According to Le Vicompte E. Melchior de Vogue in The Russian Novel (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1916), War and Peace is"a unique alliance between the grand spirit of an epic and that of minute analysis." This"unique alliance" derives from Tolstoy's careful craftsmanship, only a few significant devices of which we have space here to discuss.
To provide the vast material of War and Peace with some semblance of unity, the author must make his transitions between ideas or between settings intelligible to enable the reader to keep up with the movement of the novel. Tolstoy smoothly introduces us to the three settings wherein we first meet the major and minor characters as he takes us from one party in Petersburg to another in Moscow, and thence to a family reunion at Bleak Hills. From the general war scene at Austerlitz in Book III, Tolstoy conveys us, in Book IV, to a scene of violence in a duel between Pierre and Dolohov. This marks the transition between the"outer" state of war and the inner turmoil within Pierre. The radiant intermezzo of Book VII shows us the end of youth for the Rostovs and prepares us for Natasha's sad moment of maturation in Book VIII. Within this movement, Pierre appears as the transition figure between the personal events of the novel and the gathering tide of war that engulfs the whole nation. He effects the bridge to convey us from Natasha's heartsick lethargy to Russia's major historic struggle. Many other significant and masterfully executed transitions can be cited besides these examples, but the careful reader can discern these for himself (or herself) as he or she studies the novel.
