{"id":250382,"date":"2021-04-01T15:56:56","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T14:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/?p=250382"},"modified":"2026-10-07T16:54:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T15:54:48","slug":"war-and-peace-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/en\/war-and-peace-map\/","title":{"rendered":"War and Peace map: illustrating Tolstoy\u2019s Europe of 1812"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Few novels deserve a <strong>War and Peace map<\/strong> more than Tolstoy\u2019s masterpiece. For the new two-volume Spanish edition of <em>Guerra y paz<\/em> published by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.albaeditorial.es\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alba Editorial<\/a>, I illustrated the maps that help readers follow the Napoleonic campaigns across Europe and the decisive Battle of Borodino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-rank-math-toc-block\" id=\"rank-math-toc\"><h2>War and Peace map<\/h2><nav><ul><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#two-maps-for-one-monumental-novel\">Two maps for one monumental novel<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#how-the-war-and-peace-map-was-designed\">How the War and Peace map was designed<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#redrawing-tolstoys-borodino-map\">Redrawing Tolstoy\u2019s Borodino map<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#about-the-novel-and-this-edition\">About the novel and this edition<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#need-a-map-for-a-historical-novel-or-a-classic\">Need a map for a historical novel or a classic?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"714\" src=\"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Ilustracion-mapa-Guerra-y-Paz-Pablo-Uria-Ilustrador-1024x714.jpg\" alt=\"War and Peace map of Europe in 1812 with the Napoleonic battles, illustrated by Pablo Ur\u00eda for Alba Editorial\" class=\"wp-image-7251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Ilustracion-mapa-Guerra-y-Paz-Pablo-Uria-Ilustrador-980x683.jpg 980w, https:\/\/pablouria.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Ilustracion-mapa-Guerra-y-Paz-Pablo-Uria-Ilustrador-480x334.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1024px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"two-maps-for-one-monumental-novel\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Two maps for one monumental novel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The commission included two very different pieces of cartography, each with its own challenge:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Europe in 1812.<\/strong> A completely new map covering the territory where the story unfolds, from Vienna and Prague to Moscow and Saint Petersburg. It marks the main cities and the battles that appear in the novel, such as Sch\u00f6ngrabern, Austerlitz, Smolensk, Borodino and Tarutino, together with the borders of the Russian Empire, Prussia, the Duchy of Warsaw and the Austrian Empire.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Battle of Borodino.<\/strong> Tolstoy included his own sketch of the battlefield in the novel, showing the planned and the real positions of the French and Russian armies. The original image was not good enough for print, so I redrew the whole map from scratch, keeping every element of Tolstoy\u2019s design.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"how-the-war-and-peace-map-was-designed\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">How the War and Peace map was designed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The goal was a map that feels like a nineteenth-century document but reads clearly on a modern page. A few decisions shaped the result:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Black and white line work<\/strong>, so that it prints well on the book\u2019s paper and matches the sober style of the edition.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>A clear hierarchy of information:<\/strong> capitals and key cities first, then rivers, borders and battle sites, each with its own symbol explained in a small legend.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Classic details<\/strong> such as a compass rose, a framed cartouche with the title \u00abEuropa 1812\u00bb and a decorative sea texture, which give it a period feel without distracting from the information.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Faithful place names<\/strong>, written the same way as in the new translation, so readers can find on the map exactly the names they read in the text.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"757\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Ilustracion-mapa-Tolstoi-Pablo-Uria-Ilustrador-757x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Map of the Battle of Borodino from War and Peace, redrawn from Tolstoy\u2019s original by Pablo Ur\u00eda\" class=\"wp-image-7255\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Ilustracion-mapa-Tolstoi-Pablo-Uria-Ilustrador-757x1024.jpg 757w, https:\/\/pablouria.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Ilustracion-mapa-Tolstoi-Pablo-Uria-Ilustrador-480x650.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 757px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"redrawing-tolstoys-borodino-map\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Redrawing Tolstoy\u2019s Borodino map<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Restoring a historical map is a different kind of work from creating a new one. Every road, river, village and troop position had to stay exactly where Tolstoy placed it, because the text refers to them directly. I rebuilt the lines by hand, cleaned the lettering and translated the labels, so the map now has the same quality as the rest of the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"about-the-novel-and-this-edition\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">About the novel and this edition<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tolstoy famously said that <em>War and Peace<\/em> was \u201cnot a novel, even less a poem, and still less a historical chronicle\u201d. Published first in instalments between 1865 and 1867, and as a book in 1869, it follows the Bolkonsky, Rostov and Kuragin families and the restless Pierre Bezukhov through the years of the Napoleonic wars, mixing the epic and the domestic, the historical and the intimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alba Editorial\u2019s edition, translated by Joaqu\u00edn Fern\u00e1ndez-Vald\u00e9s, was the first completely new Spanish translation in more than forty years. It comes in two volumes inside a slipcase, a beautiful edition that I am proud to be part of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"747\" src=\"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Caja-Guerra-y-paz-600x747-1.jpg\" alt=\"Alba Editorial slipcase edition of War and Peace with maps by Pablo Ur\u00eda\" class=\"wp-image-7252\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Caja-Guerra-y-paz-600x747-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/pablouria.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Caja-Guerra-y-paz-600x747-1-480x598.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 600px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Guerra-y-Paz-04-600x400-1.jpg\" alt=\"Inside pages of the Alba Editorial edition of War and Peace\" class=\"wp-image-7253\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Guerra-y-Paz-04-600x400-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/pablouria.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Guerra-y-Paz-04-600x400-1-480x320.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 600px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Guerra-y-Paz-03-600x400-1.jpg\" alt=\"The two volumes of War and Peace published by Alba Editorial\" class=\"wp-image-7254\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Guerra-y-Paz-03-600x400-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/pablouria.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Guerra-y-Paz-03-600x400-1-480x320.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 600px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"need-a-map-for-a-historical-novel-or-a-classic\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Need a map for a historical novel or a classic?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maps help readers understand long journeys, military campaigns and complex geographies. If you are publishing a historical novel, a classic or a fantasy saga, take a look at my <a href=\"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/en\/map-illustration\/\">map illustration services<\/a> or read <a href=\"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/en\/what-is-an-illustrated-map\/\">what an illustrated map is and why the best books have one<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Would you like a War and Peace map style for your own book? <a href=\"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/en\/contact\/\">Get in touch<\/a> and tell me about your project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Few novels deserve a War and Peace map more than Tolstoy\u2019s masterpiece. For the new two-volume Spanish edition of Guerra y paz published by Alba Editorial, I illustrated the maps that help readers follow the Napoleonic campaigns across Europe and the decisive Battle of Borodino. Two maps for one monumental novel The commission included two [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":7257,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[396],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-illustrated-maps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250382"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250388,"href":"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250382\/revisions\/250388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pablouria.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}