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Nov 22, 2008

Jessica rated it:

So, I know you've all been on edge these past two months, and since I should be studying for the social work licensing exam tonight, it seems like the perfect time to put an end to your suspense.

After all my agonizing and the thoughtful suggestions below about whether I should mutilate my gorgeous hardcover Pevear and Volokhonsky translation in the interest of less hazardous subway toting.... Readers, I carried him. All 1272 pages. Every day, across five boroughs and three states, fo More...

62 comments like (135 people liked it)

Aug 14, 2008

Joshua rated it:

It is difficult, in reviewing classics, to say things about them that have not been said before. It is especially difficult when those classics are part of the literary canon; and even more difficult when those classics are not mere novels, but purposeful epics. It is in this light that reviewing Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace is a challenge. The massive book — ranging from 900 to 1,500 pages, depending upon the edition — is a cornerstone of anyone’s list of all-time great literature. Strangely, More...

3 comments like (39 people liked it)

Jan 14, 2012

Cait rated it:

I am no longer afraid of the big ass Russian novel.* Who knew it would be so readable? The most difficult thing about it was keeping all of the characters straight, but even that was only in the beginning. By the end of the book, the characters were so fully drawn that I couldn't believe that I'd once had to rely on a cheat sheet remember who they were or what relation they had to one another.

I'm kind of peeved that I can't give this book 5 stars**. Overall, I thought it was fant More...

11 comments like (14 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2009

Whitaker rated it:

When I was growing up, the conventional wisdom was that War and Peace was the sine qua non of difficult books: the scope, the length, OMG the length! Conquering this Everest was The Test of whether you were a Man/Reader.

I have now read it. Thump chest and make Tarzan yell.

Actually, you know chump, big deal. The mountain really wasn't so large after all.

There are love affairs, there is a war, peace eventually returns to ~~the Shire~~ Russia. Sorry, got confused More...

32 comments like (60 people liked it)

May 10, 2011

Robert rated it:

This book is so difficult to review; it's so vast and varied and my responses to it are vastly varied. If this turns into a sprawling mess, then it is only a dim and distorted image of the book itself, which is flawed, too.

So, what is War and Peace all about? One could easily answer, "Everything" since it has "the Seven Ages of Man", as pointed out in the essay at the end of this edition. War, Peace, happiness, suffering, morality, immorality and on and on. But I More...

19 comments like (16 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2012

A.J. rated it:

Wow....

I should probably just leave it at that. I know that my review of War and Peace is just about the antithesis of necessary. By raving about this book, I'm saying something equivalent to "Michael Jordan was a good basketball player" or "Richard Nixon had a decent amount of issues." This book is not only on the short list of best novels ever, it was there a century before my birth. But, hey, this thing is a beast, and it feels like a real accomplishment finish More...

5 comments like (7 people liked it)

Apr 08, 2010

Silvana rated it:

EPIC. That’s the most suitable word to describe this book. The amount of pages are enough to make most people runaway, methinks. The essence, however, with the details, the characterization, the plots, the parlance (with occasional French); this book has everything needed for a great literature.

The story is Russia during the Napoleonic War. The novel has two main plots. First, the historical description on the military (and diplomatic) effort conducted during the invasion of Napoleon More...

19 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2011

Alex rated it:

So, I read this. It took a couple minutes.

Some of it is the same old stuff I remember from Anna Karenina: huge numbers of rich people screwing each other over. But the other stuff - I guess that's the "War" stuff, although it's mostly all war, one way or another - the stuff about Napoleon surprised me because I don't think Tolstoy saw this as "historical fiction." I think he saw it as some fiction parts, and some history parts, and during the history parts he More...

31 comments like (15 people liked it)

Feb 23, 2011

Matt rated it:

Whatever else I am, I am the type of person who reads classic novels out of a sense of obligation. Also, I must admit, out of a sense of vanity. My ego, after all, is as fragile as a goldfish and requires the constant attention of a newborn baby. Every once in awhile, it needs a little boost, and the intellectual challenge of Dostoevsky or Dickens can really work wonders.

Now, I’ve been told that forcing myself to read books I don’t necessarily like is a fruitless waste of time (and More...

15 comments like (30 people liked it)

Mar 26, 2010

Evan rated it:

So, I've slam dunked War and Peace...
…And now the bragging rights are mine.

Even so, just how much do I want to linger over this dead corpse: Tolstoy’s challenge to all those who, rather than climb mountains, would subject themselves to the masochistic come-on presented by the daunting, daring, formidable, teasing charms of an overwritten, repetitive 1,350 to 1600-plus-page fictionalized historical opus?

Not much really.

But, some thoughts do bear being mad More...

7 comments like (8 people liked it)

Sep 20, 2011

Marvin marked it as to-read

Written for the Celebrity Death Match Review Tournament

The bout is held at the house of Natalya "Natasha" Ilyinichna Rostova. Mrs. Beeton arrives with a present of clotted cream.

"How thoughtful" says The Countess Rostova. "I have prepared tea for your arrival"

"Why, Thank you, Countess", Mrs. Beeton sits on a comfortable chair as the Countess' maid pours tea.

"Please. Call me Natasha"

" More...

3 comments like (15 people liked it)

May 05, 2008

Matthew rated it:

I sincerely doubt that I will ever read this book again, or ever feel any desire to. I can certainly see how and why it has secured its place as part of the canon, but I did not find the characters and their lives compelling enough to overcome the annoyance I felt with Tolstoy's personal vision of history and life in general.

There were moments when I came to care about what was going on in the book. I sympathized with Prince Andrey's broken heart and Pierre's search for meaning and More...

2 comments like (15 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Jamie rated it:

Since high school, I have made references to War and Peace based on general assumptions: its length, dullness, how long it would surely take one to read it, and the degree to which the reading of it would make one want to kill oneself.

First off, I never wanted to kill myself, though it did lull me to sleep unintentionally during many a 3 a.m. subway ride. Now, what I didn't expect: it's sorta good. Like Salinger, Tolstoy uses irony to lovingly expose the flaws of his characters in More...

5 comments like (10 people liked it)

Mar 21, 2008

Katie rated it:

The edition I read, 1300 pages, is Oxford “World’s Classics.” Now I know why… War and Peace has to be one of the most amazing books I have read. Where to begin. I guess the thing I enjoyed the most about it, and what impressed me the most, was Tolstoy’s depth of insight and perception of human nature, spanning social classes, men, women, and children. By the end you feel that you know the characters so well that you could recognize them in a crowd on the street. And there isn’t just one or two m More...

1 comment like (17 people liked it)

Dec 26, 2011

Kelanth, in tenebris lux tua rated it:

Se immaginiamo il petto di un ipotetico lettore, pieno di medaglie per ogni libro letto, il lettore che ha letto Guerra e Pace, dovrebbe avere la massima onorificenza al merito. La sua "patacca" dovrebbe occupare almeno 1/4 di petto. Lo dico mentre mi congratulo con me stesso per aver avuto il coraggio di affrontare una simile lettura e per averla anche portata a termine, impresa ardua aggiungerei, leggendo anche prefazione, postfazione e biografia approfondita dell'autore.
Perchè More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Apr 06, 2011

Emma rated it:

This book is bloated old piece of crap. How this even got published in the first place is beyond me, much less how it has been considered a 'classic' for years.

I had read that this was 1400 pages of Tolstoy giving his readers a dry, boring recount of the French invasion of Russia but I didn't believe it. I wish I had believed it. Not only is War and Peace a sleep-inducing lecture on way too many perspectives of this war, it also comes complete with Tolstoy's never-ending butt-in chap More...

6 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jun 30, 2008

Gregg rated it:

Already, I'm hankering to reread this sucker. Twenty or so subplots: impossible to summarize here (for me, anyway). But I look at the book this way: Carl Sagan once wrote an essay arguing that looking at a grain of salt could open up answers to questions about the universe. That's what Tolstoy did here. He used Napoleon's conquest of Russia to examine questions that still resound today: How much can we actually control the events around us, how great are "great" men in history (not ver More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 21, 2007

Kimley rated it:

Writing a review of War and Peace seems somewhat silly - what the hell can I add??? But, while it's still fresh in my mind, here are some general impressions...

I have to confess that while I enjoyed the first half of this book, I was thinking 4 stars and certainly not "greatest novel ever written" but once I got to the third volume, Leo's crazy stew really started to simmer up nicely for me. I still don't think it's the greatest novel ever written but then again, I don't t More...

18 comments like (5 people liked it)

Sep 13, 2007

Seth rated it:

an amazing, amazing book. can't say i've read much tolstoy before this, but after plowing through the 1300-odd pages, it's clear why he's considered one of the best novelists in the history of novels. the scope is so broad that it's no easy task to critique it, but: i've found his view on the philosophy of history lingering, spilling over into my daily thoughts in the weeks since i finished it. the thought that the overarching movements of history are not formed by great men, battles, works o More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 22, 2007

Eric rated it:

Good books have an incredible ability to evoke the past. Memories of my favorite books are sometimes not so much of the stories themselves, although those recollections can be strong, but of that period in my life when I was reading them. For me, the most evocative books tend to be works of fiction. They also tend to be books that leave me with a sense of accomplishment once I have gobbled them up. Among my most vivid book memories are the memories surrounding Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 20, 2008

Guy rated it:

The online discussion thread in the New York Times website alerted me to the fact that the long-awaited and highly-anticipated Pevear & Volokhonsky translation of War and Peace is here. I dashed to Borders immediately, and am now a hundred pages in.

Not by any stretch an easy read, and some of the criticisms of the P&V version are valid. One's "expectations" are not "deceived," as they choose to say. And yet: I don't find these bits of usage as awkward as others More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Oct 08, 2010

Polly rated it:

I was surprised not to be quickly enthralled with War and Peace because I remember loving Anna Karenina so much. It probably took me 170 pages to be hooked on this, but that is the equivalent of 25-50 in a regular-length book. When Tolstoy described the inner dialogue of one character's first experience in battle, I was mesmerized by how realistic the soldier's disillusionment and disorientation seemed. The vivid characters in this book are incredibly real and fascinating. They gain insight, More...

6 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 17, 2009

John rated it:

There is a lot of war in "War and Peace," and quite a lot of uneasy peace.
This is a Russian novel, and it has the characteristics of all Russian novels:
-- There are a great many characters.
-- They discuss everything they do at great length.
-- They talk about God a lot.
-- They cry a lot.
-- The characters have long names.
-- Each character has at least two names, and the author seems to decide which name to use at a whim. This confuses me, but it More...

5 comments like (8 people liked it)

Oct 29, 2008

Matt rated it:

(I'm starting this review just pages before the epilogue, and it is painfully clear that there is nothing that can redeem it at this point. I would like to note that I don't feel any version of this book would have been any better or worse, and so I will not take issue with the translation, done by Anthony Briggs.)

The novel's reputation precedes it, and unfortunately is almost entirely unwarranted. I purchased this book half-expecting it to be every bit as epic and grandiose as the More...

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Sep 16, 2008

Bruce rated it:

In Tolstoy’s appendix to War and Peace, he specifically states, “It is not a novel.” Having finished reading this long work, having perceived its broad historical sweep, having appreciated its rich characterization, and having navigated its long philosophical passages, I certainly agree that it is unlike most novels, although perhaps more unlike most novels of the late 19th Century than the early 21st Century, when postmodernism has produced so many “novels” that defy easy categorization. In More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 26, 2008

Mike rated it:

Yep, the old man read War and Peace. Whew! Actually, he thought it was a pretty fair book. The cover notes say Tolstoy is the greatest novelist and WaP is the greatest novel, but the old man is not qualified to join in that critique. Especially when he likes Louis L’Amour so much. But anyway, the book is filled with politics, psychology, military strategy, discourses on what is a great man, love, relationships, competition, philosophy of history.

The old man loved the parts abo More...

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 02, 2008

Jill rated it:

1. I read the 1978 Penguin Classics two volume edition. (After having lost a huge 1 volume version earlier. 2 volumes = much easier commuting.)

2. My friend Ero was giving away a copy. I never thought I would read War and Peace and turned it down. But then he said that he read it -- and as soon as he finished, went out and got another translation and started reading it again, because he had gotten attached to the characters and didn't want it to end. I had just finished reading More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 03, 2008

Kim rated it:

The author repeats himself often throughout this novel, but then, if you were writing a 1500 page novel, you probably would too.

There were three separate components interwoven throughout this book. The first is the story of the people of Russia. The loves and lives of the Rostovs and their acquaintances. I really enjoyed this part, especially when I got into the swing of things the way they were in early 19th century Russia.

The second part was a description of the Na More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 03, 2008

Teresa rated it:

This translation deserves 5 stars -- it's both beautiful and readable. The novel itself is amazing; though the lengthy 'essay' parts of the epilogue are repetitive, the questions it raises are important ones as to how we view and should view history.

I thought I would get bogged down in the battle scenes, but to my pleasant surprise, I didn't. I did have trouble with two lengthy *preparation* for battle passages, however. Tolstoy obviously did his research and was passionate about w More...

9 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2008

Joshua rated it:

Celebrated turning in my grades and finishing my first semester as a prof by splurging on the fancy hardcover of the fancy new translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky of Tolstoy's epic. I read the Constance Garner translation maybe fifteen years ago. So far this translation is distinguished by a certain mellifluous awkwardness that reminds me, stylistically, he's no Jane Austen even though the first hundred pages are devoted to a comedy of manners set in a period contemporary with her novels. P&V More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

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