Senior Seminar

Russian Novel Links

Here are some links pertinent to your reading of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky

Tolstoy: Russian / English / Italian version of War and Peace
Minard's famous graphic chart of Napolean's Invasion and Retreat in Russia

Translation of text on map:

Figurative Map of the successive losses in men of the French Army in the Russian campaign 1812-1813.
Drawn up by M. Minard, Inspector General of Bridges and Roads in retirement. Paris, November 20, 1869.

The numbers of men present are represented by the widths of the colored zones at a rate of one millimeter for every ten-thousand men; they are further written across the zones. The red [now brown] designates the men who enter into Russia, the black those who leave it. —— The information which has served to draw up the map has been extracted from the works of M. M. Thiers, of Segur, of Fezensac, of Chambray, and the unpublished diary of Jacob, pharmacist of the army since October 28th. In order to better judge with the eye the diminution of the army, I have assumed that the troops of prince Jerome and of Marshal Davoush who had been detached at Minsk and Moghilev and have rejoined around Orcha and Vitebsk, had always marched with the army.

The scale is shown on the center-right, in "lieues communes de France" (common French league) which is 4,444m (2.75 miles).

The lower portion of the graph is to be read from right to left. It shows the temperature on the army's return from Russia, in degrees below freezing on the Réaumur scale. (Multiply Réaumur temperatures by 1¼ to get Celsius, e.g. −30°R = −37.5 °C) At Smolensk, the temperature was −21° Réaumur on November 14th.


Short story of Tolstoy similar to that told by Platon Karataev in War & Peace Book 14 ch. 13

Dostoevsky: Brothers Karamazov (English)
Brothers Karamazov(Russian): Pt. I Pt. II Pt. III Pt. IV

Related material of interest:
"The Translation Wars" by David Remnick, a New Yorker article on translating Russian texts

War & Peace Characters

Here is a list of the main characters of War and Peace and a guide to the pronunciation of their names. Please note that these names are from the Constance Garnett translation. You will have to make some adjustments for the Maude translation used in the Norton edition. Click on the player under each of the names on the right to hear how to pronounce it. Special thanks to Professor Larisa Genin of the School of Economics and Business Administration for providing the Russian pronunciations. Further down are names grouped by families.

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