Natasha Rostova

Natasha Rostova
War and Peace character
Audrey Hepburn plays Natasha Rostova in the 1956 film adaptation
Created by Leo Tolstoy
Portrayed by Audrey Hepburn
Lyudmila Savelyeva
Morag Hood
Clémence Poésy
Lily James
Phillipa Soo
Denée Benton
Lauren Zakrin
Shoba Narayan
Information
Full name Natalya Ilyinichna Rostova
Nickname(s) Natasha, Natalya, Natalie
Gender Female
Title Countess
Family Ilya Rostov (father)
Natalia Rostova (mother)
Vera Rostova (sister)
Nikolai Rostov,
Petya Rostov (brothers)
Sonya Rostova (cousin)
Spouse(s) Pierre Bezukhov
Children Masha, Lisa, Petya, and another girl
Nationality Russian

Countess Natalya "Natasha" Ilyinichna Rostova (Russian: Наталья "Наташа" Ильинична Ростова, named Natasha Rostov in the Rosemary Edmonds version; born 1792, according to the book) is a central fictional character in Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. She is the daughter of Ilya Rostov, a loving and generous nobleman. Natasha is based on both Tanya Behrs, Tolstoy's sister-in-law, and Sophia Tolstaya, the wife of Tolstoy.[1]

Biography

Natasha Rostova by Elisabeth Bohm

At the start of the novel in 1805, Natasha is a 13-year-old girl, the daughter of Count Ilya Rostov and Countess Natalya Rostova. She has fallen in love with young Prince Boris Drubetskoy, who lives with his mother in the Rostov estate. She becomes close friends with Count Pierre Bezukhov, who frequently visits the Rostovs. When Boris leaves to pursue a career in the staff of General Mikhail Kutuzov, their friendship evaporates. At her first ball, Pierre introduces her to Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. They fall in love and become engaged, but Andrei's father objects to the match. He forces Andrei to postpone the marriage for a year, during which he serves as a staff officer on the Polish border. A visit to Andrei's father ends in a falling-out between Natasha and Princess Marya, Andrei's sister. During Andrei's absence, Prince Anatole Kuragin takes advantage of the situation by courting Natasha, even though he is already married. She succumbs to his charms, and tries to elope with Kuragin. Although this is thwarted by Natasha's cousin Sonya, Natasha hastily writes to Princess Marya, breaking off the engagement. After her plan to elope is ruined, Natasha attempts suicide. She is rescued by the doctor before she dies. As Napoleon advances into Russia, the Rostovs are forced to evacuate their estate and retreat to their Moscow residence. When the Rostovs plan to evacuate Moscow, her parents use the carts for transportation of the wounded soldiers, and Natasha discovers that Andrei is among the wounded soldiers. She devotes all her time to nursing him.

After the French forces depart Moscow, Natasha again meets Andrei's sister Marya and together they nurse Andrei until he dies. They are reunited with Pierre, whose estranged wife Helene has died. Natasha and Pierre fall in love. Eventually, they marry and have four children.

Adaptations

The character of Natasha Rostova is difficult to portray on film or television, because she ages from a 13-year-old girl in book one to a 28-year-old mother of four at the end of the novel. Several actresses have portrayed Natasha Rostova to critical acclaim.

In 1956, Audrey Hepburn was cast as Natasha in King Vidor's War and Peace. She was nominated for a BAFTA Award for best British actress and for a Golden Globe Award for best actress in a drama production. Moreover, Harlow Robinson writes that Hepburn "makes a visually compelling Natasha...".[2]

Other performances include those of Morag Hood in the 1972 BBC miniseries with Anthony Hopkins as Pierre,[3] Lyudmila Savelyeva in Sergei Bondarchuk's adaptation,[4] Clémence Poésy in the 2007 miniseries[5] and Phillipa Soo (and later Denée Benton) in the New York musical adaptation, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, which received numerous Tony nominations in 2017.

In 2016 BBC One's six-part drama based on the novel cast the 25-year-old English actress Lily James as Natasha Rostova, best known for her roles in Downton Abbey and Disney's live action Cinderella.

Scholarly reception

The Encyclopedia of Literature remarks that Natasha "is undoubtedly Tolstoy's ideal woman,"[6] while the Academic American Encyclopedia describes her as "the embodiment of impulsiveness and spontaneity...".[7] On the other hand, the transformation of her character towards the end of the novel from a joyous, spirited 'waif-like' beauty into a plump, rather slatternly woman who is only interested in her husband and children, has been criticized. Dorothea Barrett compares this to the description of a matronly Dinah Morris at the end of Adam Bede, which she calls 'inappropriate, almost humiliating'.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The real-life aristocrats Tolstoy's characters were based on were even more debauched - and heroic". Daily Mail. 22 January 2016.
  2. ↑ Harlow Robinson, Russians in Hollywood, Hollywood's Russians: Biography of an Image (UPNE, 2007), 163.
  3. ↑ The Annual Register; World Events: World Events (St. Martin's Press, 1973), 449.
  4. ↑ Kenneth White Munden, The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States (University of California Press, 1971), 1191.
  5. ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0495055/?ref_=sr_4
  6. ↑ Joseph Twadell Shipley, Encyclopedia of Literature (Philosophical Library, 1946), 833.
  7. ↑ Academic American Encyclopedia (Aretê Pub. Co., 1980), 25.
  8. ↑ https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=eNMmAQAAMAAJ&q=natasha#search_anchor

Further reading

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