Anatole Vassilitch Kuragin is a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 in Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...

's novel War and Peace

War and Peace

War and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in 1869. The work is epic in scale and is regarded as one of the most important works of world literature...

, its various cinematic adaptations, and an operatic adaptation as well. Anatole is Helene Kuragin

Helene Kuragin

Elena "Hélène" Vasilyevna Kuragina is a fictional character in Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace and its various cinematic adaptations.-Biography:...

's brother and a wild-living soldier. It is rumoured that he has had an incestuous affair with his sister, and he tries to elope with Natasha Rostova

Natasha Rostova

Countess Natalya "Natasha" Ilyinichna Rostova is a central fictional character in Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace.-Biography:...

 despite being secretly married. He loses his leg during the Napoleonic Wars.

Development

While developing the novel, Tolstoy sketched a character named "Petr", "who passed through a complex evolution" and "was a precursor of both Pierre

Pierre Bezukhov

Count Pyotr "Pierre" Kirillovich Bezukhov is a central fictional character in Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. He is the favourite of several illegitimate sons of the wealthy nobleman Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhov.-Description:...

 and Anatole Kuragin." Anatole Shosttak served as the real life inspiration for the fictional Anatole Kuragin.

Reception

Esther Polianowsky Salaman writes that what "is so interesting about Anatole Kuragin are the many characteristics Tolstoy gives us about him all at once: something he seldom does."

Cinematic portrayals

Anatole is played in the 1956 American film

War and Peace (1956 film)

War and Peace is the first English-language film version of the novel War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. It is an American/Italian version, directed by King Vidor and produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti. The music score was by Nino Rota and the cinematography by Jack Cardiff...

 by Vittorio Gassman

Vittorio Gassman

Vittorio Gassman Knight Grand Cross OMRI , popularly known as Il Mattatore, was an Italian theatre and film actor and director...

; in the 1968 Soviet film

War and Peace (1968 film)

War and Peace is a Soviet-produced film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. Sergei Bondarchuk directed the film, co-wrote the screenplay and also acted in the lead role of Pierre. It was produced over a seven year period and released in four parts between 1965 and...

 by Vasili Lanovoy.; in the 2007 version he is portrayed by German actor Ken Duken.

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