With an exquisite British feel for what functions and what is effective, Helen Edmundson has dramatized Lev Tolstoj’s mighty epic from the Napoleon wars. Rather than dealing with one general story the plot consists of several parallel stories. We follow the doings, the complexity and development of five Russian families. We follow the personal struggles and victories of the individual characters. During the years of the Napoleon war (1805 – 1812) we get an exceptional insight in Russia. Simultaneously, we follow the political and military main characters of the time in an elegant and spell-binding manner. It is a psychological drama, a family chronicle, a story of formation, philosophical observations revolving history and war, carried out in a dazzling, riveting and interesting way, which deservingly has earned Edmundson great acknowledgement.
