As I said before, War and Peace is divided into four books and an epilogue, each of which are divided into parts, and those parts are further divided into 361 relatively short chapters. Without further ado let’s look at how those chapters map out on the calendar year
Book 1: January 1 to March 6
Book 2: March 7 to June 12
Book 3: June 13 to September 16
Book 4: September 17 to November 29
Epilogue: November 30 to December 27* (Tolstoy’s original appendix will be sent out on December 28th, but that is optional. However you will have already finished War and Peace, so why not go for the gold).
Additionally, I’ll be sending out some extra resources from the front matter of the Mandelker 2010 edition throughout December. None of this is required reading, but it should make things a little easier. Read it, or don’t, that’s up to you.
The dramatis personae will be sent December 1, a list of some key historical figures on Dec 8, the general timeline of historical events within the novel (and possible maps) on Dec 15, and Amy Mandelker’s introduction on Dec 22. Anyone who’d like to avoid spoilers, wants to go in blind, or simply can’t be bothered to read the intro is welcome to leave it alone. This is a fun internet book club, not an AP World Lit class.
The full calendar is colour-coded below :)
See you Jan 1st!
love from kit (& tolstoy’s ghost)