Rating: 
Summary: Not always easy, but well worth it
Review: Though I felt that Tolstoy could have used a good editor when it came to some of the war sections and his extended philosophizing, the greatness of this book far outweighs these complaints. To me, Tolstoy's absolute genius lies in his ability to so perfectly and thoroughly get inside the heads of his characters. They are all stunningly real and human. Tolstoy frequently made observations about people and relationships that just stunned me because they were so obviously true, but I had never conceptualized them as such myself. In short, I think what makes this an exceptional novel is Tolstoy's unparalled insight into the human condition. This insight results in wonderfully-drawn characters that will surely never be forgotten. It was not always easy making it through the nearly 1500 pages, but it was most definitely worthy it. I can also highly recommend the Signet Classic edition translated by Ann Dunnigan.
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Novel ever written
Review: War & Peace, by Leo Tolstoy, is simply the greatest work of fiction in any language. Its magnificent scale, sweep and style is unrivalled throughout literature.The thing which will most strike the reader as he plows on through the seemingly endless pages of text, is that in War & Peace, Tolstoy presents a complete tableau of life, with all its trials and tributaltions and all its joys and times of happiness. The plot centres around the Bolkonsky and Rostov families, two aristocratic Russian dynasties struggling to survive the Napoleonic Wars and the French invasion of 1812. Set against a backdrop of sweeping battles and the manouverings of Kings, diplomats and Emperors, the spirutal and intellectual journey undertaken by Andre Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezuhov in search of the meaning of existance is emphasised by the epic events taking place around them. The only glaring fault in this otherwise wonderful work is the constant philosiphising and musing of Tolstoy on the course of history. He sees great figers such as Napoleon and Alexander as merely pawns in a grand scheme of historical movements and fluctuations. Although there is some truth in his theories, the reader is advised to stay with the course of the story instead. Sonya Tolstoy, the wife of Leo, wrote the manuscript out by hand 7 times, so the least you can do is justify this huge amount of work by reading it! Note: this particular edition of the text (Modern Library) is in hardcover and larger print which I believe is the only way to read this epic piece of prose.
Rating: 
Summary: Bore and Cheese...
Review: When the very first writers used the wall of a cave to tell us about an event they had experienced or imagined, I'm sure that all of those in audience of this very first story-teller sat in awe as he shared his tale. Fortunately, we have evolved as both writers and readers. In this day and age we would find ourselves staring with the same amount of amazement at those same writings on the wall, but only for the novelty of WHO wrote it and WHEN. The story of how some primitive man hunted successfully and was able to feed his whole clan would hardly keep us on the edge of our seats. Same goes for Tolstoy's "War and Peace." He tells the story of how Russian aristocratic families may have behaved during Napoleon's reign of wartime egotism. It began as a sappy soap opera, whereby Russian nobility spent the majority of their time worrying about who is betrothed to whom and who is making an offer of betrothal to whom else. When Russian male and female nobility are not visiting with each other and carefully discussing the latest of scandals to entertain themselves, Tolstoy tosses in a good dose of Napoleonic military strategy discussion for contrast. I suppose the highlight of the story is the plight of the young bastard nobility, Count Bezuhov, the illegitimate son of the former count. In the first pages of the story, Bezuhov inherits the grandeur and riches of his estranged father, a far cry from his past of much lesser means. To further shake up the lad, we find that he jumps right into the Russian war as a soldier to illustrate Tolstoy's overly-exerted point: Historical accounts are based on perspective. Tolstoy repeatedly hounds his audience with his cries of disdain for historians who try to broad-brush explanations for all the reasoning and circumstance of passing events. He claims that each of these historical accounts are largely due to perspective, as his fictitious Russian nobility character attempts to illustrate. This story will most definitely slow down the pace of even the fastest speed-reader. The print on each page is very small and the many pages, very thin. I would strongly recommend a hardbound version to read, doubting that any paperback version would be able to suffer the handling of such a grotesquely long novel. My suggestion to read this novel is only for those whose life wouldn't seem complete having not read it, or to those whose curiosity will get the best of them, if they cower from perusing the story. I'm sure that at the time Tolstoy wrote this, it would have been quite a splashy and interesting text, but given my earlier explanation, I believe we have evolved to the point where this book may not please us as we may have thought. Dear reader may find as I did, he had expected so very much more.
Rating: 
Summary: Skinning a whale
Review: It isn't enough. That's my starting point. It isn't enough to say this is the greatest novel ever written. Or: this is not the greatest novel ever written. Certainly when I'm told that size matters, I disagree. The great artists - the people I regard as great artists - aspire to brevity. Great artists don't say everything. Or rather, great artists don't feel the need to use fifty gazillion words to get the point across. Great artists (I'm labouring this, I know, but: think Beckett, think Kundera, think Borges) aspire to brevity because in brevity you have the pure unadulterated moment. Think Keats. The kiss that never was. You with me? Second thing. Actually no. The second thing can wait. Because, importantly, this is "War & Peace". This isn't a walk in the park. This is one of the towering novelistic achievements. This isn't regarded as one of the great books of the century. This is regarded as one of the greatest books ever. If you don't start reading with open eyes and an open mind, you might just let that trick you. You might just let that convince you that any - gulp - failing you chance across is your fault and not Tolstoy's. Before that second thing. An obvious thing. Tolstoy was only a man. All Tolstoy did was write a huge book. Okay? Don't be afraid. Just look out for the others. Because that's the second thing. Reading "War & Peace" - getting all the way through from page one to page fourteen hundred and whatever (excuse me, I'm not going to get up, take the book down and look, there are more than fourteen hundred pages, that's all you need to know) - is an accomplishment. Unfortunately that accomplishment can be a little like climbing Everest without oxygen. By the time you're done, you think all life is here. You've been holding the book up against your face so long, you can no longer understand what you're seeing, you can no longer be critical. Be critical. Start the book critical. Read the book critical. Finish the book critical. Think about the book critical. Do all that. Make up your own mind and be strong. The point being, I think, that nothing so vast can inspire such honest devotion. Treating "War & Peace" like a natural wonder - treating "War & Peace" like the Grand Canyon or something - is a mistake. The book itself. In sixteen words. The travails of a group of people against a backdrop of the Napoleonic invasion of Russia. Importantly, those sixteen words also illustrate something vital about the experience of reading "War & Peace". You're reading about a group of people within an enormous historical context. (I'm making an effort to simplify here because the book is difficult and awkward. Bear with me.) The group of people make up the novel. The enormous historical context is something else altogether. As the book proceeds, the influence of Tolstoy (enemy of the historical reinvention of the past by historians, despite the fact that - yes - "War & Peace" is also one of those historical reinventions of the past by a historian) exerts itself to a greater and greater extent. As the book proceeds, Tolstoy goes to war on historians (and diatribe goes to war on novel). In lots of ways, the experience of reading "War & Peace" is akin to that of reading Melville's "Moby Dick". The novel is fine, the novel is good, the characters are engaging, you are interested, you want to know more but - uh-oh, here comes another 180-page digression explaining how to skin a whale. If "War & Peace" was just a novel, then perhaps you would merely concern yourself with the impetuous young Nikolai Rostov and his on-off love affair with the house-cat that is Sonya. If "War & Peace" was just a novel, it could be you would spend time asking yourself whether Pierre was right to duel with Dolohov over Helene or whether Prince Andrei should have forgiven Natasha and not gone off to war. Of course, "War & Peace" is not just a novel. These people act out their tiny business against a backdrop of the Napoleonic invasion of Russia, and the Napoleonic invasion of Russia intrudes upon the action of the novel in much the same way that documentary film-footage intrudes upon the action of a romantic comedy. Not that the fictive action of "War & Peace" is in anyway similar to the action of a romantic comedy. (You see how difficult this is?) Afterwards - having got to the other side and clasped my hands over my head like a champion - it occurs to me that novel is not the place for an extended rant about history. History, the art of history and the artfulness of the historian. Especially when, paradoxically, that's what you are doing. Tolstoy's feelings about the Napoleonic invasion of Russia, Tolstoy's feelings about Napoleon, Tolstoy's feelings about historical versions of Napoleon intrudes upon the action of the novel in much the same way that Brecht hoped his actors changing on stage would intrude upon the action of a play. Except Brecht hoped to alienate his audience, wanting to constantly reaffirm the fact that the audience was in a theatre watching a play (hoping that the alienation technique would allow the critical faculty to remain engaged). I truly believe that is not Tolstoy's intention. Tolstoy just gets worked up enough to let his rants intrude. Still. To be brief. "War & Peace" does not provide (or does not provide me) with the thrill that Dickens does, or Dostoefski does. "War & Peace" is hard. It's a challenge. It sits there on your shelf saying come and have a go if you think you're hard enough. Reading it is, in places, a little like waging a military campaign yourself. I feel like the blasted bombshook individuals making their shaky way back to the burnt out Moscow at the book's climax (well, in the last three hundred pages). It's an experience. I can say that I did it. It took me just a little over four weeks, but I did it. Which feels good. (And makes me some kind of dilletante probably but, hey, what are you gonna do?)
Rating:
Summary: A life-changing experience.
Review: This is not a book about Russia, nor is it a book about History. Those who can only open themselves up to didactic or polemical levels of understanding and interpretation are missing out on the greatness of War and Peace (and probably of life as well). War and Peace is about us -- all of us. It is perhaps one of the most inspriational humanist statements I've ever experienced, in spite of its age and the context in which it was written. To love War and Peace is to be in love with life again for a little while, to forget about work and death and taxes, or maybe to see them in a new light and not to regret them so much, as we all work, die and pay together... I've read several translations and the Maude translation is by far my favorite; the language is perhaps more dated, but it also leaps of the page just a little more -- though I doubt any translator could really do significant harm to War and Peace. Yes, it is indeed so very unavoidably worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece to the Answers of Human Existence
Review: This is one of the few books in the world which has the power to change those people who read it. I rank this book as an equal to the Bible To those people who are searching for the answers to the meaning of life, read this book. This is the book which leads to the understanding of the significance of life. When you read this book, you have the power of understanding yourself and the truth in life. When you read this book, you do not have to read any other book, because this book is the accomplishment, the end, of all other books together. Every word of this book can be interpreted in whichever way the reader wishes it to become, but in the end, the book molds you. War and Peace takes place in Russia and Europe in the years when Napoleon conquered and shaped the world to his whim. The characters, who are mostly the upper class of Russia, ensure you into their lives and their worlds. They empower you with their passions and beliefs. Even though they are all different, in the end, they are all the same. They are what we are: they are human. Read this book, and you will understand the genius of man and how man is different from all other creatures on this earth. When you understand this, you will have the power to conquer the world. The book is truth itself. In understanding the book, you will understand yourself. This is a masterpiece which belongs in every library. Enjoy
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Book Ever Written ?
Review: That's a very strong statement, and who is to say whether or not it is true. But this book can at least stake a valid claim on the title. How many books skillfully include a whole continent, a major war, the author's religious and philosophical beliefs, and some of the most clearly defined characters in literature into one piece of work? It is impossible to read this book and not learn something meaningful about Russian society in Tolstoy's time. It is also not possible to read this book and not know Natasha, Andrey, Pierre, Helen, and Marya. The great things is that we also know Denisov, The Old Prince Bolkonsky, the Old Count and Countess Rustov, Kuragin, Alexander, Napoleon, and most importantly we even know Platon Karataev well. A major mark of the greatness of the book, and one of the many reasons it has survived so long, is that throughout the many twists and turns of history during the period covered, and the major life changing events that happen to the fictional characters so gracefully woven into the fabric of the history (or is the history woven into the fabric of the story?) nothing really surprises. At no time do we, as readers, have to say, "Why would he do that?" At the same time the preparation is not obvious. We don't know why we were ready for that major (or minor) event, but we were. The main characters move from youth through experience to understanding and/or death naturally. We know why they did it. The interjected discussions of history, philosophy, and religion pace us, give us time to consider the times and the people and why this goes beyond simple story to an expression of Russian character. And it was all accomplished under the strictest censorship. Like all great books, this one still provides enjoyment and enlightenment after several readings. It is obviously not light reading. It is very worthwhile reading. Since this book is written in what for me is a foreign language, another major consideration is the translator, and as far as I am concerned there is none better than Constance Garnett. She brings a value to the language of the book that is not matched in any other translations that I have attempted. My second recommendation, especially if your history is a bit rusty, is the Inner Sanctum Edition (translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude) that is extensively footnoted and includes several illustrations that make it a bit easier to follow the descriptions of some of the battles. Finally, don't read this book because it is one of the great books of literature. Read it because it is a fantastic story about a time, place, a people, and characters worth getting to know.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book in the Shop Dog
Review: I'm thinking I like this book, you see? I read it for three years before, but now that I'm finished and things are going forward in a "lipminster" it's like it never really happened. I hope this helps.
Rating:
Summary: Minor Attempt to Put European History into Dull Romance
Review: At the end of ''War and Peace,'' Tolstoy portrays his heroine, Natasha, as a big, blowsy mother; she has given up bothering about clothes or appearance and devotes herself entirely to the welfare of her family. ''War and Peace'' seems to allow Natasha everything, to be one long celebration of her vitality and its triumph; but, no, it doesn't give her any life of her own. She must grow from lively girl to vigorous matron at the author's behest and not disturb his conception of what a good woman should be. Tolstoy was a mind numbing dullard, a massive misogynist who gave his best attempt at writing a novel about European history, the end of the 'aristocratic age' in the 19th century, he made it into one of the most boring stories ever conceived and on top of that it became one of the most over-rated. The early chapters are passive and inert, sometimes pathetic, even dull. The influence of V.G. Chertkov on Tolstoy can probably be explained by the fact that they belonged originally to the same world - the army and society, parties, wenching and card playing. Probably even more than Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy has been praised as being the greatest novelist in world literature which is a complete and utter defacement to forgotten Russian writers from which he plagerized his work such as Mikhail Saltykov, Mikhail Zoshchenko and Ivan Goncharov. Thus there was nothing wholly original in Tolstoy, he was outdated by the time he had reached the age of 30...I suggest reading Dostoyevsky instead, he is a fresh approach to the character of Russia.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterwork of World Lit.
Review: There is much to love in this book. While there are many "main" characters, to me the book is dominated by two in particular: Andre and Pierre. Andre is one of the great characters I've ever encountered. Pierre's character is also truly brilliant, and becomes more interesting with each episode. I was fascinated by the way Tolstoy plays Pierre's character against Andre's, whether in parallel (both fall in love ), or in contrast (Pierre's early duel vs. Andre's desire to duel later; or Pierre's sheer luck in battle vs. Andre's bad luck, etc.). I have to say, though, that there are some things I didn't love too. First, let's be honest: Tolstoy is as didactic as they come. People complain that Henry James can write for pages without anything happening, but Tolstoy can writer for pages without characters! Some of his digressions on historical laws and historiography in general were clearly warranted, but eventually I grew impatient with them. I found the entire epilogue disappointing: the section on the philosophy of history I found mostly unconvincing, but I was even more troubled by the section on his characters 7 years later. I felt like he became patronizing toward most of them, which is something he never did in the main story. Pierre and Marya come off OK, but the 2 Rostov's really come of poorly, particularly poor Natasha. Overall, though, I enjoyed reading . It's clear why this is considered one of the masterworks of world literature--I can't think of many works that have better characters or that incorporate history and society more seamlessly into the narrative.
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