of battles, military operations, stories about the personalities of Napoleon, Kutuzov. At the same time, we see pictures of a completely different kind. People get to know each other, part, declare their love, marry for love and for convenience - that is, they live an ordinary life. A whole string of meetings passes before the eyes of the readers over the years. And history does not stand still. Emperors decide questions of war and peace, the war of 1812 begins. The peoples of Europe, forgetting about their home and family, are heading to Russia to conquer it. These troops are headed by Napoleon. He is confident and values \u200b\u200bhimself highly. And L.N. Tolstoy, as if imperceptibly comparing him with peaceful people, shows that Napoleon is not at all a genius, that he is just an adventurer, like many others who do not bear a loud title and are not crowned with the crown of the emperor.

One of the features of War and Peace is the large number of philosophical digressions. More than once in them the author argues that Napoleon was not the cause of the war at all. Tolstoy writes: "Just as this or that figure is drawn in a stencil, not because in which direction and how to smear on it with paints, but because the figure cut out in the stencil was smeared with paint in all directions." One person doesn't make history. But when nations gather, although they have different goals, but act in the same way, then events occur that remain in history. Napoleon did not understand this, considering himself the reason for the movement, the clash of peoples.

Count Rostopchin is somewhat similar to Napoleon, confident that he did everything to save Moscow, although, in fact, he did nothing.

There are people in War and Peace who really care about the question of Russia's life and death. One of them is M.I.Kutuzov. He understands the situation and neglects the opinion of others about himself. He perfectly understands both Prince Andrey and the careerist Bennigsen, and, in fact, the whole of Russia. He understands people, their aspirations, desires, and hence the fatherland. He sees what is good for Russia and for the Russian people.

MI Kutuzov understands this, but Napoleon does not. Throughout the novel, the reader sees this difference and sympathizes with Kutuzov.

What does it mean to understand people? Prince Andrew also understands the souls of other people. But he believes that in order to change the world, everyone must improve themselves first of all. He did not accept war, because war is violence. It is through the image of his beloved hero that Lev Nikolaevich conveys his own thoughts. Prince Andrew is a military man, but he does not accept war. Why?

“There are two sides of life in every person: personal life, which is all the freer the more abstract its interests are, and spontaneous, swarm life, where a person inevitably fulfills the laws prescribed to him,” the author writes.

But why should a person live a second life, where he is lost as a person and serves as an unconscious instrument of history? What is all this for?

And Leo Tolstoy calls in his novel to end unnecessary, senseless wars and live in peace. War and Peace is not just a historical novel, it is a project to build a new spiritual world. As a result of wars, people leave their families, become a faceless mass, which is destroyed by exactly the same other mass. LN Tolstoy dreamed of ending wars on earth, about people living in harmony, giving themselves up to their sorrows and joys, meetings and partings, and being free spiritually. To convey his thoughts to readers, Lev Nikolayevich wrote a book where he not only consistently expounds his thoughts, his views, but also illustrates them using the example of the life of people during the Patriotic War. Those who read this book do not just perceive other people's judgments, but experience together with the heroes, imbued with their feelings and through them communicate with Leo Tolstoy. “War and Peace” is a kind of holy book, similar to the Bible. Its main idea, as Tolstoy wrote, is "the foundation of a new religion ... giving bliss on earth." But how to create this world full of grace? Prince Andrew, who carried the image of this new world, dies. Pierre decided to join a secret society, which will again try to change the lives of people by violent measures. This will no longer be a perfect world. So is it even possible?

Apparently, L. N. Tolstoy leaves this question for the readers to think about. Indeed, to change the world, you need to change your own soul. How Prince Andrew tried to do it. And each of us can change ourselves.

The novel "War and Peace" is a large-scale work. It covers 16 years (from 1805 to 1821) of the life of Russia and more than five hundred different heroes. Among them there are real characters of the described historical events, fictional heroes and many people to whom Tolstoy does not even give names, for example, "the general who ordered", "the officer who did not get there." Thus, the writer wanted to show that the movement of history does not occur under the influence of any specific individuals, but thanks to all participants in the events. To combine such a huge amount of material into one work, the author created a genre that had not been used before by any of the writers, which he called an epic novel.

The novel describes real historical events: Austerlitz, Shengrabenskoye, Borodino battles, the conclusion of the Tilsit Peace Treaty, the capture of Smolensk, the surrender of Moscow, partisan war and others, in which real historical figures manifest themselves. Historical events in the novel also play a compositional role. Since the Battle of Borodino largely determined the outcome of the war of 1812, 20 chapters are devoted to its description, it is the culmination center of the novel. The work contains pictures of the battle, giving way to the image of the world as the complete opposite of war, peace, as the existence of a community of many, many people, as well as nature, that is, everything that surrounds a person in space and time. Disputes, misunderstanding, latent and overt conflicts, fear, hostility, love ... All this is real, alive, sincere, like the heroes of a literary work themselves.

Finding themselves nearby in certain moments of their lives, people who are completely different from each other suddenly help themselves to better understand all shades of feelings and motives of behavior. Thus, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and Anatol Kuragin will play an important role in the life of Natasha Rostova, but their attitude towards this naive and fragile girl is different. The situation that has arisen allows us to discern a deep chasm between the moral ideals of these two men from high society. But their conflict does not last long - seeing that Anatole was also wounded, Prince Andrey forgives his rival right on the battlefield. As the action of the novel develops, the worldview of the characters changes or gradually deepens. Three hundred thirty-three chapters of four volumes and twenty-eight chapters of the epilogue add up to a clear, definite picture.

The novel is not narrated in the first person, but the presence of the author in each scene is palpable: he always tries to assess the situation, to show his attitude to the hero's actions through their description, through the hero's inner monologue or through the author's digression-reasoning. Sometimes the writer gives the reader the right to understand what is happening himself, showing the same event from different points of view. An example of such an image is the description of the Borodino battle: first, the author gives a detailed historical information about the alignment of forces, about the readiness for battle on both sides, tells about the point of view of historians on this event; then he shows the battle through the eyes of a non-professional in military affairs - Pierre Bezukhov (that is, he shows a sensual, not logical perception of the event), reveals the thoughts of Prince Andrei and Kutuzov's behavior during the battle. In his novel, L. N. Tolstoy sought to express his point of view on historical events, to show his attitude to important life problems, to answer the main question: "What is the meaning of life?" And Tolstoy's call on this issue sounds so that one cannot but agree with him: "We must live, we must love, we must believe."

Genre and plot originality of the novel "War and Peace"

Genre features of the work

LN Tolstoy himself said that the work is difficult to rank among any genre, that he conceived to embody the idea as he sees, regardless of the genre. As a result, the work "War and Peace" turned out to be very complex and varied in genre style. It was not for nothing that Tolstoy's stylistic skill aroused the admiration of many masters of the word. "War and Peace" is one of the most complex and masterful works in all world literature.

The peculiarities of the work lie in the fact that it contains several genres. Tolstoy paid great attention to historical nuances, tried to reproduce them as accurately as possible, but at the same time he did not pursue purely historical, memoir goals. It was important for him to create an artistic image, to show the story as it was, but under a certain angle that would correspond to the idea of \u200b\u200bthe work.

Based on real historical phenomena, Tolstoy creates an artistic fiction, an artistic image, due to which he has the opportunity to truly depict a person in difficult life situations, to do it in a procedural and voluminous manner. Also, the author makes the plot not monosyllabic, but multi-line. It covers the destinies of many people, tying them into a single thread of the narrative. A person appears in the foreground of the work. And genres merge into one big epic, forming a completely unique and peculiar work.

Historical novel

It is impossible to unambiguously recognize "war and peace" as a historical novel. Lev Nikolayevich tried to depict historical events and faces as authentically as possible, he collected all possible information and documents, talked with participants in the events, used his own experience and knowledge. Nevertheless, historical accuracy has become only a background for the artistic image.

Social romance

There are signs of a social romance in War and Peace. Tolstoy is very worried about issues related to the structure of society. He explores the relationship of people within one social class and between different strata of society. It is important for him to show not only the soul of one person, the protagonist, but to understand the soul of an entire nation.

Philosophical novel

Along with the narrative line, Tolstoy introduces many lyrical digressions and philosophical reflections into the novel. The novel examines both universal human philosophical problems and the role of the individual in the course of large-scale world events. The philosophical reflections of the author find a place on the pages of his fiction. Tolstoy rejects the role of Napoleon's personality as a great commander. He claims that such events are ruled by a coincidence of circumstances and entire nations, and he compares Bonaparte himself to a child who pulls the fringe in a cart, but thinks and even sincerely believes that he is driving the cart.

The genre originality of War and Peace only confirms the greatness of the novel. It brings many aspects together. Thanks to the painstaking work of the master of the word, the epic can really be considered one of the greatest works of Russian and world literature.

This article will help to competently write an essay on the topic "Genre originality of" War and Peace ", to argue that the novel belongs to several genres.

Product test

Epic novel- narrates about significant, grandiose events from the history of the country, illuminates important aspects of people's life, views, ideals, life and customs of various layers of society.
The assessment of historical events in the epic novel is given from the point of view of the entire people.

"War and Peace" is not only the largest work of Leo Tolstoy, but also the greatest work of world literature of the 19th century. There are about six hundred characters in the work. "It is terribly difficult to ponder and reconsider everything that can happen to all future people of the forthcoming composition, which is very large, and to ponder the millions of possible combinations in order to choose one millionth from them," the writer complained. Tolstoy experienced such difficulties while working on each of the great works. But they were especially great when the writer created "War and Peace", and it is not surprising. After all, the action of this novel lasts more than fifteen years and covers an enormous number of events. The writer really had to think about "millions of possible combinations" and choose from them only the most necessary, the brightest and most truthful.

Tolstoy wrote fifteen versions of the beginning of War and Peace during the year. As can be seen from the surviving manuscripts, he tried to start the novel with the author's introduction, which gave an assessment of the historical events of 1812, then with a scene that takes place in Moscow, then in St. Petersburg, then on the estate of the old prince Bolkonsky, then abroad. What did the writer achieve by changing the beginning of the novel so many times? This can be seen by reading the scene that opens "War and Peace". Tolstoy shows the high society salon of the maid of honor Anna Pavlovna Scherer, where eminent guests meet and have a lively conversation about what worried Russian society most of all at that time - about the upcoming war with Napoleon. Reading this scene, we get to know many characters and among them two main characters of the novel - Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov.

Tolstoy found such a beginning of the work, which immediately introduces us into the atmosphere of the pre-war era, acquaints us with the main characters, shows how their views and opinions collided when assessing the most pressing issues of the time.

And from this first scene until the end of the novel, we watch with unflagging interest and excitement how events unfold and how an increasing number of people become their participants.

War and Peace shows Russian life at the beginning of the 19th century in all its diversity, captures the historical events associated with the two wars, 1805-1807 and 1812, as well as events in the political and social life of Russia. Pictures of major events of historical importance are intertwined in the novel with everyday scenes, which depict the everyday life of the heroes with all its joys and sorrows.

Tolstoy was equally successful in both military and peaceful paintings and scenes. And he experienced great creative joy from this. To paint a picture of the Battle of Borodino, he traveled to Borodino and created such a picture of a battle that has never been seen in Russian or in the entire world literature. Each of the important moments of the Battle of Borodino and each of its essential details are outlined with amazing clarity. We ourselves seem to be present in the center of what is happening - at the Kurgan battery, from where we see the entire battlefield.

One of the best "peaceful" scenes in the novel is the hunting scene. The discerning author himself was very pleased with it.

In order to reliably describe the events of the Patriotic War of 1812, Tolstoy studied many books, historical documents, letters and other materials about this era. Reading what Russian and foreign historians wrote about the Patriotic War of 1812, Tolstoy became extremely indignant. He saw that the former "unrestrainedly praised Emperor Alexander I, considering him the winner of Napoleon, while the latter praised Napoleon, calling him invincible. They tried to prove that Napoleon was defeated not by the Russian army led by Kutuzov, but ... by the fierce Russian frosts.

Tolstoy resolutely rejected all those "works" of historians in which the war of 1812 is depicted as a war between two emperors - Alexander and Napoleon. He showed it as a liberation war waged by the Russian people against foreign invaders. It was the Patriotic War, in which, as Tolstoy writes, "the goal of the people was the same: to clear their land from the invasion." The writer said that he loved in this work of his "popular thought", that for the Russian people this war was sacred, since it was about the most important thing - about saving the homeland from foreign enslavement.

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