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Summary: The Joy of Tolstoy
Review: I've just started War and Peace.....and already it promises to be as satisfying as Anna Karenina, so I can't wait to really get 'stuck in'. It is incredibly readable, lovely to get lost in, time flies by while you're reading it. His characters are so richly drawn, his ancedotes about each one are filling and often funny. I only wish that a translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky were available as they bring a fresh modern voice to translation (I can't wait to read their translation of Anna K. and 'The Idiot' by Dostoevsky).So why am I writing a review of W&P if I've just started it? Well, first to share the fun I'm having and encourage others to give this great book a try.....and to invite others who have read the book or are reading it to write to me and share your comments. One of the best things about writing reviews on Amazon.com is that I occasionally hear from other reviewers or readers with comments on my reviews or recommendations of their own.....and I love it. And I love Tolstoy! I think he's the best writer in the world. Although....quite honestly, the most memorable literary passage I've ever read was found in Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment". But you'll have to write to me to find out which one I'm referring to! Happy reading!
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Summary: Not a War of Attrition!
Review: War and Peace had stared at me from my bookshelf for over a year before I had the courage to begin. A present from a friend, War and Peace seemed more like a challenge than a gift: a challenge that could develop into a war of attrition between my completism and my boredom. Nevertheless, one chilly December day, I took the plunge into nineteenth century Russian life, into the lives of a circle of aristocrats, and into the Napoleonic wars. I was immediately struck by Tolstoy's flowing prose, his humour both gentle and ascerbic, and his skill in creating and developing characters of real depth. War and Peace was a suprisingly easy read. Each short chapter containing interesting incident. It is also a book of great variety. It vividly depicts the sufferings of war, the opulence of the Russian aristocracy, and the joys and woes of family life. It touches phychological, social, political, historical, and religious themes all intertwined in a charming story. However, its outstanding feature is its characterisation. One cannot help but feel intimately connected to the Rostov family, the well-meaning but flawed Pierre, the self-sacrificing Princess Mary, and the tragically disillusioned Prince Andrew. As I became increasingly involved in the book I looked forward with real anticipation to reading my nightly chapter. I did not want the story to end. The only disappointing feature was Tolstoy's insistence on including chapters devoted to elaborating his historical philosophy. To my mind, his philosophy simply marred the gently unfolding story, was repetitive and boring, and seemed irrelevant. Fortunately the strength of the rest of the novel outweighs this Achilles Heel.
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Summary: the title is not translated correctly
Review: The book is great, but the title is always translated incorrectly. It has to be "War and World", not "War and Peace".
I am native russian speaker, and in high school (the russian literature as major) the teacher explained to us that there is wide-spread confusion about how to translate the title. Currently, in russian, words "Peace" and "World" are represented by one word, but when the book was written, two words existed, which though were pronounced exactly the same, were written differently. Leo Tolstoy used the word "World". Actually, "War and Peace" title does not make sense to me at all, as probably for everyone who read the book.
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Summary: Life.
Review: Over the 4-week period it took me to read "War and Peace", I was asked several times by friends and co-workers who saw me with the book why it was so long. At first, I really didn't have a good answer although I felt I knew why. Having finished it, I would tell them that its length is due to its being a very thorough novel covering almost every aspect of life in general. This could be said about several books obviously, but in "War and Peace", Tolstoy covers human life more thoroughly than, although maybe not as well as, any other book I've encountered. "War and Peace" lets us follow along in the daily lives of several land-owning class characters from early 19th Century Russia. The Bolkonsky and Rostov families comprise most of these figures, but their friends and acquaintances take up nearly as much of the focus of Tolstoy's classic novel. These characters cover a wide range of personalities from the devoutly religious Maria Bolkonsky and her close and conflicted friend Natasha Rostov to the independent Pierre Bezuhov and his miserable wife Helene Kuragin. Tolstoy is able to go in and out of his creations' lives with simplicity and without exaggeration, whether its in relating the most common moments of their daily lives or the climaxes of their earthly existences. The range of emotions, feelings, and actions that Tolstoy is able to relate is easily done through his genius in setting the story in the midst of Russia's War of 1812 (the history of which he knew very well), one of the worst in its long history. It's through such a life-shattering event that people can be seen everywhere from their best to their very worst, and Tolstoy, through a compelling story line and the novel's famous length, displays the entire spectrum. I still love Dostoevsky's writing more, mostly because of the difference in the conclusions his characters come to in their cathartic moments, but "War and Peace" gave me a much greater respect for Tolstoy than I had previously held (having read Anna Karenina, among others). I definitely recommend taking the time to read this classic.
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Summary: Well worth the time spent...
Review: War and Peace is a complex story with revolves around the lives of three affluent families, the Bezuhov's, the Rostovs and Bolkonsky's, over a period of fifteen years. This book takes place during Russia's struggle against Napoleonic Europe, describing Russia's early defeats and then recounting how Napoleon fled Moscow in a weakened condition. The book begins with Pierre coming into his eventual title of Count Bezuhov, along with the enormous wealth accompanying it. Pierre is the pretty much the primary character in the book, and his path into his marriage of the young Helene is explored as well as his eventually affections for the young Natasha Rostov. War and Peace also explores Pierre's search for religion, his falling out with Christian beliefs and his joining of the Freemason's Order. Tolstoy's uses of description in the battles make the scenes come to life for the reader and portray a genuine picture of warfare during the Napoleonic Wars. The descriptions of Prince Andrei's exploits in battle are extraordinarily rich with details and in giving equal time to the description of the common soldier. Tolstoy's basic analysis of humanity is that instead of great leaders such as Napoleon and Czar Alexander being held responsible for the great occurrences of the time, it was instead the result of a million individual decisions from the common people participating. The reader takes away from this book an understanding of free will versus destiny and the way they shape our lives and the paths we take.
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Summary: It is worth the time you put in.
Review: War and Peace, one of the most intimidating books ever, the tears of sorrow and happiness that I have shed over this book, ye gods, have mercy on this child, I read it for Lit class and everyone else wrote a review on the book, I'm going to review the Norton Critical Edition of War and Peace, very insightful information and it is especially for 1st time readers. It helped me out quite a bit, w/out the notes, I couldn't have finished the book, now I'm on to read Faust.
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Summary: 19th century soap opera
Review: To fully appreciate this novel, you need to read the unabridged version, not Cliff Notes or some other shortcut used by students. You need to set aside a significant period of time for this (when I first read the novel 40 years ago, I used a week long break between school terms). The story is about a Russian nobel family and their friends and associates over an extended period of time. Young children grow up, get married, have children, and take over the family estates. It is set during (and after) the Napoleonic Wars, the setting being in Russia (to a very large extent in Moscow, but some on country estates). Tolstoy was a member of the nobility and, by standards of the day, could have been considered a social reformer trying to improve the lot of the peasants. You will usually find a character in his novels that reflects his own attitudes (but not the principal character). He wrote and published novels in installments. To produce this properly in a film media would require making a lengthy TV series, somewhat like "Upstairs, Downstairs." I am surprised that has not been done. The novel covers the rise and fall of the fortunes of the family and the people around them. The family's fortunes are shattered by a variety of circumstances including bad management of money and the French invasion. Partly the head of the family puts the welfare of others ahead of his own family. When the French are at the gates of Moscow, and they have wagons to save their belongings, they leave their own possessions behind in order to use the wagons to rescue wounded Russian soldiers. Eventually, the next generation is left with the task of salvaging what remains and restoring the family fortunes.
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Summary: My opinion
Review: War and Peace is a wonderful story about the war and the lives of the people it affected. I thought it was a very exciting story. Everything was described extremely well and efficent. What I thought was missing in the story though was the effect the war had on the poorer people. The story was only told from the view of the richer people. How hard it was for them and how much they lost, well, imagine how hard it was for people who didn't have much to lose. In my opinion you can't say War and Peace is the nations story unless you tell both sides of the story. But otherwise it's a fantastic story that I don't regret reading. :)
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Summary: There's no such thing as a great novel
Review: While cultural pundits try to convince you that some literature is better than other literature, the truth is that all art is relative to individial tastes. Thus, it doesn't make any sense to think that a novel like this one is really any better than say, Michael Crichton or Stephen King. Aesthetic standards can't be grounded. Thus, don't listen to anyone who tries to distinguish between "serious" works of literature like this one and allegedly "lesser" novels. The distinction is entirely illusory, because no novels are "better" than any others, and the concept of a "great novel" is an intellectual hoax.
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Summary: Excellent read
Review: 'War and Peace' looks formidable when it is sitting on your desk. However, the sheer readibility of this delightful historical novel eclipses the volume of the novel. 'War and Peace' reads almost like a serial publication about the military, provincial, and urban life of Russians on the brink of an epic collision with Napoleon's army and the invasion of Moscow by the French in 1812. The plot does not need rehashing here as I believe that other reviewers have done an excellent job already. I had initially found the opening chapters of War and Peace to be somewhat archaic, particularly the battle of Austerlitz where generals looked on while their soldiers were slaughtered. Military death appeared to be portrayed with a sense of romanticism and heroics. This initial assessment was incorrect. Tolstoy was at the vanguard of modern perceptions about war in the closing chapters. Kutuzov, the Russian counterpart of Napoleon, was the moral centre of this novel: weary of war and with no lofty ambition for glory but rather, the security of his nation, and a man who respects destiny's hand in deciding the outcome of war. Kutuzov to me, was the only main character in the novel who understood chiefly, with compassion, the vileness of war but also its necessity. He was the cusp between the two central theme in the novel - war is needed to achieve peace but the cost is often diminished by the ambition of glory, medals, and renown. Tolstoy's keen assessment of humanity, the minute mannerisms that gives away a person true intentions, and the incongruous but enlightening details that are peppered throughout the novel marks him as an astute and articulate writer. Although Tolstoy set out to write a fictional novel set within a historical context, what struck me most about War and Peace was the philosophical examination of what it means to be a good person (Pierre's quest), to love life as well as another person with the greatest depth (Prince Andrei, Princess Maria, and Natasha's journey), and the true mechanism that drives war and history (Kutuzov's battle with Napolean). I don't feel that my review does War and Peace justice. It is an epic novel that is surprisingly intimate and empathic because of the way that Tolstoy characterizes the ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances. I apologize that I may not have covered some of the important themes in the novel as I'm not particularly sophisticated in literature. I found War and Peace entertaining as well as enlightening and hope that potential readers will overcome their initial aversion due to the size of the novel and embark on this journey.
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