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War and Peace

by Leo Tolstoy, Henry Gifford (editor), Aylmer Maude (translator), Louise Maude (translator)

4.1 · Rating Details · 177,334 Ratings · 7,448 Reviews

Tolstoy's epic masterpiece intertwines the lives of private and public individuals during the time of the Napoleonic wars and the French invasion of Russia. The fortunes of the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys, of Pierre, Natasha, and Andrei, are intimately connected with the national history that is played out in parallel with their lives. Balls and soirees alternate with counc ...more

Paperback, Oxford World's Classics, 1392 pages

Published June 25th 1998 by Oxford University Press (first published 1865)

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Community Reviews

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Nov 22, 2008 Jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kind-of-depressing, leetle-boys, groups-of-people, love-and-other-indoor-sports, war-is-hell

So, I know you've all been on edge these past two months, and since I should be studying for the social work licensing exam tonight, it seems like the perfect time to put an end to your suspense.

After all my agonizing and the thoughtful suggestions below about whether I should mutilate my gorgeous hardcover Pevear and Volokhonsky translation in the interest of less hazardous subway toting.... Readers, I carried him. All 1272 pages. Every day, across five boroughs and three states, for nearly two ...more

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Jul 16, 2014 Whitaker rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: canon, would-kill-if-thrown, russia, 2009-read, 3965g

When I was growing up, the conventional wisdom was that War and Peace was the sine qua non of difficult books: the scope, the length, OMG the length! Conquering this Everest was The Test of whether you were a Man/Reader.

I have now read it. Thump chest and make Tarzan yell.

Actually, you know chump, big deal. The mountain really wasn't so large after all.

There are love affairs, there is a war, peace eventually returns to ~~the Shire~~ Russia. Sorry, got confused there for a minute with Lord of the ...more

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Dec 04, 2013 Dolors rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone, anytime, NOW.

Recommended to Dolors by: My guilty conscience

Shelves: read-in-2013, best-ever

Before I turned the last page of this massive volume, which had been neglected in my bookshelves for more than six years, War and Peace was a pending task in my mental reading universe knowing it to be one of the greatest Russian or maybe simply one of the greatest novels of all times.
Well, in fact, it was something else.
I have a selective memory, I don’t know whether it comes as a blessing or as a curse, that enables me to remember the most insignificant details like for instance, where and wh ...more

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Feb 23, 2011 Matt rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: The type of person who cares whether a person has read <i>War and Peace</i>

Shelves: classic-novels

Whatever else I am, I am the type of person who reads classic novels out of a sense of obligation. Also, I must admit, out of a sense of vanity. My ego, after all, is as fragile as a goldfish and requires the constant attention of a newborn baby. Every once in awhile, it needs a little boost, and the intellectual challenge of Dostoevsky or Dickens can really work wonders.

Now, I’ve been told that forcing myself to read books I don’t necessarily like is a fruitless waste of time (and that the rev ...more

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Aug 14, 2008 Joshua Treviño rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

It is difficult, in reviewing classics, to say things about them that have not been said before. It is especially difficult when those classics are part of the literary canon; and even more difficult when those classics are not mere novels, but purposeful epics. It is in this light that reviewing Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace is a challenge. The massive book — ranging from 900 to 1,500 pages, depending upon the edition — is a cornerstone of anyone’s list of all-time great literature. Strangely, fe It is difficult, in reviewing classics, to say things about them that have not been said before. It is especially difficult when those classics are part of the literary canon; and even more difficult when those classics are not mere novels, but purposeful epics. It is in this light that reviewing Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace is a challenge. The massive book — ranging from 900 to 1,500 pages, depending upon the edition — is a cornerstone of anyone’s list of all-time great literature. Strangely, few have actually read it; and few reviewers of new editions do more than assess relative merits of the latest translation.

Therefore: the one thing the reader ought to know about the new translation of War and Peace from Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is that it is worth reading, both in itself (the book is a classic in any translation) and in this particular form (this translation is superb). As with every other review of this edition, this one must start with what is new about it: the translation.

The husband-and-wife team of Pevear and Volokhonsky have built a long and successful career on translating Russian works into English. (I still recommend their translation of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, which kept me company in my Army days, as the best around.) They are ideally suited to the task, not merely by virtue of their marital compatibility — a translating team spends nearly as much time together as a married couple, and probably communicates better — but by virtue of their birth. Volokhonsky, as might be guessed, is a native Russophone, and Pevear’s first language is English. In a column in the New York Times on October 14th, 2007, Pevear described the method of their collaboration:

---We work separately at first. Larissa produces a complete draft, following the original almost word by word, with many marginal comments and observations. From that, plus the original Russian, I make my own complete draft. Then we work closely together to arrive at a third draft, on which we make our “final” revisions.---

This is, of course, the idealized process. The actual work of conveying literature, with its poetry and rhetoric more or less intact, from one language to another is necessarily slow and inexact. Douglas Hofstadter, the author and professor of computer and cognitive science at Indiana University at Bloomington, addressed this problem at length in his book Le Ton beau de Marot. In this, a rather simple little poem by the 16th-century French poet Clément Marot — "A une damoyselle malade," or "To an ill girl" — is shown to have a surprising number of possible translations from French into English, with none of them quite right. There are dozens of variations in Hofstadter’s book. The necessary tradeoffs, even in Marot’s simple verse, are swiftly evident. Literal accuracy, or rhetorical beauty? Rhyme structure, or metric consistency? Cultural fidelity, or cultural comprehensibility? These are the issues with which translators must contend. The perverse, like Vladimir Nabokov in translating his rigid and un-lovely Eugene Onegin, simply give the reader their ideal of literal exactitude. The more well meaning will often give the reader their idea of comprehensibility in both the rhetorical and cultural spheres. Thus, Constance Garnett, who translated the great works of 19th-century Russian literature into Edwardian-era English, not only rendered prose as would an English novelist of her era: she also “translated” cultural concepts into familiar objects of reference for her intended readers. As a pseudonymous Amazon reviewer of the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation of War and Peace notes, in previous translations, “we often get ‘holy images,’ attended ‘Mass,’ ‘the Virgin Mary,’ etc., instead of ‘icon,’ ‘attended Liturgy,’ or ‘the Theotokos.’” It is pleasing to report that though the occasional clunky passage survives in its over twelve hundred pages, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have done well by War and Peace. And well they should have: as Pevear notes, in translating, they each read the massive work five times.

Beyond the translation, there is the great work itself, which presumes to take on the very topics of its title. The grand sweep of its epic, to say nothing of the welter of Russian names and perhaps-unfamiliar places, is daunting to many readers. (Who knows where Mozhaisk is, or why it matters?) They should not feel ashamed of this: the very first sentence of the book presupposes a grasp of European politics and Russian society circa 1805, and the inferences and references never let up. It is a peculiarly Russian work, of course — the French invasion of 1812 was to Tolstoy’s generation what the Civil War was to our grandfathers’ — but it is nonetheless comprehensible to Europeans grounded in their own history. For an American, War and Peace is something else: not an artifact of our own heritage, but a work we read to sustain and deepen our connection to the West at large. Its themes of sacrifice, patriotism, and humanity are universal.

Leo Tolstoy was not, it must be said, the master of the human condition that many of the other literary greats were — Shakespeare, for example, or even his contemporary Dostoevsky — and this shows through even in the superlative Pevear/Volokhonsky translation. In life, the great author was keenly interested in developing his own thesis of Christianity, which veered into that curious territory where extreme altruism and profound selfishness intersect. A rare Russian aristocrat who cared for his peasants, he treated his devoted wife with often shocking neglect; he was excommunicated from the Orthodox Church; and he ended up dying at a train station while essentially running away from home as an old man. War and Peace, with its long internal essays on history, fate, and morality, gives us a glimpse into the mind of this troubled and brilliant figure, as his plot and his characters bend to his ideas of life and meaning.

Tolstoy was a contemporary of the men whom the philosopher Karl Popper called the historicists — that is, those who believed in the superiority of historical “laws” and inevitability to God-given free will and volition — and he shared much of their thesis. He did not, as some of them did, deny the possibility or relevance of human goodness and choice; but he did believe that those choices only affected a limited context, and mostly concerned one’s internal state toward himself and God. War and Peace, then, is to a large extent a historical exposition on why the individual does not matter to history, even as he does matter to his Creator. A central character of the work, Pierre Bezukhov, undergoes a transformation throughout from dissolute if well-meaning youth, to solid paterfamilias with an assured sense of God and self — and the transformative event is a death march in French captivity, in which he realizes that all is for naught in this world. Similarly, the wartime mistakes of the Russian generalissimo Kutuzov are excused as historical inevitabilities which Kutuzov had the wisdom to accept.

Tolstoy’s view here is wholly alien to the American character, and its relation to the Christian view is dubious (certainly the Orthodox Church saw little good in it). It does not follow from this that the Christian should not read it. To the contrary, it is a work so very rich, despite its flaws, that it is endlessly rewarding to those who persevere and allow themselves to become happily entangled in its endless narrative. Is it the best Russian novel? Is it the best Tolstoy novel? Is it the best 19th-century novel? It is none of these things: Tolstoy himself wrote better novels, Anna Karenina chief among them; Zola’s La Debacle is a far superior exposition of battle; and nearly everything is shorter. But we ought to read War and Peace nonetheless. We read it because, like Everest, it is there; we read it to join Prince Andrei on the field at Austerlitz; we read it to enter the mind of the young Natasha, insane with what she believes is love; and we read it because in it, as in all great art, we find something of ourselves.

...more

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May 12, 2012 Emily May rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 2012

So... I did it. I finally convinced myself to read War and Peace, partly because it's just something everyone wants to say they've done, and partly because one always needs a good excuse to procrastinate during the exam period when I should have been studying. And, you know what, I really enjoyed most of it. The novel is far less taxing than I imagined, I don't know if that's because the English translation goes easy on us non-Russians or because Tolstoy wrote it in a quite light-hearted fashion
So... I did it. I finally convinced myself to read War and Peace, partly because it's just something everyone wants to say they've done, and partly because one always needs a good excuse to procrastinate during the exam period when I should have been studying. And, you know what, I really enjoyed most of it. The novel is far less taxing than I imagined, I don't know if that's because the English translation goes easy on us non-Russians or because Tolstoy wrote it in a quite light-hearted fashion. I suspect I shall never find that out for myself.

Personally, I think a much better title for this book would be War and People. Because, though an in-depth look at history during the time Napoleon had ambitions to take over Europe, this is first and foremost about humanity and Tolstoy observes humanity and all its weirdness with a sense of humour and occasionally sadness. I don't like to make too many predictions about the older authors, some people will tell you that Bram Stoker was a feminist and William Shakespeare was a humanist, I think these are quite melodramatic conclusions to make about authors who lived in societies where they would struggle to be that.

However, Tolstoy may or may not consider himself liberal, forward-thinking, a humanist, and I wouldn't state that he is any of those things. But I think his perception of the human condition in the nineteenth century shows he is somewhat before his time in his ability to see almost every character as flawed, confusing but ultimately human. He manages to construct a comphrehensive view of humanity and Russian culture at the time in question, complete with betrayals and scandals and affairs. But though the characters may place blame on one another - like calling Natasha a hussy - Tolstoy appears to remain impartial. Those who stray from the conservative path of the nineteenth century do not do so without reason.

Another reason that War and People is a much better title for this book is because there is very little peace going on in here. There are times when the battles aren't raging, of course, but there is always something equally dramatic happening within the social world of Russian high society. People falling in and out of love, people having affairs, wealthy aristocrats dying and leaving their fortune to illegitimate sons. It seems to me that there's a constant war going on in this book, just sometimes it isn't on the battlefield.

And oddly enough, it was the real wars in War and Peace that interested me least of all. They were probably the reason this book got four stars instead of five - and because goodreads rating system is about personal enjoyment rather than literary merit. I felt much more entertained by the soap opera that was the lives of the Russian nobles than by the tedious and repetitive battle scenes. There were guns and canons and horses - riveting. But thankfully, like I said, Tolstoy's masterpiece is more about people than anything else and this is the reason that I saw this book through and enjoyed the journey. ...more

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May 05, 2011 Cait Poytress rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, favorites, owned, 1001, historical-fiction, bloom-canon, war, floor-joist, covers-i-love, read-in-2011, russia, cold-weather-reading, bookish-big-reads

I am no longer afraid of the big ass Russian novel.* Who knew it would be so readable? The most difficult thing about it was keeping all of the characters straight, but even that was only in the beginning. By the end of the book, the characters were so fully drawn that I couldn't believe that I'd once had to rely on a cheat sheet remember who they were or what relation they had to one another.

I'm kind of peeved that I can't give this book 5 stars**. Overall, I thought it was fantastic. I even li ...more

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Feb 14, 2016 Kelly rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, the-continent, worlds-lost-dead-and-dying, owned, 19th-century, international-affairs, russians, cultural-meetings, philosophy-theory-criticism, great-and-terrible-men, grand-opera

I tried for five months to write something more polished, less rambling. This is all I've got:

"While he is alive, the morning is still fresh and dewy, the vampires sleep. But if the sun sets, if father Tolstoy dies and the last genius leaves - what then?"
-Alexander Blok, as Tolstoy lay dying at Astapovo

"[War and Peace] is positively what might be called a Russian Illiad. Embracing the whole epoch, it is the grandiose literary event, showcasing the gallery of great men painted by a lively brush o ...more

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Oct 03, 2013 Jason Koivu rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction

Love

That was the one thing I thought was missing from Leo Tolstoy's title, War and Peace. I was wrong. Love is in the title, you just have to look for it.

Certainly there is love in peace. It is the time of children, serenity, growth. The mother peacefully raising her children. The farmer lovingly tending his fields. The elderly passing their final days in comfort surrounded by family.

But there is love in war as well. The love for one's country. Such is a person's violent attachment to their mo
Love

That was the one thing I thought was missing from Leo Tolstoy's title, War and Peace. I was wrong. Love is in the title, you just have to look for it.

Certainly there is love in peace. It is the time of children, serenity, growth. The mother peacefully raising her children. The farmer lovingly tending his fields. The elderly passing their final days in comfort surrounded by family.

But there is love in war as well. The love for one's country. Such is a person's violent attachment to their motherland that they will die for it. To give up your own life so another should live, that is love indeed.

What is this preoccupation with love? Well, the Leo Tolstoy I've read is incomplete without this aspect within his writing. I knew this book would be about war, specifically Russia's involvement in the Napoleonic Wars, but I didn't right off see where the love would come in. It arrived in spades. There are peace-loving characters and there are those who are uber patriotic. Then there is man's love for the good he sees in another man's actions. And then there is the love that weds a couple for life.

Tolstoy's genius as a writer lies in his ability to dash his pen across all this with the same level of integrity regardless of whether his subject is a gallant officer in love with death or the daisy-fresh, springy step of a blossoming girl smitten by good looks and dash. Tolstoy transcends himself to become these hearty or hapless creatures. Then he marries them to our soul. Over these seemingly effortless hundreds upon hundreds of pages, these characters become family to us. We love them like brothers. We root for them. We are annoyed by them. We hate a few of them, but after all, they are family and therefore we must abide by them at least to a certain degree.

And when you step back from the book and see your attachment to these characters, it amazes you…and then it disheartens you, for you realize they are nothing but Tolstoy's puppets used in a grand way so that he may slash and burn the icon of his hatred, Napoleon Bonaparte.

Tolstoy seethes with loathing for this man. In large spurts through out, he devotes half the book to lampooning the man and his military deeds, and then as if that weren't enough, he piles on an average-sized book's worth of epilogue on essentially the same topic. In an effort to portray fairness, he also fillets his own. The Russian military leaders of the day come in for their share of condemnation. At times Tolstoy pours so much vitriol upon his own that you have to stop to recall who "the enemy" is.

Why is this a 5 star book? After all, it's not perfect, being neither fully a novel nor a military treatise, but rather both and not always successfully joined. For all its many pages, there was only a small handful of moments where I felt my heart fly or crash. Perhaps it is the vast scope of it all and the effortless way in which it is carried off. So much happens. Tolstoy gives us many rare experiences, puts us in battle after battle - whether it's upon the field amidst cannon and rifle fire, within the home during a dangerous pregnancy, or between an embattled couple bereft of love. Each of these scenes rings true, ringing to their own tune and yet all combining into one beautiful symphony.
...more

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Jan 02, 2015 Ted rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: lit-russian, fiction-of-wartimes, classics, boat-of-a-million-years, have, reviews-most-liked

That 5 star rating stares down at me. Does it need to be justified? Probably not … but anyway

In my seventieth year, I have finally for the first time read this novel, a book that I bought over half a century ago, proudly displayed on one book shelf after another as the years rolled by. Will I ever open it again? I surely hope so. It seems to me at this moment that I could turn the book over, open the front cover and begin reading again.

No matter what prism one looks at W&P through - sublime ...more

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Oct 25, 2012 Nilesh Kashyap rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to Nilesh by: William Somerset Maugham

Shelves: goodreads, 1001-books, russia, translated, favourite

Not a review, and whatever is this, is incomplete due to my inability to express myself.

In childhood’s pride I said to Thee:
‘O Thou, who mad’st me of Thy breath,
Speak, Master, and reveal to me
Thine inmost laws of life and death.

‘Give me to drink each joy and pain
Which Thine eternal hand can mete,
For my insatiate soul would drain
Earth’s utmost bitter, utmost sweet.

‘Spare me no bliss, no pang of strife,
Withhold no gift or grief I crave,
The intricate lore of love and life
And mystic know

Not a review, and whatever is this, is incomplete due to my inability to express myself.

In childhood’s pride I said to Thee:
‘O Thou, who mad’st me of Thy breath,
Speak, Master, and reveal to me
Thine inmost laws of life and death.

‘Give me to drink each joy and pain
Which Thine eternal hand can mete,
For my insatiate soul would drain
Earth’s utmost bitter, utmost sweet.

‘Spare me no bliss, no pang of strife,
Withhold no gift or grief I crave,
The intricate lore of love and life
And mystic knowledge of the grave.’

This poem describes exactly the way I feel about War and Peace. I read this poem just to re-live the ‘War and Peace experience’ over and over again.
War and Peace experience? Huh!
Journey of Pierre Bezukhov. That is what this experience refers to, in my case.
Journey of Pierre is the way I perceive W&P, you may or may not think the same way. Many of you will find my experience to be shallow, because you found something that was deep, that perhaps went by unnoticed by me OR that was something I couldn’t connect to. It's all about how one relate to something.

A bee settling on a flower has stung a child. And the child is afraid of bees and declares that bees exist to sting people. A poet admires the bee sucking from the chalice of a flower and says it exists to suck the fragrance of flowers. A beekeeper, seeing the bee collect pollen from flowers and carry it to the hive, says that it exists to gather honey. Another beekeeper who has studied the life of the hive more closely says that the bee gathers pollen dust to feed the young bees and rear a queen, and that it exists to perpetuate its race. A botanist notices that the bee flying with the pollen of a male flower to a pistil fertilizes the latter, and sees in this the purpose of the bee's existence. Another, observing the migration of plants, notices that the bee helps in this work, and may say that in this lies the purpose of the bee. But the ultimate purpose of the bee is not exhausted by the first, the second, or any of the processes the human mind can discern. The higher the human intellect rises in the discovery of these purposes, the more obvious it becomes, that the ultimate purpose is beyond our comprehension.
All that is accessible to man is the relation of the life of the bee to other manifestations of life.

Tolstoy says this about life, but the thing is that this novel is so big that it starts to get close to being something that life itself is.
We don’t find everything in our life to be meaningful or we don’t hold onto every moment of life, only few are worth. Similarly we find in W&P a particular thing to connect to, something that we underwent in our life, something that we are undergoing now. And believe me W&P has something to offer for everyone. For me it was ‘journey of Pierre’.

What kind of journey!
I think it was a ‘round’ journey, starting from a point and returning to the same point, and thereafter make a forward journey. All so innocent and careless Pierre makes a journey, vacillating between freemasonary, philanthrophy and mysticism in his desperate search for truth. At the end of his journey he is not further in his life but at the same point, but just strong and life, much more under his control.

Because truth has been revealed to him.

Lord, Thou didst answer stern and low:
‘Child, I will hearken to thy prayer,
And thy unconquered soul shall know
All passionate rapture and despair.

‘Thou shalt drink deep of joy and fame,
And love shall burn thee like a fire,
And pain shall cleanse thee like a flame,
To purge the dross from thy desire.

‘So shall thy chastened spirit yearn
To seek from its blind prayer release,
And spent and pardoned, sue to learn
The simple secret of My peace.

‘I, bending from my sevenfold height,
Will teach thee of My quickening grace,
Life is a prism of My light,
And Death the shadow of My face.’

- The Soul's Prayer, a poem by Sarojini Naidu ...more

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Dec 09, 2015 Renato Magalhães Rocha rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: the-novel-100, 100-best-books-world-library, 2014, all-stars, reviewed, 1001, tolstoy

You mustn’t let Tolstoy’s classic’s reputation and length intimidate you in the least! Contrary to popular belief, it is not a hard read and you'll be surprised to see that it is quite a page turner. And here’s a tip: having some knowledge about the Napoleonic wars and the French invasion in Russia is all it takes for the war scenes to come alive and not seem like such a drag.

This is a book that deserves to be read and you’ll be glad once you conclude this enterprise - not because you're at the You mustn’t let Tolstoy’s classic’s reputation and length intimidate you in the least! Contrary to popular belief, it is not a hard read and you'll be surprised to see that it is quite a page turner. And here’s a tip: having some knowledge about the Napoleonic wars and the French invasion in Russia is all it takes for the war scenes to come alive and not seem like such a drag.

This is a book that deserves to be read and you’ll be glad once you conclude this enterprise - not because you're at the finish line - but because you'll be different from who you were when you started it, as J. Donald Adams charmingly put it: "No intelligent person can read it without a deep enrichment of experience. And having once read it, he is certain to turn to it again, to be amazed once more by its veracity, its tremendous vitality, its epic scope."

In War and Peace, Tolstoy masterfully brings together historical figures - such as Napoléon Bonaparte and Alexander I - and a whole cast of fictitious characters - Natasha, Pierre, Andrei - and manages to paint them all equally human, as if they all really coexisted in that time and at that place. His imagined human beings are shown as complex and realistic individuals with their weaknesses and strengths, living moments of despair and hope, showing selfishness and benevolence - whether we’re talking about the charismatic Nikolai Rostóv or the perverse Hèléne Kuragina.

We're in for a comprehensive study on history and how history sees and narrates events and its effects on human lives from a rationalized perspective. The author forces us to question whether our fate is in the hands of a few important and designated, chosen people as we’ve been told to believe or if everything belongs to a higher set of causes inaccessible to human reason. Although at some point it may seem we’re simply seeing the outcome the wars had on the lives of those five families, Tolstoy is taking us to a much bigger and more interesting quest.

Closing this amazing, entertaining and enlightening journey is an Epilogue divided in two parts (mind you that a number of publishers simply left it out of some War and Peace editions! The nerve!) The first one concludes the story of our main characters, while still leaving hints of how their lives should continue and what they will possibly experience next, mostly by presenting to us an eager to quest and conquer Nikolenka Bolkonsky.

Epilogue, Pt. 2 is a luminous (one might even call it a philosophical) essay where Tolstoy summarizes the questions he’s been asking us all along through this literary experience: what’s the reason for whatever it is we go through in life? What does it mean? Why does it happen? What powerful forces acted on it? He shows us how attributing objectively the cause and consequence argument simply won’t answer all of our inquiries. Without pondering upon the laws of necessity and freedom, reason and conscience and, most of all, power, we’ll be as far from any spiritual achievement as we were from finishing War and Peace when we started our read on page one.

Rating: a true undeniable, mind blowing masterpiece couldn’t be rated anything less than 5 stars.

P.S.: As far as film adaptations go, I’ve watched two of them: 1) Voyna i Mir (1966, directed by Sergey Bondarchuk): very faithful to the book, follows all the events, most original dialogues and even character’s physical descriptions. It ended up winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and 2) War and Peace (1956, directed by King Vidor) and featuring a cast with stars Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda and Mel Ferrer; this adaptation suffers a strong condensation of events and changes up a lot of the dialogues. Even at 208 minutes long, it felt very rushed. As lovely as it is to see Ms. Hepburn giving life to our beloved Natasha Rostóva, if you have to pick one of these to watch, go with the first option. ...more

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Jun 26, 2016 Lyn rated it really liked it

One commentator of War and Peace wryly remarked,” war and peace … that about covers everything.”

That is as succinct a book report as can be given to a work of this magnitude. This novel does contain just about everything; war and peace, battles, hospitals, military strategy, love and romance, marriage, estrangement and divorce, death, birth, families, relationships, friends, enemies, hatred, jealousy, fear, gambling, dueling, hunting, dances, music, religion and politics, mysticism, philosophy, One commentator of War and Peace wryly remarked,” war and peace … that about covers everything.”

That is as succinct a book report as can be given to a work of this magnitude. This novel does contain just about everything; war and peace, battles, hospitals, military strategy, love and romance, marriage, estrangement and divorce, death, birth, families, relationships, friends, enemies, hatred, jealousy, fear, gambling, dueling, hunting, dances, music, religion and politics, mysticism, philosophy, economics, aristocracy, nobility, peasantry and farming, merchants, horses and cavalry, traveling and most all things Russian, European and universal.

A critic could cynically remark, with some truth, that if you put enough words on enough pages, you can talk about everything, but to do so in this epic, historic narrative is an extraordinary accomplishment. About a third of the way through it occurred to me that I had never read a book like this, at once on an epic, grand scale and yet at the same time personal and with great attention to detail. Of course the truth is that I never have read another book like this because there probably is not another book like this, it is unique, even among other literary masterpieces.

Tolstoy may indeed have created the greatest novel ever, because I’ve never before read such a complete work on such a grand scale. Tolstoy uses an abundance of literary devices and techniques, from irony to metaphor and simile, analogy, imagery and symbolism, foreshadowing, epiphany, characterization and all under the very approachable omnipresent, omniscient realism of the author’s voice. There are even elements of surrealism, absurdism and humor. Himself a veteran of the Crimean War, Tolstoy has an adept ability to describe life in the army and to detail military scenes. And it’s a good story.

What is it about? Four families living in the time of the Napoleonic Wars and the invasions of Russia. Just as many people today regard the WWII generation, my grandparents’ generation, as our greatest, Tolstoy wrote about these events as Russia’s greatest generation, his grandparents’ generation. These were the people, after all, that had defeated Napoleon.

Many historic personages are present in the story, including Napoleon and Alexander, and also a whole populace of counts and countesses, princes and princesses, generals, officers, sergeants and soldiers, statesmen, freemasons, servants and serfs. Tolstoy has a rare gift, akin to Dickens, at characterization, painting most all characters in a realistic, multi-dimensional brush. The leading protagonists are almost all dynamic, evolving and complex and the inter-relationships are rich.

Finally, this is a vehicle for Tolstoy to expound on his philosophic and theological views, commenting on the inherent irrationality of man and at the same time man’s small place, even as an emperor, in history.

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Mar 08, 2016 Dem rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites, russian-history

Tolstroy's epic masterpiece intertwines the lives of private and public individuals during the time of the Napoleonic wars and the French Invasion of Russia.

I had always wanted to read this epic Novel by Tolstroy's but was completely put off by the sheer size of the book at 1350 pages. I am not a lover of books over 500 pages and this was certainly going to be a challenge for me.

I have planned a trip to Russia this year and this was the encouragement I needed to finally pick up this novel, also Tolstroy's epic masterpiece intertwines the lives of private and public individuals during the time of the Napoleonic wars and the French Invasion of Russia.

I had always wanted to read this epic Novel by Tolstroy's but was completely put off by the sheer size of the book at 1350 pages. I am not a lover of books over 500 pages and this was certainly going to be a challenge for me.

I have planned a trip to Russia this year and this was the encouragement I needed to finally pick up this novel, also the fact that the BBC had filmed a new adaptation of the novel which had aired in January and it was getting great reviews. So I approached the masterpiece by ordering a hard copy as I wasn't sure I could handle this one on Kindle. I also taped the complete BBC Series and decided I would watch the first episode to get the characters, names and places firmly set in my head and then read the book as a side read over a three month period(finished it in 6 weeks)

I finally finished this masterpiece last night and really did enjoy the read. Today( Mother's day) I sat down and watched several hours of Television Series and really enjoyed so much having completed the book.

1812 napoleon invades Russia in an order to expand his ever-growing Empire. Three Russian families of Nobility The Rostovs, The Bolkonskys and the Bezukonskys become intertwined and an immense story of War, Romance, Riches, betrayals, jealously and hatred make this story so compelling.

This is not an easy read by any means as it is a challenge, with all the war descriptions and long descriptive passages and at time dialogs that tends to go on and on and yet its story and characters are amazing and I found myself engrossed and loved picking up the book and getting back to the characters.

This is not a book I would recommend friends to read, but if like myself you want a challenge and this is on your TBR List then I would encourage you to read it over a period of time and I think you will be surprised at how readable and enjoyable it really is.

I have to applaud the BBC Series which was extremely well adapted to screen and very close to the actual book except for the accents!

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Apr 09, 2016 Ahmed rated it it was amazing

Shelves: روسى

كنت وأنا في ثانوي مهووس بالأدب الأجنبي , مجرد رؤيتي لنسخة مترجمة من أعمال العظماء كان سبب كافِ جدا بالنسبة لي أن أشتريها , ولعل السبب دا اللي خلاني وأنا في أولى جامعة أدفع 120 جنيه فى كتاب ضخم عبارة عن 4 أجزاء و2329 من الورق الأصفر اللي باين عليه القدم جدا , واللى ريحته أشبه برائحة المخدر اللذيذ القادر على تهدئتك في أشد الأوقات ضيقًا وتعصبًا .

توصف هذه الرواية عى أنها إلياذة العصر الحديث , ولكن أهي كذلك فعلا ؟
لا أعرف لأني لم أقرأ الإلياذة , ولكن الشئ الوحيد الذي أثق به أنك ستقابل ملحمة من الطراز كنت وأنا في ثانوي مهووس بالأدب الأجنبي , مجرد رؤيتي لنسخة مترجمة من أعمال العظماء كان سبب كافِ جدا بالنسبة لي أن أشتريها , ولعل السبب دا اللي خلاني وأنا في أولى جامعة أدفع 120 جنيه فى كتاب ضخم عبارة عن 4 أجزاء و2329 من الورق الأصفر اللي باين عليه القدم جدا , واللى ريحته أشبه برائحة المخدر اللذيذ القادر على تهدئتك في أشد الأوقات ضيقًا وتعصبًا .

توصف هذه الرواية عى أنها إلياذة العصر الحديث , ولكن أهي كذلك فعلا ؟
لا أعرف لأني لم أقرأ الإلياذة , ولكن الشئ الوحيد الذي أثق به أنك ستقابل ملحمة من الطراز الرفيع , ملحمة لا تملك إلا الانبهار أمامها , والتعجب من تلك القدرة المذهلة التي امتلكها الكاتب لكي ينسج لك تلك الملحمة.

إلمام مذهل بالتاريخ وتفاصيل الزمان والمكان مع عمق نفسي جميل وقدرة بديعة على الوصف , كل ذلك وضعك فى قلب الحدث وجعلم تعايشه .

وصف مجتمعي جميل بتأريخ شديد الخصوصية لمجتمع غريب عنك يضيف إلى معارفك الكثير, فأنت لست أمام مجرد رواية أدبية (عادية) بل أنت أمام عمل إنساني كامل , استطاع أن يطوف بك في ثنايا الزمان والمكان ليسطر بقلمه تاريخ مذهل ليقدمه لك.

تولستوي : ليس مجرد أديب , بل كان نبي من أنبياء الإنسانية رفيعي الطراز , أولئك الأشخاص الذين بلغ حسهم الإنساني وصدقهم مع أنفسهم وتلك الشفافية التي يتعامل بها , إلى استحقاقه لتلك المنزلة التي يستحقها .

ولبد لي أن أسجل أني أحبب (آنا كارنينا)أكث من رائعته الحرب والسلام, رغم اعترافي بأفضلية الثانية عن الأولى . ...more

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Apr 01, 2011 Cindy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 1001-books, book-club, ebook, in-translation, does-my-book-look-big-in-this

A Review in Three Parts:

I. The Analytical Analysis

II. The Review

Here's the thing that surprised me the most about War & Peace: it's extremely readable. It's not filled with difficult or outdated language. (At least in the P&V translation.) It doesn't have long, hard to parse sentences. The action and dialogue is fairly straight-forward. The characters become easy to follow. If you are freaked out by War & Peace because you think it's hard, it's not. Although you will have to powe ...more

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Jul 15, 2016 Gautam rated it it was amazing

Shelves: inspiration, favorites, russian-literature, epic, war

I was sitting in my upstairs room with the Paperback on my lap. I could not believe that all the tumultuous, heart-rending, and unforgettable events I encountered were finally behind me, though safely residing in my memory lane. I closed my eyes and sat pensively without actually thinking anything. A soothing feeling of tranquility gradually possessed me I am calm like a placid sea.

Suddenly I heard a bizarre sound: it was like a hoof sound, something galloping in my yard; A horse? .I didn’t op ...more

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Jan 06, 2017 Jo Woolfardis | Infinite Variety Books rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, champion, telly, russian, masculine, ce19, 2016, bookshelf

Read as part of the Infinite Variety 2016 Reading Challenge based on the BBC's Big Read poll.

I read this in tandem with the spectacular BBC adaptation and I will say now that this piece of literature has been heavily influenced by that wonderful piece of televisual art. It just has. It's the same story, just told a different way. I will refrain from telling you to get over it.

Now, the book. It was written well, very well, in terms of all the stuff that should be done well: punctuation, spelling, Read as part of the Infinite Variety 2016 Reading Challenge based on the BBC's Big Read poll.

I read this in tandem with the spectacular BBC adaptation and I will say now that this piece of literature has been heavily influenced by that wonderful piece of televisual art. It just has. It's the same story, just told a different way. I will refrain from telling you to get over it.

Now, the book. It was written well, very well, in terms of all the stuff that should be done well: punctuation, spelling, grammar, and all that. There were some typos but that will be down to the publisher and not the writer.

However, we'll deal with the negatives first: it had some of the most tedious moments in a book I've ever come across. I realise the war was a very important thing, but my gosh Tolstoy was dire at writing of soldiers and fighting. I didn't enjoy those sections nearly half as much as I could have, which directly contributes to it not being-and never becoming-a perfect story. He was also well versed in tangents: I understand his intention of the book was exactly what he produced, but we can say that every writer produces their intention when they write a book so in this case I will say that I don't care about the authors intentions at all here.
There were also far too many characters. It's a nice idea to give everyone-including someone randomly delivering a letter-a name and a story, a background and a face, but for the reader it is too much.

But, that ending. I loved the ending (I preferred the BBC ending, but that's just me being all romantic) and I thought it was so fitting. I was happy-in a very understanding and moral way-with all of the deaths and thought they were all completely relevant to the whole piece. Perhaps they all came a little too at once and suddenly, but altogether they settled the whole affair so nicely. I found the romance of Princess Mary and the one of Pierre to both be very pleasing.

And I shall speak of Pierre now. How I love Pierre. He was, forgive me for saying this, quite English in his manner and that was delightful. I will refrain from going on about him, but I thought every description of him was just so wonderful: I very rarely get so clear a picture of a character in my mind (whilst I thought Paul Dano played him well, he did not embody the exact physical nature of Pierre that was conjured from the reading) and my favourite moment will always be when Prince Andrew looks out and sees Pierre trip and stumble.

I also loved it for teaching me more of history than I ever knew. To be very frank, I never even knew that Napoleon had invaded or even fought Russia: I suppose that is the curse of being English. We learn of our splendid Nelson but not much else. I find that literature fills in the gaps that education leaves, gaping wide and hollow.

If you've ever had any misgivings about this book purely based on length, please refrain from those thoughts. It is divided nicely in to chapters, books and parts that you can easily place it down for a while, leave it and come back very happily. It doesn't take all that long to get through, either. It is one of those myths that precedes, unfairly, on the work.

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Dec 18, 2016 Cait • A Page with a View rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, russian-inspired, historical

Yeah, this is my new all-time favorite book. I can't even begin to write a review for this without falling apart into an emotional mess or fangirling over every character, so I'll just say that SOMEDAY soon(ish) I will write more...

I skimmed War & Peace in high school but wasn't terribly interested because it felt like it was such a famous classic that I had to like. And I don't like being told what to think. Example: I like impressionist painters because they use pretty colors... I know art history and WHY I should appreciate each individual painter, but I'm still going to like them because they used an awesome shade of pink. I will like whatever I want, thank you. So when people shove a classic book at me and start going on some highbrow spiel about how it's widely known to be the greatest book ever written if you have half a brain... pretty sure that's getting chucked out a window.

BUT THIS SERIOUSLY IS THE BEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN. Those "experts" were not exaggerating. And it really isn't that long because the writing is so engaging! It's about 1,000 pages of obnoxiously tiny print, so maybe think of it as 8 YA books? It's totally doable! And I know there are a ton of characters & everyone and their cousin is a prince, but if you watch the BBC miniseries first that helps keeps everyone straight.

The book is a million times better than the miniseries, though. It's way, way more detailed and lets you understand the characters and their motivations on an entirely different level. I mean, James Norton is perfect, but most of Andrei's character comes out in his thoughts aaaaand that's kind of hard to convey through stoic looks.

I just think it's incredible how someone like Tolstoy who lived in another century on the other side of the world could write something that everyone can relate to so intensely. This book is a freaking work of art and the humanity is absolutely heartbreaking.

Anyways, I'll talk more about the actual story & characters later. For now I'll just leave you with James Norton's gorgeous face because why not:

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Oct 19, 2015 Apatt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics

War and bloody Peace eh? Started June 12, 2013, finished August 26, 2013! How am I supposed to review this?! I'll apply my usual rambling slapdash technique I think.

War and Peace looks like a formidable challenge for the average reader, in term of length and legendary status, this is not "just another book" you can just read and forget. Personally I read fiction mainly for entertainment purposes ( the best past time I know), some books I read purely out of curiosity, Some books like Moby Dick I War and bloody Peace eh? Started June 12, 2013, finished August 26, 2013! How am I supposed to review this?! I'll apply my usual rambling slapdash technique I think.

War and Peace looks like a formidable challenge for the average reader, in term of length and legendary status, this is not "just another book" you can just read and forget. Personally I read fiction mainly for entertainment purposes ( the best past time I know), some books I read purely out of curiosity, Some books like Moby Dick I even read for a bragging right (that did not turn out well!). Any way, as far as War and Peace is concerned it's a combo of all three, I am glad to report (not brag) that the result turned out to be more than satisfactory as far as I am concerned. The most daunting part of reading this book is when you tentatively start on the first page and constantly feel aware of the remaining thousand or so pages, I think the trick is just to ignore the remaining page weighing down your right hand and just follow the characters along and see what they get up to. After all you don't need to read the entire book if you don't find the first few chapters to your liking. For myself I kind of cheated and went the audiobook route which add up to more than 60 hours in total (read with consummate skill and probably gallons of coffee by Alexander Scourby). I pity the poor chap who read it but then I remembered he probably took well over a month to finish the reading it.

In term of entertainment and readability War and Peace easily met these basic requirements for me. It starts off lightly enough with a "soiree", there are several soirees in this book, they seem like high society dinner parties which I avoid like the plague at every opportunity. The reader is gently introduced to the current situation of the day and some central characters also make their first entrances. The narrative then moves from house to house and we soon meet all the central characters which there are surprisingly few in number. Yes, it's a whale of a book with a large cast of characters but there are only a few protagonists for you to concern yourself with. This book is more about the characters than about two countries at war. Looking at the title I believe it is more about peace than about war, if anything it seems like an anti-war book to me, the message is not communicated through humor and satire like Heller's Catch-22 but through Tolstoy's profound psychological insight and humanity. This makes it more serious and dryer than Heller's book and I did doze through the odd passages but over all I found it much more rewarding.

The main source of pleasure for me are the beautifully developed main characters they really came alive once I settled into the groove of the book. My favorite character is certainly Pierre Bezukhov, a chubby, sensitive, thoughtful and compassionate gentleman, not your archetypal heroic figure but certainly not an anti-hero. The best part of reading the book for me was to share Pierre's thought processes. He does tend to overthink things and is prone to changing his mind about what the meaning of life really is (a bit like me but with high IQ); following his internal is akin to some kind of telepathy. The other central characters are also very nicely fleshed out and believable, particularly the main female character Natasha Rostova who practically grows up before the reader's eyes. A few real life individuals such as Mikhail Kutuzov and Napoleon Bonaparte are presented to us as part of the novel's cast of characters, whether their fictional representation is true to the real people I can not say but to live inside their heads is a fascinating experience.

The prose style (from the English translated version of it) is just stupendous, Tolstoy seems to casually toss in phrases like "sorrowful pleasure" and put it in just the right context. People who like to pick quotations from a book will have a field day with this one. Nary a page goes by without finding something quotable. Here is a couple I picked almost at random:

“Here I am alive, and it's not my fault, so I have to try and get by as best I can without hurting anybody until death takes over.”

“Because of the self-confidence with which he had spoken, no one could tell whether what he said was very clever or very stupid.”

There are dull chapters and passages in several places of the book, the practical side of warfare is of little interest to me, but those are far outweighed by wondrous materials that feed the brain and the heart. At least I picked up some knowledge about "scorched earth principle" and Kutuzov's military genius. Special mention should be made about the epilogues, the two epilogues total moire than 100 pages, the first one wraps up the story of the protagonists and their settled down lives after the war. The second epilogue is something like a treatise on the nature of power, the real causes and meanings of war and so forth. This part of the book is so dry you may want to read it while in a bath. Still, if you have the capacity to patiently absorb what Tolstoy has to say about these weighty matters you will probably be the wiser for it.

Basically, the best way to read this book in whatever format is to immerse yourself in the story, the length becomes fairly insignificant once you are along for the ride, of course, you need to have a lot of patience and don't expect to race to the end of the book. Come to think of it reading it just for the bragging right is probably a waste of time. I personally like this book more than Tolstoy's equally legendary Anna Karenina which I also like, but I find War and Peace more emotionally resonant. Certainly I am glad I read it, and some day (a few years from now) I would be quite happy to read it again. ...more

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Apr 29, 2016 Matthew rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, kindle, at-home-reading, own, completist-book-club, 2016

Holy cow! I am done! Not sure what to say . . . I feel like I should write a 1000 page review, but I will keep it short.

I finished the book while a passenger in a mini-van stuck in horrible Atlanta traffic.

The book was not quite as readable as some other BIG books I have read, but still pretty good. What amazed me is how few specific events occurred during the 1000+ pages - Tolstoy was just really detailed in describing the events. Only a few times, though, did I feel like it was too much.

This ...more

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May 26, 2016 Nikos Tsentemeidis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: russian-literature

Μεγάλος «νικητής» της ρωσικής λογοτεχνίας, φυσικά, ο Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Τι δε μου άρεσε. Μέχρι τα μισά του βιβλίου δεν μπορούσα να καταλάβω τι έλειπε. Πλησιάζοντας στο τέλος διαπίστωσα ότι, καταστάσεις όπως «πόλεμος μακριά – ειρήνη», «πόλεμος δίπλα – τα πάντα αλλάζουν», «πλούτος – πόλεμος – φτώχεια(χρέη)», αρμόζουν ενός κλίματος πιο δραματικού, πιο ντοστογιεφσκικού! Βέβαια, αυτή είναι και η μεγάλη διαφορά μεταξύ των δύο αυτών τεράστιων μυθιστοριογράφων. Δεν κατάφερε να μου αποτυπώσει έντονα συν Μεγάλος «νικητής» της ρωσικής λογοτεχνίας, φυσικά, ο Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Τι δε μου άρεσε. Μέχρι τα μισά του βιβλίου δεν μπορούσα να καταλάβω τι έλειπε. Πλησιάζοντας στο τέλος διαπίστωσα ότι, καταστάσεις όπως «πόλεμος μακριά – ειρήνη», «πόλεμος δίπλα – τα πάντα αλλάζουν», «πλούτος – πόλεμος – φτώχεια(χρέη)», αρμόζουν ενός κλίματος πιο δραματικού, πιο ντοστογιεφσκικού! Βέβαια, αυτή είναι και η μεγάλη διαφορά μεταξύ των δύο αυτών τεράστιων μυθιστοριογράφων. Δεν κατάφερε να μου αποτυπώσει έντονα συναισθήματα, εκεί που τα περίμενα. Ίσως βέβαια, απογοητεύτηκα από αυτό που περίμενα, οπότε φταίει ο Fyodor.

Τι μου άρεσε. Ο Tolstoy ίσως είναι ο μοναδικός που έγραψε ένα τόσο μεγάλο βιβλίο και στην ανάγνωσή του φαντάζει μισό. Ο λόγος τρέχει με απίστευτη ευκολία. Στα θετικά οι περιγραφές της Αγίας Πετρούπολης, που μου κάρφωσαν την ιδέα για το μεγάλο αυτό ταξίδι. Γενικά, όλο το περιεχόμενο πολύ όμορφο. Ενδιαφέρων ο επίλογος, όπου ο συγγραφέας εκθέτει κάποια ιστορικά στοιχεία της εποχής, αλλά και τις φιλοσοφικές του απόψεις. Όπως σχεδόν πάντα, με εξιτάρουν τα μεγάλα βιβλία, όπως ακριβώς τα 10λεπτα ροκ τραγούδια.

Υ.Γ. Αυτό που μου έμεινε πιο έντονα:

" ...ο στρατάρχης Νταβού ήταν απ' τους ανθρώπους εκείνους που σκόπιμα δημιουργούν για τον εαυτό τους τις πιο ζοφερές συνθήκες διαβίωσης, για να 'χουν το δικαίωμα να 'ναι κι οι ίδιοι ζοφεροί. Και για τον ίδιο λόγο οι άνθρωποι αυτοί είναι αδιάκοπα βυθισμένοι σε απασχολήσεις επείγουσες και εντατικές. "Που καιρός τώρα να σκεφτώ και κάποια ευχαρίστηση της ζωής, αφού να, με βλέπετε, κάθομαι πάνω στο βαρέλι, μέσα σε τούτο τον βρόμικο αχυρώνα και δουλεύω", ήταν σαν να 'λεγε η όλη του έκφραση. Η κυριότερη απόλαυση και ανάγκη των ανθρώπων αυτών είναι τούτη: μόλις αντιμετωπίσουν τη ζωντάνια της ζωής, να της πετάξουν κατάμουτρα τη ζοφερή κι εντατική δραστηριότητά τους."
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Mar 21, 2008 Katie rated it it was amazing

The edition I read, 1300 pages, is Oxford “World’s Classics.” Now I know why… War and Peace has to be one of the most amazing books I have read. Where to begin. I guess the thing I enjoyed the most about it, and what impressed me the most, was Tolstoy’s depth of insight and perception of human nature, spanning social classes, men, women, and children. By the end you feel that you know the characters so well that you could recognize them in a crowd on the street. And there isn’t just one or two m The edition I read, 1300 pages, is Oxford “World’s Classics.” Now I know why… War and Peace has to be one of the most amazing books I have read. Where to begin. I guess the thing I enjoyed the most about it, and what impressed me the most, was Tolstoy’s depth of insight and perception of human nature, spanning social classes, men, women, and children. By the end you feel that you know the characters so well that you could recognize them in a crowd on the street. And there isn’t just one or two main characters that this applies to. There are whole families of main characters, but I didn’t feel challenged in keeping track of them. They are so believable, you just get to know them in spite of yourself. They start out as social acquaintences among the wealthy Russian gentry, and you follow them through battles, illnesses, romances, military hospitals, war captivity, death, debt, and life-changing perspective shifts. You have the experience of the War of 1812 right along with them, with things gradually getting worse and more intense, looking back and thinking, I never thought things would come to this. But here we are. I am still me, but I have grown and changed, and these others - I can remember a time before I met them but I know them so well now that I can’t remember how it felt to not know them.
This is my criteria for an excellent, compelling book: Through the telling of a story, the author imparts to the reader the same feelings and experiences that the characters are having. By reading the book you live out in a partial, but convincing and moving way, the same thoughts, emotions, and discoveries that the story describes. This is a subtle, hard-to-pin down quality. Something in the pacing, the way and timing in which information is revealed or concealed… Obviously it comes with the author’s skill in describing people and events. Choice of words, to evoke the right imagery that really resonates with the reader. That’s the magic of good writing - you don’t have to work to imagine. The visuals spring unbidden to your mind, as if they couldn’t be any other way. A few brief external words later, you have envisioned internal truths.

Many of the descriptions and characters resonated with me in an “ah, yes. This I know. True, that.” kind of a way. But other things, like the descriptions of the characters’ experiences in battle, taught me a lot of new things about what it must be like to be a man, a soldier, a soldier in combat. These kinds of things are timeless, I think. A socialite in the early 1800’s, a young army officer in the early 1800’s - we are not so different in these modern days. Human nature still rings true, when it is truly captured in words, and so masterfully as Leo Tolstoy has done in War and Peace.

I would recommend it to anyone.

——

One tiny note: You have to be patient with Tolstoy. He kind of goes off on his ideas about the philosophy of history, especially in the later portion of the book. I found it interesting, but maybe repeated a few too many times… ...more

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Feb 07, 2016 Bettie☯ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: slavic, historical-fiction, lifestyles-deathstyles, classic, play-dramatisation, re-read, fraudio, one-penny-wonder, adventure, war, filthy-lucre, published-1865, napoleonic, families, summer-2010, medical-eew, epic-proportions, gambling, autumn-2010, winter-20102011, paper-read, fradio, eye-scorcher, cults-societies-brotherhoods, politics, betrayal, lit-richer, games-people-play, cousin-love, winter-20142015, re-visit-2015, winter-20152016, re-visit-2016, lit-richer-jan-2016

The BBC1 Trailer

Russians sneak a peek at BBC's War and Peace

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p039wd0f

Episode 1 of 6: Russia, 1805. Napoleon Bonaparte's French army has invaded Austria, drawing Russia into the war against him. Everyone in aristocratic Russian society is rattled - except hot-headed Pierre Bezukhov, who admires the French emperor's politics. Pierre is an outcast in society, and the illegitimate son of one of Russia's wealthiest men. But now his father is close to death and his sche ...more

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May 05, 2008 Matthew rated it did not like it

I sincerely doubt that I will ever read this book again, or ever feel any desire to. I can certainly see how and why it has secured its place as part of the canon, but I did not find the characters and their lives compelling enough to overcome the annoyance I felt with Tolstoy's personal vision of history and life in general.

There were moments when I came to care about what was going on in the book. I sympathized with Prince Andrey's broken heart and Pierre's search for meaning and I was genuin I sincerely doubt that I will ever read this book again, or ever feel any desire to. I can certainly see how and why it has secured its place as part of the canon, but I did not find the characters and their lives compelling enough to overcome the annoyance I felt with Tolstoy's personal vision of history and life in general.

There were moments when I came to care about what was going on in the book. I sympathized with Prince Andrey's broken heart and Pierre's search for meaning and I was genuinely interested in what choice Nikolay would make in regards to Sonya and Marya... some of the time. Prince Andrey recedes into the background in the latter half of the book, only to reappear briefly so that he can die a sudden, anticlimactic and boring death. Pierre meanders so aimlessly between various ideas and goals that I could only become frustrated with him and Nikolay is at times such a flat lifeless character that I could not care at all about him one way or the other. War and Peace is so large that no story line ever comes to fruition and instead of being a truly complex epic it seemed to me that it was only the raw material from which several great books could have been made.

Without any genuine interest in the characters I could only hope that War and Peace would be, in some way, intellectually interesting but I found it even more deficient in this regard. Tolstoy does not believe in free will, great men, the usefulness of rational thought, or military science. I know these things because Tolstoy uses these ideas like a cudgel, beating the reader about the head and shoulders. He does not trust in the reader enough to allow them to draw the ideas from the story and so makes numerous digressions to explain the same opinion as he just explained some fifty pages ago, using almost the same words, as often as not. Worse yet, the second epiloge is devoted exclusively to reiterating them one final time, using only the barest semblance of a rational argument, which is hardly surprising since he has already told us time and again that it is impossible to change any ones mind using words, and the only knowledge that matters is that which comes from ones gut and mystical revelation.

In final summation, the only other book that has ever produced such a visceral exhasperation in me is Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Perhaps, as with Atlas Shrugged, time will change my opinion of War and Peace, but I am not hopeful ...more

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Dec 02, 2014 Aubrey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 4-star, reviewed, translated, russian, ever-on, 1-read-on-hand, r-2014, r-goodreads

Only in our conceited age of the popularization of knowledge – thanks to that most powerful engine of ignorance, the diffusion of printed matter – has the question of freedom of will been put on a level on which the question itself cannot exist.

Tolstoy is a much better storyteller than a thinker; in other words, no matter how hard he wants to be Borges, he's much better off gamboling in the bucolic glories of his beloved Russia. Part Two of this book's Epilogue cemented that in stone, forty pages of Tolstoy destroying any denunciation he had made of the horrors of war with redundant, solipsistic, and inconclusive meanderings on freewill and power. Had he stuck with a simple 'Well we just don't know so how about we keep thinking and not killing each other in those horrible massacres known as war that we shouldn't be lauding as much as we do' and ended it there, it would have been a good, sensible end. Instead, he went on. And on. And on. I've heard this paradoxical thinking is part of his appeal and his later works tell a different story but I just finished 1440 pages of the reputably nineteenth longest work in the history of novels and I am NOT going to do the 'Oh but you read the wrong one now this work is the one that is the true best of the author...' dance. Right now, enough is enough.

I recently ran across a bundle of reviews condemning Hugo for overt egotism in his Les Misérables, and while I see the truth in that, I'll take boundless hope for empathetic humanity over thought experiments culminating in either religion or endless gnawing of ones' leg in efforts to escape any day. All authors are completely full of themselves to some degree of thinking their compositions are worthy of an audience, and while I promised to not let this review commit itself to Hugo vs. Tolstoy time, I like writers that offer a backdoor, who give an opinion/story/whatnot without spending endless paragraphs quibbling over its immutability and/or not. You like what you think? Stay considerate, consistent, and somewhere along the line concise, and I'll probably like it too.

"He could not disavow his deeds, lauded as they were by half the world, and so he was obliged to repudiate truth and beauty and all humanity."

That line sums up everything I find great in Tolstoy, that utter rout of Napoleon and putting in his place a conjuration of ineffable worth that is in no way encompassed by military might. Unfortunately, Tolstoy's very much a Hemingway, and I can only hope some of that humanity he names rubbed off on him in the eight years between the publications of W&P and Anna Karenina, for every time a woman shows up he has no time for anything but lazy characterization, patronizing hypocrisy, and insipid similes such as how the effort to achieve women's rights is like the effort to cook the perfect meal and has no consideration for the holy sacred "family" that constitutes the only reason for matrimony. The irony is that, like many men and women of both that time and this one, he doesn't see that the patriarchy he is so horrified by, leastwise in massacres committed in the name of king and nationalism, is birthed in every situation where a woman is expected to take on all of empathy and a man is refused the slightest share. This is a given I usually don't mention due to its ridiculous ubiquity, but seeing how much time Tolstoy spent trying and failing to write women, it deserves explicit mention.

In light of that, if I do the usual thing and focus on the thoughts of male characters while keeping only a cursory eye on those of women, there's some good stuff to be found. Proust does the rich people screwing each other over in petty politics and gainful one-ups better, but Proust never went to war. Between the psychological discourse of varying levels of insight and the constant relations of history to physical laws that range from intriguing to utterly laughable, we have breathtaking sketches of natural landscape and its humans, a sleigh ride in particular being one of my favorite scenes in literature of all time. Sentiment abounds, but was made bearable by the few moments when real value was found in empathy and the bonds of humanity. I would've been happier had I forgone the epilogue, but I also wouldn't have the right to evaluate it, and of all of Tolstoy's attempts to pin down the nature of power, I favor knowledge above all others.

In short, I thought I'd get more out of this than I did, but that moment six years ago when I had to return W&P unfinished to the library has now been vindicated. Also, that Russian film adaptation looks mighty appealing. ...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Martha rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: my-favorites, own-books

THE END. Oh, no, I never want it to end. I want it to go on forever!

Ok, so here goes. I am going to attempt a review of War and Peace in my simpleton language. But, I am so adamant about the greatness of this book that I want everyone to read it before finishing life.

"HURRAH", I finally finished War and Peace (for the second time), but THIS time I really read it and thoroughly enjoyed every word. I think when I read it at 25 it was the “challenge” aspect and didn’t really appreciate all the nuan THE END. Oh, no, I never want it to end. I want it to go on forever!

Ok, so here goes. I am going to attempt a review of War and Peace in my simpleton language. But, I am so adamant about the greatness of this book that I want everyone to read it before finishing life.

"HURRAH", I finally finished War and Peace (for the second time), but THIS time I really read it and thoroughly enjoyed every word. I think when I read it at 25 it was the “challenge” aspect and didn’t really appreciate all the nuances, philosophies of Tolstoy, etc. because I was too young. At my age now, death is more prominent on my mind, and I appreciate his philosophizing much more.

Tolstoy’s writing is so easy to follow. His words just flow from story to story and bring you in close to each person and each family. I felt such warm feelings for Nicholas, Princess Mary, Natasha, Andrew and of course Pierre. My war hero was General Kutuzov. Kutuzov, depicted by Tolstoy, is a man who “adapts to the flow of events and thinks on his feet”. From Tolstoy’s descriptions of Kutuzov, I saw this wise, fatherly image in front of me, a thoughtful and intelligent man.

Ah, the war scenes – what emotions Tolstoy brings out in you at each battle. You are right there on the ground looking up at the brilliant blue sky (his landscape descriptions are superb) and you feel the emotions and fear from each scene. The blood, the cold, the fog, the hoar frost on the ground is so clear in your mind. He is a genius.

Tolstoy brings religion into many aspects of this tome, but in a way to make you think, not to convert. He gives you bits of what everyone feels and ponders about God and it works your mind. Yes, that is exactly what this book did for me. It made my mind work; really contemplate life. I was left with such good feelings that it made an impact on my philosophy of life.

Tolstoy used many analogies throughout that were excellent. One analogy towards the end of the book was about a soldier and how this man represented the cog in the wheel. You are left with immense respect for the soldier. Tolstoy’s writing is very persuasive. He persuaded me to admire Kutuzov, to understand war in general and to rethink the philosophy of life.

The only reason it took me so long to read this book is because of the normal interruptions of life. It is such an easy read most people should finish it within a few months easily. I’ve heard some say following the families is difficult. The families are listed at the beginning of the book and I referenced them as a new one was introduced, and it wasn’t bad at all. And, believe me, after getting to know each and every one of the characters, you will become attached and never forget them.

War and Peace is number one on my list as the best book ever written, and will never leave that position. I recommend this to EVERYONE!

HURRAH!

...more

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Jun 03, 2016 Foad rated it it was amazing

Shelves: محبوب-ها, داستان-خارجی

چقدر حرف که راجع به تولستوی می شه زد. موندم که از کدوم بگم.

تولستوی و روسو
در سال های بعد از انقلاب صنعتی، شهرها ناگهان گسترش پیدا کردن و شیوه ی زندگی جدیدی ایجاد شد. زندگی در فضای بسته ی شهرها و نظم ساعت وار کارخانه ها، تنگی معیشت طبقات فرودست و بی معنایی زندگی اشراف. همه ی این ها و علل فراوان دیگه، دست به دست هم داد تا به اعتراض گسترده ای علیه این حکومت عقل حسابگر شکل گرفت، به نام نهضت "رمانتی سیسم". بیشتر این معترضان، هنرمندها بودن، ولی گهگاه بینشون متفکرهایی هم دیده می شد، از جمله "ژان ژاک روس چقدر حرف که راجع به تولستوی می شه زد. موندم که از کدوم بگم.

تولستوی و روسو
در سال های بعد از انقلاب صنعتی، شهرها ناگهان گسترش پیدا کردن و شیوه ی زندگی جدیدی ایجاد شد. زندگی در فضای بسته ی شهرها و نظم ساعت وار کارخانه ها، تنگی معیشت طبقات فرودست و بی معنایی زندگی اشراف. همه ی این ها و علل فراوان دیگه، دست به دست هم داد تا به اعتراض گسترده ای علیه این حکومت عقل حسابگر شکل گرفت، به نام نهضت "رمانتی سیسم". بیشتر این معترضان، هنرمندها بودن، ولی گهگاه بینشون متفکرهایی هم دیده می شد، از جمله "ژان ژاک روسو".
از نظریات سیاسی روسو که بگذریم (که منجر به تشکیل حکومت هایی مثل هیتلر شد) در نظریات اجتماعی، روسو می گه: انسان تا وقتی که باقی بر طبیعت دست نخورده ش باشه، تا وقتی که احساسات و غرایزش تحت سلطه ی عقل در نیومده باشن، پاک و شریفه. این تمدن و قانون و عقله که انسان رو تبدیل به موجودی بی عاطفه و پلید و گاه جنایت کار می کنه.
من نمی دونم که آیا تولستوی مستقیماً از روسو تأثیر گرفته یا نه، ولی حرف هاش تا حد زیادی، مشابه حرف های رمانتیک هاست: این که انسان فقط در یه زندگی ساده، با زیبایی های ساده و محبت های ساده می تونه خوشبخت بشه. نه در زندگی پر پیچ و خم شهری امروزی.
هر چند، به شیوه ی رمانتیک ها آزادی بی حد و حصر غرایز رو طلب نمی کنه. برای مثال می شه مقایسه ش کرد با نیچه که یکی دیگه از بزرگان رمانتیک هاست.

تولستوی و تولستوی!
خیلی جالبه که تولستوی خودش رو تکرار می کنه. یعنی یه تصویر آرمانی رو در چند رمانش با کمی تفاوت میاره. البته این تصویر این قدر شیرین و دلچسبه، که آدم خسته نمی شه ازش. من دو تا از این شباهت های تولستویِ جنگ و صلح و تولستویِ آنا کارنینا رو که به ذهنم رسید نوشتم:

شخصیت لوین و کنت بزوخوف: هر دو شخصیت های خجالتی و ساده دل و پاک و مهربان، و هر دو به شکلی سرگشته و به دنبال جواب.
شخصیت ناتاشا و یکاترینا: هر دو دختران نوجوان پر شور و مهربان، که ابتدا جای نادرستی دنبال عشق می گردن (یکاترینا در ورونسکی و ناتاشا در جوان هرزه ای که می خواست باهاش فرار کنه) اما در نهایت جذب پاکی و مهربانی دو شخصیت فوق (لوین و بزوخوف) می شن و با ازدواج با اون ها به خوشبختی می رسن.
با توجه به تکرار وضعیتی کمابیش مشابه در رمان "رستاخیز"، انگار این، تصویر ایده آل تولستوی از یک زوج خوشبخت بوده: مردی ساده دل و زنی پر شور. یا به عبارت دیگه: مردی درونگرا (که احتمالاً تصویری از خود تولستوی درونگراست) و زنی برونگرا (که احتمالاً زن رؤیاهاش بوده).
...more

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Oct 19, 2016 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, classic, fiction, literature, 1001-book, russia, 19th-century

857. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
جنگ و صلح - لئو ن. تولستوی (نیلوفر) ادبیات روسیه
ادعای مورخی که میگوید: ناپلئون به این جهت به مسکو رفت، که خواهان این عمل بود، و به این جهت سقوط کرد، که الکساندر آرزوی سقوط و نابودی او را داشت. مانند ادعای کسی است، که واژگون شدن کوه چند هزار خرواری را، که زیرش خالی شده، نتیجه ی آخرین ضربت کلنگ یک کارگر بداند. هم درست است هم نادرست. در حوادث تاریخی، مردان به اصطلاح بزرگ، تنها برچسب هایی هستند، که برای نامیدن حوادث به کار میروند، و همانند برچسبها، کمتر از هر چیز، با خ ...more

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Feb 23, 2016 Sara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

E adesso che è finito, che cosa ne farò della mia vita?
Questo non è un libro, è un amico.

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About Leo Tolstoy

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой; commonly Leo Tolstoy in Anglophone countries) 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 fiction. Many consider To ...more

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“We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.” — 2253 likes

“Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the company of intelligent women.” — 1486 likes

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