Rating: 
Summary: Great, and yet....
Review: It's 10 o'clock and I have just finished the tome that all Lit buffs fear with a terror unknown by any other group. Coming out of this Herculean task, I can't say that I'm not a slightly disappointed, but I also can't say that I didn't just read one of the greatest novels ever put to page. No one before or after Tolstoy has written something with the sheer scope of War and Peace. Five families, more characters then you can keep track off and a country torn and shaped by War populate this novel that transcends the novel. If you venture to read this tome, you'll be giving a part of yourself over to the characters of it. You'll feel passionate love and pure hatred, loathe some actions, and admire others, you'll think (man will you think...), you'll feel, you'll be emersed into a world that we do not know anymore. You'll desperetley want to learn Russian.That said...even Tolstoy is not perfect. As many others reviewers have stated, War and Peace is spliced with many chapters that are there to spell out Tolstoy's theory of history. While they are interesting, and even insightful in some points, they simply do not fit in with the story. You'll be dying to know what happens next to the people who have given all your emotions over too, and instead of being treated to more exposition on their life, you instead have to read 30 pages of analysis of Russian battle stratagies in the war of 1812. Interesting, yes, but does it really belong there? Also, Tolstoy does not, I feel, successfully rap up the story lines of some of the more minor characters. Boris, for instance, is quickly shuttled out of the picture two thirds of the way through the book. Sonya's character doesn't get the time that her story deserves. All in all, it is an amazing read that you will never forget...
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant
Review: Deserving of its reputation, it's brilliant in all ways. The greatest novel I've ever read and surely ever will read. The war scenes and the high society scenes and the characters and the relationships are all drawn perfectly, with the irresistably charming character of Natasha as a high point among many high points. I haven't reread the whole thing, but I have found myself picking up the novel to reread certain scenes. One caveat: I was warned about the swarm of characters that fill the book, so made sure to write down the page on which each character is introduced, so when a character's name came up again, I could refer to my homemade "index" and flip right to that page for a refresher, thus sparing myself flipping around endlessly. I advise you do the same.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: Deserving of its reputation, it's brilliant in all ways. The war scenes and the high society scenes and the characters and the relationships are all drawn perfectly, with the irresistibly charming character of Natasha as a high point among many high points. I haven't reread the whole thing, but I have found myself picking up the novel to reread certain scenes. One caveat: I was warned about the swarm of characters that fill the book, so made sure to write down the page on which each character is introduced, so when a character's name came up again, I could refer to my homemade "index" and flip right to that page for a refresher, thus sparing myself flipping around endlessly. I advise you do the same.
Rating:
Summary: It Demands Your Time and Will Command Your Attention
Review: This is a long book. It's also a masterwork of storytelling and immensely enjoyable. The thing is, you've got to be willing and able to give the story time to develop, not allowing the barrage of characters and scenery to discourage you. The story is about Czarist Russia at its height during the Napoleonic Wars, but more specifically about a group of families that live, die, and survive this period of warfare and uncertainty. The characters are rich and complex, but they all display emotions that are accessible to us in contemporary society: love, anger, jealousy, despair, fear, etc. Please do not let the length deter you. It's worth the time and effort:)Break it up into sections of reading at first, because as the first third of story progresses, you will not be able to put it down so easily. You will actually care what happens to these characters that Tolstoy took so long in setting up.
Rating:
Summary: A great classic.
Review: Leo Tolstoy's writing is something that cannot compare to the writers in this lifetime. He manages to write a long book such as War and Peace and keep the writing so wonder and clear. The writing of Russia and war would not have normally kept me reading, but something in this book pulled me into and would not let go. I start to feel like I was right there in Russia with the characters and I was seeing Russia as it was. Each of the characters was painted a real person with real feelings and each character was writing as that. You get to feel like you felt the hurt when the characters did and you felt the happiness when they did. This book has been reviewed a lot so I will not go into the story of the book, but I will tell you that this was a such a great book. It took me just under a year to read this, but I am happy to say that I read this book and would recommend it to people who are looking for a book to read that will make you feel emotions.
Rating:
Summary: This book rocks (actually im 15)
Review: Everyone who gave this book less than 4 stars can do so that is all i will permitt anyone to dislike this book. I read this book expecting to be bored out of my mind. well it came as a big suprise to me when halfway through instead of talking on the phone chatting or playing video games i was layed out on the couch totally absorbed in this book. I can't tell you how wonderful this book is please please please go out and read it. it's not even that hard to read im 15 and im reading it of course half the kids in my class probably couldn't get past the third page but thats just cause they are some of the dumbest people alive. its really great plus its written by a Russian guy about Russian people so you know its gotta be good ;).
Rating:
Summary: "The force that moves nations"
Review: To put it in the simplest terms, "War and Peace" chronicles the lives of three Russian families during the Napoleonic wars of 1805 to 1820. While this premise by itself doesn't seem sufficient to justify a 1,500-page novel, Tolstoy manages to assemble a successful set of ingredients: the very character of Napoleon, inarguably one of the most charismatic and intriguing military leaders in history; his campaigns which changed Europe irrevocably; meticulously detailed battle strategies; and the human drama of war, domesticity, and romance. When the novel begins, Napoleon's visions of a united Europe are gradually becoming a reality. Russia is the final frontier, so to speak, and while the Russians don't want to be annexed by France, they actually consider French a fashionable culture and speak the language frequently on social and formal occasions. The novel covers the two major military campaigns that concern Russia: the battle at Austerlitz in 1805, in which Napoleon's army crushes the Russians and Austrians, and Napoleon's invasion of Moscow in 1812 after the pyrrhic battle at Borodino. The last third of the novel is devoted to masterful descriptions of the panic and chaos that erupt in the streets of Moscow as many citizens flee for their lives, leaving the city ablaze; followed by the French retreat, accelerated by the pursuit of roving bands of Russian guerrillas. Basically, the novel covers the time from the peak of Napoleon's powers to the retreat that signified the beginning of his downfall. Besides the principals Napoleon and Tsar Alexander of Russia, there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of named characters in the novel, too many for a succinct plot summary. These are primarily members of the three middle to upper class families -- the Rostovs, the Kuragins, and the Bolkonskys -- and their friends and relatives and various soldiers. Tolstoy's purpose is to show their interrelations and how wartime affects and interferes with their lives. The character who receives the most focus is Pierre Bezuhov, the illegitimate son of a count who inherits his father's fortune and marries a beautiful and wealthy Kuragin daughter. His life odyssey -- from a somewhat carefree and irresolute young man to a Freemason convert to a philanthropic landholder to a soldier to a prisoner of war -- seems to represent Tolstoy's idea of the redemption of man through the suffering of the realities of the world. In the novel, Tolstoy does not withhold his personal opinions on Napoleon and Kutuzov, the commander-in-chief of the Russian army. He regards Napoleon as an arrogant, dishonorable, and unwarrantedly admired scoundrel, and Kutuzov as an underappreciated hero and symbol of Russian fortitude. He even gives the novel a philosophical spin, musing on the failure of diplomacy and the complexity of the causes of war. However, the narrative is mostly objective, portraying these men as they actually might have acted, and effectively separates story from propaganda. Despite its daunting length and occasional dips into sentimentality, "War and Peace" is probably the single most important war novel of Western literature; so expansive as to contain a world of concepts, from political showboating to hypocrisy and all the absurdities that the theater of war entails; so comprehensive and definitive, it seems inconceivable for it not to have influenced every war novel that came after it, either directly or indirectly.
Rating:
Summary: don't be intimidated
Review: Don't be frightened off by the sheer heft of master Russian writer Leo Tolstoy's classic novel. Enter its pages to find many delights here. Like all good novelists, Tolstoy was a great psychologist and here are insights aplenty into the human condition. Set against the background of Napoleonic wartime, here is a romantic love story, an action/adventure tale, a probing look into the thought and motives of a vast cast of characters. You probably didn't read this high school or college, as instructors hesitate to assign such a lengthy work. Read it now!
You may find Tolstoy's classic to be much more rewarding reading than whatever currently lies on your bedside table.
Rating:
Summary: Rise above yourself, you weak of heart...
Review: I sat alone in a room with this book, terrified, for days. I couldn't harvest the courage required to pick it up. The prospect of reading it seemed like the prospect of 4 years of dentistry school. This was before I took the leap and ALL WAS MADE CLEAR to me. If it seems too long, think of it as four 325-page books if you have to. By the time you finish your first installment, you will have utterly forgotten that you needed to mentally partition it thus. Prince Andrei, Pierre, Natasha, and the rest of the brilliant crew will weaken your knees. Again and again you will fall back into your armchair, near the point of tears. St. Petersburg ballrooms and Moscow staterooms invite you. Napoleon summons you. Gossipy aristocrats will vex you. Unvirtuous wives will anger you. Dissolute duellists will challenge you. Blasted, corpse-laden battlefields will be sanctified by the vast blue sky above. And a man's heart, long encased in stony grief, will again be moved by the thought of a lovely young girl, herself "prepared for ecstasy." You get the point. My apologies for emotionally soiling myself for a minute there. One important note: read THIS translation, by Constance Garnett.
Rating:
Summary: W&P- Best Novel Ever?
Review: W&P is up there in the top books ever penned due to several reasons: 1. Complete picture of historical Russia during the Napoleonic Era, capturing all classes of people. 2. Great story. Basically its a bunch of characters, with the two primary characters (The young Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Buzehov) observing the human scope of the world and attempting to answer the BIG QUESTIONS- what are we here for, what should we do, how should we conduct ourselves, etc etc. Pierre finds his answers he can be happy with after a long struggle with various alternatives throughout the book. Andrei is not so fortunate. A large volume of the story revolves around soap-operaesque aristocratic themes, but there is a strong power and mind behind the prose moving it along, and even the seemingly trivial bits are still a pleasure to read with usually more to them then meets the eye. 3. Tolstoy works his own philosophical theory of History in. Some reveiwers say this isn't useful or could be skipped, but I found it to be an excellent perspective that is one of the contributing factors to putting W&P a 'cut above.' He portrays Napoleon as being an unimportant figurehead captaining a ship he really has no control over, the real deciding factor in the events of history is the masses. The 'great' leaders are merely manifestations of the will of the people. It should take 6 months to a year to finish. If you somehow read it faster then that, slow down and take it all in.
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