The great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy before he died imparted some wisdom on the three great stories, which are the building blocks of all narrative.
“All great literature is one of three stories,” writes Tolstoy. “A man goes on a journey, a stranger comes to town, and Godzilla vs Megashark.”
How does this apply to his own fiction?
War and Peace is Godzilla vs. Megashark. Napoleon and the French are Godzilla, the Russians are Megashark. Godzilla defeats Megashark at Austerlitz in 1805, at Friedland in 1807, and then goes in for the kill in 1812, but Megashark lures Godzilla deep into Russia and then rallies and defeats Godzilla once and for all! Or, expels Godzilla from Holy Mother Russia, as Tolstoy isn’t interested at all in Godzilla’s final defeat in 1814, much to my chagrin. I would have liked to see the War and Peace characters at the Leipzig in 1813 and the fall of Paris in 1814.
There you have it. War and Peace is Godzilla vs. Megashark.