Anatole Vasilyevich Kuragin () is a fictional character in Leo Tolstoy's 1869 novel War and Peace,Marianne Sturman, War and Peace: notes (Cliffs Notes, 1967), p. 14. its various cinematic adaptations, and an operatic adaptation as well.The role is sung by a tenor. See Giorgio Bagnoli, Graham Fawcett, and Teatro alla Scala, The La Scala Encyclopedia of the Opera: A Complete Reference Guide (Simon and Schuster, 1993), p. 366. Title The use of 'prince' in Russian novels is sometimes confusing to an English audience, who are accustomed to 'princes' as the close male relatives of monarchs, or monarchs of small states in their own right. In Eastern Europe, the title knyaz was anciently the chief of a Slavic tribe or ruler of a state;researchgate.net/publication/396307266_Tsesar'-tsarevich-knyaz'_On_the_Period_of_Formation_of_Russian_Titles_for_the_Horde_Aristocracy in 19th-century Russia, where War and Peace is set, the title knyaz was similar to, or above, a Western duke or a German Fürst, and it is conventionally translated as 'prince' even though the holder may not be descended from any sovereign. Anatole is a kniazhich (son of a prince, viz. the knyaz Vasily Kuragin). The title is usually translated as 'Prince' in English.
Description Anatole is Hélène Kuragina's wild-living brother and a soldier, although he is rarely seen out of Russia in the book. It is rumoured that he has had an incestuous affair with his sister, and he tries to elope with Natasha Rostova despite being secretly married to a Polish woman during his time in the army. Later in the book, he gets his leg amputated at the Battle of Borodino, where he is treated next to Andrei Bolkonsky, Rostova's former betrothed.
Development While developing the novel, Tolstoy sketched a character named "Petr", "who passed through a complex evolution" and "was a precursor of both Pierre and Anatole Kuragin".Kathryn Beliveau Feuer, Robin Feuer Miller, and Donna Tussing Orwin, Tolstoy and the Genesis of "War and Peace" (Cornell University Press, 1996), p. 60. Anatoly Shostak served as the real life inspiration for the fictional Anatole.Cynthia Asquith, Married to Tolstoy (Greenwood Press, 1969), p. 61.
Esther Salaman argues that Tolstoy created Anatole "to a formula" as an exact opposite of himself. She notes that Tolstoy introduces Anatole with an explicit "inventory" of his characteristics, a technique not typical of Tolstoy, and that in every given aspect Anatole's character is the reverse of Tolstoy's own. We learn from the outset that Anatole is not a gambler, that he is neither ambitious nor vain, and that he honestly considered himself irreproachable. Yet, as Salaman writes, Tolstoy himself "was a gambler, he was vain, never indifferent to what other people thought of him, ambitious, sometimes miserly."Esther Polianowsky Salaman, The Great Confession: from Aksakov and De Quincey to Tolstoy and Proust: From Aksakov and De Quincey to Tolstoy and Proust (Allen Lane, 1973), p. 106-107.
Screen and stage portrayals Anatole is played in the 1956 American film by Vittorio Gassman;Rachel Moseley, Growing Up with Audrey Hepburn: Text, Audience, Resonance (Manchester University Press, 2002), p. 233 in the 1966-67 Soviet film, by Vasili Lanovoy;Frank Northen Magill, Magill's Survey of Cinema, Foreign Language Films (Salem Press, 1985), p. 3327 in the 1972-73 BBC miniseries, by Colin Baker. In the 2007 version, he is portrayed by German actor Ken Duken, and in the 2016 BBC series by Callum Turner. He was also portrayed by Lucas Steele and Jamie Muscato in productions of the musical Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812.
See also List of characters in War and Peace
References
External links "Anatole Kuragin (Character) from War and Peace (1956)," The Internet Movie Database "Anatol Kuragin (Character) from Voyna i mir (1967)," The Internet Movie Database