Tolstoy’s wife, Sophia, in 1885. (Credit:: Sovfoto/UIG via Getty Images)
Tolstoy’s wife helped get “War and Peace” over the finish line.
In 1862, 34-year-old Tolstoy married 18-year-old Sophia Behrs, the daughter of a court physician, just weeks after the pair met. That same year, Tolstoy began work on what would become “War and Peace,” completing the first draft in 1865. Almost immediately, Tolstoy set about revising…and revising…and revising, with Sophia responsible for writing each version by hand (often using a magnifying glass to decipher Tolstoy’s scribbling on every bit of space on the page, including the margins). Over the next seven years, she rewrote the complete manuscript eight times (and some individual sections nearly 30 times), all while giving birth to four of the couple’s 13 children and managing their estate and business affairs.
