In Spring 2013, I enrolled in a lower-division undergraduate course called “Slavic 90A: Introduction to Russian Civilization”. During this class, we covered the geography, history and culture of the country. As one of our assigned readings, Lev Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” took a significant portion of our time. As we finished selected chapters, we were required to reflect and write commentary on the material.

Since a fellow student informed me that he would be enrolling in the course soon, I offered to compile my notes on the novel to share. In the process, I thought it would be fun to publish these same notes online. Who knows? Maybe a casual reader will stumble upon them, and will strike up a conversation on Tolstoy’s classic. Or perhaps, my observations might help out another student tackling this lengthy Russian novel. If you’re interested in seeing my collection of notes, click here and let me know what you think.

Photo of War and Peace Dance via WikiMedia Commons