War and Peace

by Leo Tolstoy, Henry Gifford (editor) Aylmer Maude (translator) Louise Maude (translator)
War and Peace
book data
9,804 ratings, 4.13 average rating, 1,568 reviews (more data...)
edit

published
June 25th 1998 (first published 1865) by Oxford University Press, USA

binding
paper, 1392 pages

characters

setting
Russian Federation

isbn
0192833987    (isbn13: 9780192833983)

description
In Russia's struggle with Napoleon, Tolstoy saw a tragedy that involved all mankind. Greater than a historical chronicle, War and Peace is an affirmat...more




Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.


topics  posts  views  last activity   
The Next Best Boo...: The Title Game 5140 3864 1 hour, 27 min ago  
The Next Best Boo...: Your Latest Splurge 5978 6326 1 hour, 52 min ago  
The Rory Gilmore ...: What else are you currently reading? 689 2755 1 hour, 56 min ago  

friend reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 16,118)

sort: default (?) | date
filters: all | text-only


Jessica
Read in November, 2008
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
Like this review?   yes   (61 people liked it)
  54 comments

Valerie
bookshelves: fiction
Read in December, 2007
The low rating is for the Pevear & Volokhonsky translation, not the novel. P&V are the husband-and-wife team who've become famous in the past 10 years, partially through an Oprah endorsement, partially through accolades from the New Yorker. Their translations are, loosely, celebrated as being more "accurate". this is a fairly nonsensical claim, but what it's based on is the idea that they stick closer to the grammatical structure of the Russian. there are two ways they do this, one, ...more
Like this review?   yes   (17 people liked it)
  17 comments

Joshua Trevino
Read in August, 2008
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. St...more
Like this review?   yes   (14 people liked it)
  3 comments

Matthew
03/23/08
Matthew rated it: 1 of 5 stars

Read in May, 2008
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
Like this review?   yes   (6 people liked it)
  1 comment

Evan
06/27/08
Evan rated it: 3 of 5 stars (review of isbn 039396647X)

Read in July, 2008
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...more
Like this review?   yes   (5 people liked it)
  7 comments

Katie
03/20/08
Katie rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in February, 2007
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 ...more
Like this review?   yes   (4 people liked it)
  1 comment

Gregg
06/03/08
Gregg rated it: 4 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0307266931)

Read in June, 2008
recommends it for: Matt
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
Like this review?   yes   (3 people liked it)
  add a comment

Kimley
09/19/07
Kimley rated it: 5 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0307266931)

bookshelves: 19th-century, russian-lit
Read in December, 2007
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
Like this review?   yes   (3 people liked it)
  18 comments

Seth
07/17/07
Seth rated it: 5 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0375760644)

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in July, 2007
recommends it for: everyone
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
Like this review?   yes   (3 people liked it)
  2 comments

Jamie
06/26/07
Jamie rated it: 4 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0451523261)

bookshelves: lit
Read in May, 2008
recommended to Jamie by: So far, I've only been advised against 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
Like this review?   yes   (4 people liked it)
  5 comments

Eric
05/22/07
Eric rated it: 5 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0375760644)

Read in January, 2004
recommends it for: People with stamina.
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
Like this review?   yes   (3 people liked it)
  2 comments

Guy
04/10/07
Guy rated it: 5 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0307266931)

Read in February, 2008
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
Like this review?   yes   (3 people liked it)
  1 comment

John
12/01/08
John rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in February, 2009
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
Like this review?   yes   (4 people liked it)
  5 comments

Matt
10/10/08
Matt rated it: 1 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0143039997)

Read in October, 2008
recommends it for: not a living soul.
(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
Like this review?   yes   (2 people liked it)
  2 comments

Matt
08/22/08
Matt rated it: 3 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0307266931)

Read in September, 2008
recommends it for: The type of person who cares whether a person has read <i>War and Peace</i>
In "Goodbye Columbus," a Roth character famously says of another: "Doris? She's the one who's always reading War and Peace. That's how I know it's the summer, when Doris is reading War and Peace."

War and Peace is sort of the go-to book when looking for an example of great literature; indeed, when looking for the "greatest novel ever written." Of course, like so many of the things you are told, as a child, are magical - Bergman films, Paris, love - War a...more
Like this review?   yes   (2 people liked it)
  5 comments

Bruce
07/23/08
Bruce rated it: 4 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0307266931)

Read in September, 2008
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 categoriza...more
Like this review?   yes   (2 people liked it)
  1 comment

Mike McQuinn
07/09/08
Mike McQuinn rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in July, 2008
recommended to Mike by: AARP magazine
recommends it for: Anyone
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 a...more
Like this review?   yes   (2 people liked it)
  3 comments

Jill
04/02/08
Jill rated it: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: 2008reads
Read in April, 2008
recommended to Jill by: Ero
recommends it for: Jane Austen lovers
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
Like this review?   yes   (2 people liked it)
  2 comments

Kim
01/28/08
Kim rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in April, 2008
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
Like this review?   yes   (2 people liked it)
  add a comment

Teresa
01/13/08
Teresa rated it: 5 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0307266931)

Read in April, 2008
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
Like this review?   yes   (2 people liked it)
  9 comments


« previous 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 805 806

What do you want to read this summer?

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  5 votes, 45.5%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  3 votes, 27.3%

 
  1 vote, 9.1%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  2 votes, 18.2%

comments and details Sign in to vote!
More...

recent status updates | recommend it | blog it

War and Peace (Hardcover)
War and Peace (Modern Library Classics)
War and Peace (Penguin Classics)
War and Peace (Paperback)
War and Peace (Hardcover)



download ebook






quotes from this book

"...if you want to be happy, you have to believe in the possibility of happiness, and I do believe in it now. Let the dead bury the dead, but while ever there is life, you must live and be happy." More quotes...


groups with this book

1001  Books You Must Read Before You Die
The Rory Gilmore Book Club
True North
Russian Readers Club
Read a book from each country






Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Death of Ivan Ilych (Paperback) by Leo Tolstoy
The Death of Ivan Ilych And Other Stories (Paperback) by Leo Tolstoy
Resurrection (Hardcover) by Leo Tolstoy
The Kreutzer Sonata (Modern Library Classics) by Leo Tolstoy

More…