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Summary: War and Peace is brillant and timeless.
Review: War and Peace is a testement to the unchanging nature of mankind. As an amature novelist and voracious reader, I am constantly scouring the world of literature for hints of the true meaning of man's struggle in the universe. Leo Tolstoy has displayed the full nature of this struggle in dazzling magnificence. From the post-modernists to the magical realists to the lore of Faulkner and the like, I am constantly discovering ideas and themes within great modern literature that seem unique to our time, only to find that all of it -- the whole ironic gauntlet of living as a human -- has already been displayed by Tolstoy with such grace and splendid honesty that it would be impossible to surmount what he has already accomplished. From the spiritual turmoil of Count Bezukhov, to the avant garde lifestyle of Anatole Kuragin, to the madness of Nepoleon, every aspect of the human condition is rendered in such epic proportion and stark reality that the characters step from the black print into your mind with the easy of the master's endlessly flowing pen. Brillant!
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Summary: Amazing book!
Review: I have read this novel thrice, the first time being when I was just 12 years old. Now I am 18, and Tolstoy's writing doesn't cease to amaze me. Each time I engross myself in the novel, I find something new, something that wasn't there before. I would recommend this piece of literature to everyone, young or old.
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Summary: Stunning
Review: The world into which Tolstoy plunges his readers in the first paragraph of War and Peace is one that has vanished only to be revived every time one picks up his masterpiece. War and Peace covers all the gamut of human feelings, from love to betrayal to hope to jealousy. Tolstoy's keen understanding of human nature in all its forms drew me into the plot and permitted me to truly enjoy his novel. The characters literally leapt from the paper to become, in my mind, true, living people whom I got to know as well as my own friends.
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Summary: Simply the best; as good as advertised
Review: I disagree with those who earlier stated that the final philosophical chapters detracted from the book. If you have a genuine appreciation for history, it all only adds to the book's richness. Despite its length, War and Peace reads quite fast, and every word and character is worth it. I got more out out of this book than any other - fiction or non - that I have ever read. It enriched my life and is quite simply the finest piece of literature I have ever read.
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Summary: Do not be scared by its length it is a marvellous read.
Review: This is a beautifully written and translated book. Tolstoy knows how to tell a grand story weavng different characters and events together with the mastery of a quilter. The description of Pierre getting ready for his wedding is one of the most moving and funny in literature. This is a book that people often lie about having read so as not to appear uneducated and people who have are branded'egg heads' People should read it for pure pleasure and nothing else. I read it over 30 years ago while waiting for my first child to arrive and finished it the day after she was born.
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Summary: It is beautiful.
Review: War and Peace is one of the best novels that I have read so far. Tolstoy very successfully brings out the humanness in his characters and it is a pleasure to watch and understand the characters from their turbulence in thought and action. I think I learnt a lot about people , various kinds of them and the restlessness ( as he shows in Pierre Bezukhov) which in my opinion is present in varying degrees in most of us. The novel part of War and Peace keeps you in a trance. However I found the last part of the book which is the philosophical treatise on free will and personal choice in shaping history,not so attractive. Personally I find it difficult to agree with this line of thinking which Tolstoy puts forth. However I must say in conclusion that War and Peace is one of the most enjoyable and enriching books that I have read so far.
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Summary: Escape into your own romance: War and Peace
Review: Even Tolstoy refused to call it a book. Instead, think of it as virtual reality, 19th century style. Pursued at leisure, with time taken for dreams as well, War and Peace will transport you to Russia at the time of Napoleon, a time truly of love and hate, strength and suffering, life and death... That is Tolstoy genius, the facility to twine stories, moods, and scenes to make a distant time and country come alive. The characters live, they grow, they fascinate. Perhaps one can read and not be changed, but that same person would be one who could also love, and not change. A book to immerse in, to live in, to leave on the bookstand for months on end. A footnote: War and Peace has unfortunately slid into the same pit as Moby Dick, Silas Marner, Wuthering Heights, and everything that Dickens ever wrote. Ignore the company and read the book. Another note: Woody Allen said once that he had learned speed-reading and then read War and Peace on a plane flight from Los Angeles to New York. The verdict? "It's about Russia".
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Summary: The greatest book ever written
Review: War and Peace has the reputation of the greatest book ever written, and it doesn't dissapoint. You don't so much read this book as live it.
What Tolstoy has done so effectively is to give himself room to let the characters grow. You don't get a three page info-mercial about each character, but you get to know them from their thoughts and their interactions with other people. The result of this is that when something profound happens to a character, or within a character, this change reverberates deeply within the reader.
The scope of this book is enourmous. Tolstoy takes you from romances, to battles, inside the mind of Napolean, and most of all death.
War and Peace not only tells a great story, it raises interesting questions such as man's free-will and whether there's a god. It does so through the characters self doubt and trials, and results in an amazing and powerful book.
If you havn't read it, don't be discouraged by the size, you MUST read it!
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Summary: War and Peace is one of the best books I've ever read.
Review: War and Peace is one of those books that you never forget (at least I never will). It's a wonderful story of how various people in Russia dealt with the French invasion. I really appreciated how I could identify with the characters. Another thing that I liked about War and Peace is that it made history really believable and exciting
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Summary: Long as heck, but a good read!
Review: What is Power? What is the power which moves nations? This is the ultimate question of War and Peace. The growth of the characters is amazing. Totally recomended.
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