Tolstoy and the Genesis of War and Peace [Hardcover]

Kathryn B. Feuer (Author), Robin Feuer Miller (Editor), Donna Tussing Orwin (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1996

"The best thing ever done on how Tolstoy wrote War and Peace. Feuer shows us an incredible complexity in terms of the creative process. You see the seams and joints in the novel." --Gary Saul Morson, Northwestern University

"In 1963, Kathryn B. Feuer had access to the manuscripts of the drafts for the novel, almost 4,000 pages. At Tolstoy's home, she concentrated on a dozen books that related to his earlier conceptions of War and Peace. She was indefatigable, with every detail at her fingertips, and she could express fine perceptions with something of the lucidity and measure of her admired Jane Austen. . . . Her daughter and Donna Tussing Orwin completed their task of editing in such a way that the book everywhere shows that concern with thoroughly tested evidence that above all makes it a landmark in Tolstoy studies."--Times Literary Supplement

"The effectiveness of Feuer's account of the creation of War and Peace results from her remarkably cogent and uncluttered reading of the drafts and revisions that inform the description of Tolstoy's creative process. Tolstoy and the Genesis of War and Peace is destined to remain a classic on the subject."--Slavic Review

"Young novelists who listen to their creative writing teachers would be better served reading Feuer's brilliant study of the creation of War and Peace."--Common Knowledge

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In 1963, Feuer, who died in 1992, was one of a handful of American scholars permitted for extended periods in the Soviet Union on cultural exchange. In this scholarly work (originally her 1965 doctoral dissertation), published posthumously by her daughter Robin Feuer Miller (who accompanied her mother to the Soviet Union as a child), Feuer explains how Tolstoy, inspired by Decembrist events in Russia in 1856, intended War and Peace to be but the first volume of a Decembrist trilogy. Feuer also maps out differences among the numerous drafts of the novel as well as the many evolutions of the characters. Because she based her research on Tolstoy's own rough drafts of War and Peace, her work covers new ground. Feuer's study makes a good companion to a new, abridged edition of Tolstoy's diaries, compiled by Christian (Russian, St. Andrew's Univ.). The diaries date from 1847 to 1910, the year of Tolstoy's ignoble death in an obscure train station. At the end of his life in particular, Tolstoy the diarist unflinchingly reveals his unique personality?at once generous and avuncular and tyrannical and intolerant. His tumultuous 48-year marriage to Sofya Behrs unfolds painfully in the diaries; in this relationship in particular kernels of themes explored in his novels emerge. Christian has divided the diaries into six sections, each covering approximately ten years and containing a brief yet extremely informative introduction. Tolstoy did not keep orderly diaries, often scribbling on whatever was available, and the endnotes provide much useful detail about sources. Both works offer first-rate scholarship and deserve to be added to Russian literature collections.?Diane G. Premo, SILS, SUNY at Buffalo
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

The late Kathryn B. Feuer taught at the University of Toronto, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Virginia. Robin Feuer Miller is Edytha Macy Gross Professor of Humanities at Brandeis University. She is the author most recently of Dostoevsky's Unfinished Journey.

Donna Tussing Orwin is Professor of Russian Literature at the University of Toronto. She is the author most recently of Consequences of Consciousness --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 295 pages
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr; 1St Edition edition (December 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801419026
• ISBN-13: 978-0801419027
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #836,845 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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