This is my first and slow read of Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece War and Peace. Shoutout to Simon Haisell who has prompted me to finally read this book. He is doing an all-year-long community read-through on his Substack footnotes & tangents.

Book One, Part One, Chapter 1

In 1805 St. Petersburg, Anna Pavlovna warns Prince Vasili about Napoleon, dubbing him the Antichrist. Amidst war talks, she praises Vasili's children, especially the gorgeous Helene, but deems Anatole a rogue. Vasili asks Anna to set up a meeting between Anatole and Mary Bolkonskaya, the lonely daughter of the reclusive Prince Bolkonski.

You can also listen to my read-through on my YouTube Channel.

I tried the AI transcript option but partly translated the first paragraph from French into English. It got progressively better at transcribing all the French bits mostly correctly. Impressive. Still, not going to add it here.

If you want to read along, I’m using the Oxford World’s Classics edition (translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, edited by Amy Mandelker).

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