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1-Page Summary of War and Peace

War and Peace is a novel that starts in 1805, follows five noble families, and has to do with the Napoleonic wars.

1. The Rostovs are a poor family. They have four children: snippy Vera, romantic Nikolai, beautiful Natasha and boisterous Pyotr. They also take in Sonya Rostov, a young orphaned cousin around the same age as Natasha. The Bolkonskys are wealthy aristocrats who live at Bald Hills. Led by Countess Rostova’s brother Nikolai Bolkonsky and his wife Lise (who is pregnant with their second child). Prince Andrei is cold-hearted and ambitious while Princess Marya is pious and cares for her people.

2. The Kuragin family is led by Prince Vassily and his three children, Ippolit, Anatole, and Hélène.

3. The Drubetskoys are another family that is in financial trouble. The Princess and her son, Boris, are working together to get out of debt.

The story takes place in Russia during the Napoleonic wars. Pierre is a young man who was born out of wedlock and has been abroad since childhood because his father had him sent away to study there. He’s attending Anna Pavlovna Scherer’s party for the first time in society, as he studied abroad until recently and had little exposure to Russian culture or manners. Prince Vassily Kuragin hopes that Pierre will be able to marry his son Anatole off to Princess Mary Bolkonsky, so he tries hard during this party trying to find them together while giving all sorts of hints about his plan with both characters present at the same time (with varying success). Andrey comes out just after Pierre arrives and announces that he’s joining the army as an adjutant under Kutuzov (although when questioned by Pierre about why it seems like such a random decision, Andrey says that he can’t explain but feels compelled by something greater than himself).

The Rostov family has a party. Everyone is impressed by Natasha, the youngest daughter in the family. She’s beautiful and graceful. Nikolai, her older brother, decides to join the army as he wants to do something for his country. He falls in love with Sonya, who is poor but very kind and sweet-natured. Both of them promise that they’ll get married when he comes back from war.

In the next few weeks, Pierre goes from a fun time in St. Petersburg to dealing with his father’s estate. Although he is illegitimate, Pierre wins out and becomes one of Russia’s richest men. Princess Drubetskoy manages to get on both sides of the situation and ingratiates herself with everyone involved. Meanwhile, Prince Andrei prepares for war while his family worries about him going off to battle.

There is a lot of fighting on the battlefield in this section, and Tolstoy introduces one new character: Dolokhov. He shows how Andrei interacts with the Austrian army as well as showing that war isn’t what he had expected it to be. Nikolai also learns from his first battle and realizes that there’s more to life than just fighting.

Pierre is forced to marry Helene Kuragin, and Anatole proposes to Princess Marya. However, he has a short-lived affair with Mlle Bourienne before doing so. Andrei’s wife Lise gives birth to their son Nikolushka (also known as Nikolai after his grandfather).

Nikolai Karamazov is a young man who wants to be involved with the Russian government and military. He meets Andrei, who is his polar opposite in that he doesn’t care for the country or its people. When Nikolai gets wounded at Austerlitz, he realizes how much he loves Russia and the tsar. Andrei becomes disillusioned with war after getting shot at Austerlitz. Nikolai brings Captain Denisov home when they’re on leave from battle, and Denisov falls in love with Natasha but she rejects him because of her relationship with Dolokhov. Hélène Bezukhov has been rumored to have an affair so Pierre challenges Dolokhov to a duel; however, Pierre can’t bring himself to kill Dolokhov even though it’s clear that Dolokhov killed his father during their fight together. This causes a violent fight between Pierre and his wife, causing them both to separate from each other permanently.