Leo Tolstoy

War and Peace

Read by Neville Jason
CLASSIC
FICTION

NA404212D
1 July 1805 – ‘This means war’ 6:15
2 Pierre, illegitimate son of Count Behuzov 4:59
3 Prince Andrei queries Pierre’s future 6:45
4 Rum, a ledge and a dancing bear 4:51
5 The name day of St Natalya – at the Rostovs 10:04
6 A ball at the Rostovs 11:16
7 At Bleak Hills, the home of the Bolkonsky family 11:04
8 Old Prince Bolkonsky says farewell to his son 3:21
9 Kutuzov, Commander in Chief 6:16
10 Hélène Kuragin meets Pierre 8:52
11 November 1805 – The Battle of Austerlitz 4:20
12 Prince Andrei takes up the flag 9:42
13 Nikolay Rostov, Lieutenant of the Hussars 11:03
14 Pierre and Hélène – a separation 6:25
15 A new direction for Pierre 10:11
16 A new inspiration for Prince Andrei 6:37
17 A ball and a betrothal 10:07
18 Natasha goes to the opera 8:42
19 Anatole Kuragin 9:26
20 Kuragin and Dolohov plan an abduction 5:33

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21 A broken engagement and threats of war 9:29
22 The trappings for another war 5:32
23 The war comes to Smolensk, near Bleak Hills 4:46
24 Old Prince Bolkonsky falls unconscious 6:05
25 Civil breakdown in Moscow – Pierre reacts 11:47
26 August 25 – the eve of the Battle of Borodino 7:22
27 Prince Andrei in battle 8:28
28 The Rostovs prepare to flee Moscow 5:55
29 The last day in Moscow 6:08
30 The conquerors arrive in the capital 5:58
31 Pierre makes contact – and a decision 7:50
32 Natasha discovers the wounded Andrei 8:49
33 Pierre captured 6:55
34 In Petersburg – an unexpected death 7:37
35 Pierre on trial 8:14
36 Prince Andrei weakens 6:06
37 The tide of the war turns 5:41
38 The flight of the French, the plight of the Russians 8:33
39 Pierre meets old friends 8:21
40 Marriage and new lives 3:56
41 A new generation, fresh with hope? 10:08

Total time: 5:10:01

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 Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace
Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy was born in 1828 by every conceivable human force. He
at Yasnaya Polyana in the Tula province of wanted to show the whole evolution of
Russia. He studied Oriental languages and events and personalities. Each character
law at the University of Kazan and after must change and, in turn, affect those
serving in the Crimean War, he wrote The around him. The most notable examples of
Sebastopol Stories, which established his course are Pierre, who changes from
literary reputation. A great reformer, he dissolute wastrel to responsible landlord and
spent time in St Petersburg and abroad loving father and husband, and Prince
studying educational theories which he then Andrey, who, disillusioned with military life,
applied in his school for peasant children on first opts for domestic tranquillity, but then,
his estate in Yasnaya Polyana. In 1862 he partly through Natasha, finds new
married Sophie Andreyevna Behrs. They had motivation and ultimately an acute self-
thirteen children and Tolstoy spent his time awareness.
managing his estate and writing: War and The abridgement of a work of this scale
Peace (1865-68), Anna Karenina (1874-76), and breadth poses particular problems, as
A Confession (1879-82). A series of the plot for Tolstoy was the vehicle by which
pamphlets he wrote rejecting the state and he could express his own philosophy of
church earned him many enemies and in history; indeed, there is a long epilogue to
1901 he was excommunicated by the the book in which he expounds in detail his
Russian holy synod. He died in 1910. theories and at times throughout the text
Although the main narrative of War and there are lengthy expositions. This
Peace is a panorama of Russian life, both abridgement aims to draw the listener into
domestic and military, during the the basic narrative of the book: the violence
Napoleonic Wars, Tolstoy`s main purpose and drama of war, the passion and turmoil
was to show that the continuity of life in of love, in short, the life of aristocratic
history is eternal; that history is influenced Russians as it was lived through the
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turbulent years of the early nineteenth to Moscow because he wanted to, and
century. Tolstoy was no doubt aware that perished because Alexander desired his
the themes of War and Peace, the decisions destruction, will be just as right and wrong
and actions of the characters, speak for as the man who says that a mass weighing
themselves, but he was keen that his voice thousands of tons, tottering and
should also be heard. The following undermined, fell in consequence of the last
passage, which does not appear in the blow of the pickaxe wielded by the last
abridgement, encapsulates his philosophy: navvy. In historical events great men – so-
Why does an apple fall when it is ripe? Is called – are but labels serving to give a
it brought down by the force of gravity? Is it name to the event, and like labels they have
because its stalk withers? Because it is dried the least possible connection with the event
by the sun, because it grows too heavy, or itself.
the wind shakes it, or because the boy Every action of theirs, that seems to them
standing under the tree wants to eat it? an act of their own free-will, is in the
None of these is the cause. They only historical sense not free at all but is bound
make up the combination of conditions up with the whole course of history and
under which every living process of organic preordained from all eternity.
nature fulfils itself ... In the same way the
historian who declares that Napoleon went Notes by Heather Godwin

Cover picture: Officier de chasseurs de la garde impériale chargeant by Theodore Géricault.

By courtesy Musées de la Ville de Rouen.
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 The main characters in
War and Peace
The Bolkonskys The Kuragins
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky – wealthy Russian Prince Vassily
prince Anatole – Prince Vassily’s son
Princess Lisa ‘The little princess’ – Andrei’s Hélène – Prince Vassily’s daughter
wife
Prince Nikolay Bolkonsky – Andrei’s Other characters
tyrannical father Dolohov – a gambler and socialite
Princess Marya – Andrei’s sister General Kutuzov – Russian commander-
in-chief
The Rostovs Napoleon Bonaparte – French commander-
Count Rostov in-chief
Countess Rostov Marya Dimitryevna – Moscow matron,
Natasha – their beautiful daughter friend of the Rostovs
Nikolay – their eldest son Osip Alexyevitch Bazdyev – a distinguished
Petya – their youngest son Freemason
Sonya – cousin to Natasha
The main action of the story takes
The Behuzovs place between 1805 and 1813.
Pierre Behuzov – illegitimate son of a
wealthy count
Count Behuzov – Pierre’s wealthy father

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 The music on this recording is taken from the NAXOS catalogue

BORODIN PRINCE IGOR (RUSSIAN FESTIVAL) 8.550085

CSR Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava)/Anthony Bramall
TCHAIKOVSKY SOUVENIR DE FLORENCE 8.550404
Vienna Chamber Orchestra/Philippe Entremont
VOLKMANN RICHARD III OVERTURE ETC
(BATTLE MUSIC) 8.550230
CSR Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava)/Ondrej Lenard
RIMSKY KORSAKOV SINFONIETTA ON RUSSIAN THEMES 8.550812
St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra/André Anichanov
RIMSKY KORSAKOV SYMPHONY NO 1 ‘ANTAR’ 8.550811
St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra/André Anichanov
TCHAIKOVSKY EUGENE ONEGIN: WALTZ 8.550137
CSR Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava)/Ondrej Lenard
J. STRAUSS JR FAMOUS WALTZES VOLUME 5 8.550340
CSR Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava)/Ondrej Lenard

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 Engineer (speech): Alan Smyth, Bucks Audio Cassettes
Company
Post-production: Simon Weir, The Classical Recording
Abridged by Heather Godwin. Produced by Nicolas Soames
Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace
Read by Neville Jason

War and Peace is one of the greatest monuments in world literature.

Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, it
examines the relationship between the individual and the relentless
march of history. Here are the universal themes of love and hate,
ambition and despair, youth and age, expressed with a swirling vitality
which makes the book as accessible today as it was when it was first
published in 1869.

Neville Jason trained at RADA where he was awarded

the Diction Prize by Sir John Gielgud. He has worked

Made in Germany.
p 1995 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd. © 1995 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.
BROADCASTING AND COPYING OF THESE COMPACT DISCS PROHIBITED.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. UNAUTHORISED PUBLIC PERFORMANCE,
with the English Stage Co., the Old Vic Company and
the RSC as well as in films, TV and musicals. He is
frequently heard on radio. He also reads Far From The
Madding Crowd, Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire, Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Proust’s
Remembrance of Things Past for Naxos AudioBooks.

“Executed with scrupulous care,

Neville Jason acts the different voices with skill.”
THE TIMES EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT

CD ISBN: View our catalogue online at

978-962-634-042-4 www.naxosaudiobooks.com Total time
5:10:01