Rating: 
Summary: A Beautiful Book About Life, and one of my very favourites.
Review: This major work by Leo Tolstoy is totally wonderful. It is a panorama of Russian life during the Napoleonic era. It tells a very comprehensive story about Napoleon's invasion into Russia, and the disastrous effects of that. It shows the strength and character of the Russian people during this very terrible part of their history. This is an extremely long and complex story, but one that should be read nonetheless. Such a long and detailed story leaves the reader changed after he or she has read it. It is such a beautiful story, and it left me with a sense of wonder at the changes that humanity has encountered over the centuries and it clearly pointed out the size and the complexity of life itself. I have read this book only once so far, but I can still clearly remember the beauty and the scope of this great novel. I would like to read it again once more sometime just to refresh my memory. It's probably one of the longest books that you'll find, and the Russian names can be a bit confusing to an English-speaking person, but it is so worth the effort!
Rating:
Summary: Multi-facetted brilliance, and mind saturating reading
Review: This was one of the roads on my mission to read the Worlds Top Classics - and a long road it was. However, after getting into the novel and trying not to get too intimidated by the number of characters, I was totally absorbed by the whole experience of reading such a book. The amount of work that Tolstoy put in to write this extremely detailed and great historical novel must have been incredible. The book works on many levels: as a romantic novel - following the lives of various charcters; it is also a historic account of the Napoleonic wars and of social history at that time; it has chapters filled with the "science" of war; Tolstoy also includes his views and the philosophies of life and history: therefore it can be read on many, and every level. I was totally spellbound reading about aspects such as the communication problems there were during this time and the different values of the people. The book deals with many issues, including leadership which has inspired people such as Nelson Mandela (who read it while in prison). The book's chapters are also very short (sometimes 2 pages) - therefore you are also able to read the book in short doses: which I did (it took me nine months to complete the work). However, like a small sponge in a large puddle of water, I was unable to absorb everything that this novel had to offer, and I can certainly see myself returning to re-read this book in few years. Make yourself read this - it's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: A True Classic
Review: What I am about to review is not Tolstoy's actual book but an adaptation of his book by British playwright Helen Edmundson. And what an adaptation it is. As many people know, Tolstoy's War and Peace is a thousand something pages long. Well, Helen Edmundson has taken all the action of this huge paperweight of a novel and compressed it into a 4.5 hour play. And when I mean compressed, I mean she has managed to get everything into the play including a subplot about how Pierre takes up freemasonry, which is absent from Sergei Bondarchuk's 7-hour film adaptation. She wasn't able to dramatize Denisov unfortunately but she managed to make a reference. Compressing an entire book, especially a book of such immense length, is no easy feat. If you try to adapt a novel that is of considerable length, good luck. Most adaptations are so long that an audience is given an option to leave after the first part is over and come back the next day. Examples of this are the 8 1/2 hour "Nicholas Nickleby", the six hour "The Cider House Rules" London's recent six hour West End hit, "His Dark Materials", and of course, Peter Brook's nine hour long adaptation of "The Mahabharata" which has been cut down to less than 5 1/2 hours in a film version. It's also very interesting how Edmundson chooses to have Pierre and Napoleon engage in imaginary conversation. It's quite a fascinating device. I have read the actual book (which I loved), seen the opera (which I also loved even though it starts somewhere in the middle of the book. Actually, if you ever see the opera, read the book first. The opera starts 500 pages later.), seen the film (which I also also loved) and now I have this play which I bought in New York and read on the train ride home. Helen Edmundson has achieved an amazing feat. I salute her.
Rating:
Summary: Great in Spite of Itself
Review: While I consider this book a great work of literature, I understand why some readers dislike it. It is posh and elitist, set for the most part within the circles of the upper flakes of the Russian upper crust. It says little about commoners or the underclass, and what little it does say is shot through with a patronizing condescension that often shades over into caricature. In this regard, it reminds one of "Gone With The Wind", another book that recalls the past through a haze of selectively sanitized nostalgia. The difference, I think, is that "Gone With The Wind" focused on little more than the loves and lives of its characters. This turned it into nothing but well written soap opera. "War and Peace", on the other hand, speaks to a larger purpose. It tries to give us a sense of an ancient and honourable culture suffering through invasion and tottering at the edge of ruin. It is saved from triviality by its attempt to transcend the lives of its characters, an attempt at which it largely succeeds.
It is a long book, much of it given over to digression, polemic and minutiae. Judged by modern writing conventions, it is too wordy, too literal and lacking subtlety. Contrary to the tenets of "good" writing, Tolstoy does not show; he tells. There is nothing of the oblique, the restrained or the quiet voice in his style. One suspects that a modern genius would write the same novel in a little over one third the length.
But this book was written over a century ago in an age of simpler conventions. Their novels were the equivalent of our epic movies, with the same grand gestures, elaborate costumes and cast of thousands. One must be prepared to read the book in the context of its time and place, failing which the author's labours look staged and artificial. Who knows? Future generations may look upon our epic films in much the same way, seeing them as creatures captive to our times. But this would not strip these films of their greatness.
This book requires not just an investment of time, but of patience. Impatience will destroy the experience more quickly than cheap cynicism. Tolstoy confounds us with such a tangle of characters, settings, plot lines and conflicts that at times one must chart out the profusion of interdependencies. Such thickets tie us up in brambles and roots. Sometimes, we are so bewildered by this underbrush that we forget to cast our eye upward to the forested cathedral above.
And this is why this book is ultimately still worth reading. Despite its faults, it manages to attain greatness. It goes beyond the confines of singular lives to explore universal themes. It touches both the small and the large. It invests its characters with depth and strength of purpose, and it doesn't shrink from giving them human failings.
I don't recommend this book for everyone. Frankly, those who look upon its length with a jaundiced eye are justified in their suspicion. It is not an easy read and demands more concentration than is dictated either by necessity or by good taste. However, it is a worthy read if you are curious about the Napoleonic invasion of Russia, the lives of the Russian nobility or just what the fuss is all about. And ultimately, there is more than enough substance to reward the determined reader.
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