Rating: 
Summary: War and Peace is boring
Review: I was forced to read this book for a World History class in order to write a thesis. The book contains over 1000 characters and no real main characters, which is quite confusing. I can't beleive i actually spent thousands of hours reading the thousand-page book with a 200 page epilogue. Tolstoy just wants to write an imaginary history of the years 1805-1820 and express his hatred toward Napeloen since his father fought against him. Actaully, i would give this book a zero because i wasted all my time reading it and still did not get info to write a thesis.
Rating: 
Summary: A Masterpiece for All Time
Review: This book deserves a hundred stars. Reviewing it is an inane act. Tolstoy is a god. If you want to engage other lives and other times, if you want to feel what it was like to live in 19th century Russia, under attack from the French, if you want to throw yourself into an epic that spans years, and if you want to meet real people who grow and evolve and who you will love and cannot forget, read this book. All your efforts will be rewarded. Ignore its flaws. Relish its beauty and wisdom. These things don't come easy. Treasure them. They are great gifts from a once-only genius who gave us everything he had. All I can say is I am very grateful.
Rating:
Summary: One Of The Most Fascinating Books Out There!
Review: War and Peace is one of the greatest work of historical fiction in existance. Set in early 19th century Russia, Tolstoy's characters struggle against the horrors of war and the emptiness of peace. Throught this book, characters search for the meaning of life, and each seems to have discovered this truth by the end of the book (or their death). Each scene is carefully crafted to bring the reader into the world which Tolstoy carfully creates. Characters too, come alive, over the course of the book, and the readers find themself holding their breath as Nicoli Rostov leads his hussars into battle, praying for Prince Andrei to recover from his battle wounds, and crying as Natasha looses the man she loves. This is a truly great work, combining all elements of great literature into one, action-packed, book.
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Book
Review: War and Peace is a book that in no way can stand with the rest. The amount of description and time Tolstoy put in his masterpiece is what may just hold this novel in as the best ever. The book maybe long and at some points, endless in Tolstoy's dislike of war (which shows much in some of his writings), but you can always continue just waiting to see what the character will do or what they will have to hurdle next. I fell in love with the characters of War and Peace and so will you. From the energenic Natasha to the shy Princess Marya. The loveable Pierre and the perfect Nikolay Rostov. The book is a great masterpiece and the perfect book for anyone with intrest's in Romance, Action, History, War or Russia.
Rating: 
Summary: Sort of great
Review: The Signet edition by Ann Dunnigan is clunky and never lets you forget that you're reading a translation.The end of the book stinks. The Epilogue, as with all epilogues, is silly. What difference does it make what "finally happens" to fictional characters? Aren't a thousand plus pages enough to show us their warts, their hairy cysts, their passion, beauty and intellect? The historiography is--except for the gushing excretia in the epilogue--readable, fascinating, and a brilliant explanation of why people do things. The "tale" itself is a pageturner in the purest sense of the word. If you have a penchant for detailed, believable characters who find themselves in interesting situations, you will tear through this book. The slants of War and Peace that are somewhat repugnant might be listed as follows: 1. Tolstoy's heroines are sobby, mushy, lovey-dovey bimbos. Their main satisfaction in life consists of serving men. I've never met a woman like that. 2. The Prince Andrei death scene, and its attempt to show that people can, well in advance of croaking, achieve the enlightenment that stems from "coming to terms with God" is vomity hogwash. 3. It's hard to ignore the fact that this book is about rich Russians flagellating themselves over the "meaning of life." In that sense, no matter how wonderfully Tolstoy depicts the characters, it's hard to sympathize with them. 4. Russian nationalism. Ugh. 5. Misery and mournfulness are the guerdon of the noble Russian folk. Yawn. These dents and scratches in the finish aside, War and Peace is a raging, fist-banging outpour against killing, against class injustice, against the national leaders, against academic hacks--and an equally devoted prayer, a hymn almost, to the human spirit and our unbreakable link with some higher force. This book is hardly a classic--it's as contemporary as fiction gets.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, It's Worth the Trouble
Review: Although my blind urge to read the Great Classics has (thankfully) faded somewhat over the years in favor of reading whatever I damn please, I finally decided it was time to give War and Peace a try. After all, how can anyone who enjoys novels resist the lure of "the greatest novel of all time"? And Tolstoy himself was an unusually interesting man -- not a screwed-up genius but one who seemed to eventually figure it all out. It took me maybe a hundred pages to get into the rhythm of the book and figure out who all those characters with multisyllabic Russian names were. After that, it was totally engrossing and surprisingly easy reading. There's no point giving you a book report on what happens -- you're supposed to read it yourself -- but I do disagree with some of the other reviewers who didn't care for the sections describing Tolstoy's philosophy of history. I found those sections (a very small proportion of the book) fascinating, albeit a change of pace. This is part of what makes the book great. War and Peace is not just a story of what happens to a bunch of made-up people, but a major work of art expressing the wisdom of a great man.
Rating:
Summary: The best
Review: This is simply the best novel ever written. Large in scope but particular in its characterization, it's a true masterpiece. Bravo, Tolstoy!
Rating:
Summary: Stupendous achivement: criticism seems superfluous
Review: For me, this is the greatest novel. In fact, I find it hard to think of this merely as a novel: I know of no other piece of fiction - except, perhaps, "Anna Karenina" - where the characters all seem so real, so alive. We see them developing, changing over time, and yet, somehow, remaining recogizably the same characters. It is not merely observation: Tolstoy appears to know these characters from the inside. Tolstoy's magnificent, epic vision seems all-encompassing. Of course, there are flaws, but, in the face of as stupendous an achievement as this, criticism seems impertinent.
Rating:
Summary: Utterly brilliant
Review: Okay...so I only just got past Part 1. It is already the best book I have ever read. So I'm only twelve. This should be proof that size should not intimidate you. If I can read it anybody can. I must say, however that the "Peace" is more interesting than the "War" (although I've only read three chapters of the second part, which is where the "war" starts). The only character that I don't like is Prince Vasili...reponses to this observation are welcome. Anna Mihalovna is by far my favorite, and probably the most true-to-life of all the characters. Princess Maria's religion could be a bit more toned down and there is some incontinuity (Vera grows from age 17 to 24 in a matter of 4 years, just to start), but this really does not detract from the overall excellent quality of the book. As long as you're not illiterate, please read this. It's almost a necessity.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Greatest Books Ever Written
Review: Its hard to think of any book on the same par with htis masterpiece. I'd have to say that "War and Peace" along with "Les Miserables," "The Brothers Karamazov," and "Moby Dick" are the four greatest novels of all time. All I can say is read this wonderful classic and you will not be disappointed.
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