EXCERPTS FROM THE EPILOGUE OF LEO TOLSTOY’S “WAR AND PEACE” ⠀•⠀TRANSLATED AND ILLUSTRATED WITH LINOCUTS BY VALERIA ZECCHINI

Chance, chance, nothing but chance. Leo Tolstoy, titan of nineteenth century literature, gave another titan, Napoleon Bonaparte, little credit for his doings. His victories in battle, his political domination, his conquests — all due to chance.

Tolstoy’s opinion of “the great man” is not in doubt. His remarks toward the end of War and Peaceare scathing. The novel follows several Russian families through the Napoleonic wars, but Tolstoy himself, it sometimes seems, is following Napoleon. The curtain is finally pulled down altogether in the First and Second Epilogues. Tolstoy addresses his reader, and makes his case against Napoleon, but really, against the Great Man Theory.

Whether Tolstoy’s assessment can be considered good history, it must be considered a masterpieceof political writing. In a few pages, Tolstoy threads a brilliant case against conquerors, opportunists, tyrants and, most of all, so-called great men. The brilliance of his thought matches the sharpness of his prose, and though Napoleon may have conquered Europe, it could be Tolstoy who has the final word.

No Reply is especially excited to publish this edition in the original Russian, using the Cyrillic script, alongside a new English translation, and original illustrations. Valeria Zecchini is a Russo-Italian artist, polyglot, and scholar of European politics. She brings a new translation to these overlooked passages, which aims to elucidate Tolstoy’s meaning to English readers. The original Russian is dense and circuitous, and from it Zecchini has produced crystalline English prose – as dense and brilliant as the original, but clear too. Her translation is complimented (with a touch of irony) by six woodblock portraits of “the great man” himself.