This Fall at the Newberry: Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” Part I and Durova’s “The Cavalry Maiden”

Illustration by Andrei Nikolaev (1922-2013)

We will have a rare chance to spend this fall reading slowly and closely the first part (Books 1 and 2) of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1865–69), supplemented by Nadezhda Durova’s memoirs The Cavalry Maiden: Journals of a Russian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars (1836–39).

Although War and Peace is a story of the Russian Empire during the Napoleonic wars, it is also an exploration of the lives not just of one group of people or separate characters, but of the whole nation within a period of 20 years. Following the main characters of the novel, we will explore the fundamental issues that interested Tolstoy, the book’s reflection in film adaptations, and the way to read War and Peace now at the time of Russia’s turn towards imperialism and militarism.

During the last two meetings, for a different perspective, we will turn to The Cavalry Maiden: Journals of a Russian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars, the celebrated memoirs of Nadezhda Durova, a female cavalry officer, who served in the Russian army disguised as a man during the Napoleonic wars.

We will meet online via Zoom on Saturday mornings from 10:00 am to noon Central Time, for nine weeks starting starting September 21, 2024 and ending November 16, 2024. Registration begins 9 am Central Time on Wednesday, August 21. For more information on registration procedures, see the Newberry’s Adult Education page. The Newberry’s fall class listings have not been posted as of July; check the Newberry’s website during the first two weeks in August. For the complete course description and reading assignments, click here.