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War and Peace

Leo Tolstoy,

Henry Gifford (Editor)

Aylmer Maude (Translator)

Louise Maude (Translator)

4.11 · Rating details · 242,936 ratings · 10,210 reviews

In Russia's struggle with Napoleon, Tolstoy saw a tragedy that involved all mankind. Greater than a historical chronicle, War and Peace is an affirmation of life itself, `a complete picture', as a contemporary reviewer put it, `of everything in which people find their happiness and greatness, their grief and humiliation'. Tolstoy gave his personal approval to this ...more

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Paperback, Oxford World's Classics, 1392 pages

Published June 25th 1998 by Oxford University Press (first published 1867)

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Sep 30, 2008 Jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: leetle-boys, war-is-hell, groups-of-people, kind-of-depressing, love-and-other-indoor-sports

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, for nearly two ...more

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Jul 20, 2009 Whitaker rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: would-kill-if-thrown, z_2009-read, russia, zz-box-04, canon

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 there for a minute with Lord of the ...more

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Mar 20, 2013 Dolors rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone, anytime, NOW.

Recommended to Dolors by: My guilty conscience

Shelves: best-ever, read-in-2013

Before I turned the last page of this massive volume, which had been neglected in my bookshelves for more than six years, War and Peace was a pending task in my mental reading universe knowing it to be one of the greatest Russian or maybe simply one of the greatest novels of all times.
Well, in fact, it was something else.
I have a selective memory, I don’t know whether it comes as a blessing or as a curse, that enables me to remember the most insignificant details like for instance, where and ...more

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Aug 22, 2008 Matt rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: The type of person who cares whether a person has read <i>War and Peace</i>

Shelves: classic-novels

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 that the ...more

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Mar 13, 2017 Michael rated it it was amazing

This is one of those books that can be life-changing. I read this as a teenager and I remember exactly where I was (sitting on my bed, in my grandmother's house, in southern Germany) when I finished it. I must have spent an hour just staring out the window, in awe of the lives I'd just led, the experiences I'd just had.

****

I'm now re-reading this, enjoying it immensely and no doubt appreciating it much more than I did the first time. Tolstoy has the most amazing ability to make us feel, when he ...more

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May 01, 2012 Emily May rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: clothbound-wishlist, 2012, classics

So... I did it. I finally convinced myself to read War and Peace, partly because it's just something everyone wants to say they've done, and partly because one always needs a good excuse to procrastinate during the exam period when I should have been studying. And, you know what, I really enjoyed most of it. The novel is far less taxing than I imagined, I don't know if that's because the English translation goes easy on us non-Russians or because Tolstoy wrote it in a quite light-hearted
So... I did it. I finally convinced myself to read War and Peace, partly because it's just something everyone wants to say they've done, and partly because one always needs a good excuse to procrastinate during the exam period when I should have been studying. And, you know what, I really enjoyed most of it. The novel is far less taxing than I imagined, I don't know if that's because the English translation goes easy on us non-Russians or because Tolstoy wrote it in a quite light-hearted fashion. I suspect I shall never find that out for myself.

Personally, I think a much better title for this book would be War and People. Because, though an in-depth look at history during the time Napoleon had ambitions to take over Europe, this is first and foremost about humanity and Tolstoy observes humanity and all its weirdness with a sense of humour and occasionally sadness. I don't like to make too many predictions about the older authors, some people will tell you that Bram Stoker was a feminist and William Shakespeare was a humanist, I think these are quite melodramatic conclusions to make about authors who lived in societies where they would struggle to be that.

However, Tolstoy may or may not consider himself liberal, forward-thinking, a humanist, and I wouldn't state that he is any of those things. But I think his perception of the human condition in the nineteenth century shows he is somewhat before his time in his ability to see almost every character as flawed, confusing but ultimately human. He manages to construct a comphrehensive view of humanity and Russian culture at the time in question, complete with betrayals and scandals and affairs. But though the characters may place blame on one another - like calling Natasha a hussy - Tolstoy appears to remain impartial. Those who stray from the conservative path of the nineteenth century do not do so without reason.

Another reason that War and People is a much better title for this book is because there is very little peace going on in here. There are times when the battles aren't raging, of course, but there is always something equally dramatic happening within the social world of Russian high society. People falling in and out of love, people having affairs, wealthy aristocrats dying and leaving their fortune to illegitimate sons. It seems to me that there's a constant war going on in this book, just sometimes it isn't on the battlefield.

And oddly enough, it was the real wars in War and Peace that interested me least of all. They were probably the reason this book got four stars instead of five - and because goodreads rating system is about personal enjoyment rather than literary merit. I felt much more entertained by the soap opera that was the lives of the Russian nobles than by the tedious and repetitive battle scenes. There were guns and canons and horses - riveting. But thankfully, like I said, Tolstoy's masterpiece is more about people than anything else and this is the reason that I saw this book through and enjoyed the journey. ...more

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Sep 19, 2011 Joey Woolfardis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ce19, masculine, bookshelf, russian, champion, telly, 2016

Read as part of The Infinite Variety Reading Challenge, based on the BBC's Big Read Poll of 2003.

I read this in tandem with the spectacular BBC adaptation and I will say now that my enjoyment of this piece of literature has been heavily influenced by that wonderful piece of televisual art. It just has. It's the same story, just told a different way. I will refrain from telling you to get over it.

Now, the book. It was written well, very well, in terms of all the stuff that should be done well: ...more

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Dec 31, 2015 Matthew rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: at-home-reading, completist-book-club, classic, 2016, own, kindle

Holy cow! I am done! Not sure what to say . . . I feel like I should write a 1000 page review, but I will keep it short.

I finished the book while a passenger in a mini-van stuck in horrible Atlanta traffic.

The book was not quite as readable as some other BIG books I have read, but still pretty good. What amazed me is how few specific events occurred during the 1000+ pages - Tolstoy was just really detailed in describing the events. Only a few times, though, did I feel like it was too much.

This ...more

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Aug 27, 2011 Jason Koivu rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, classics

Love

That was the one thing I thought was missing from Leo Tolstoy's title, War and Peace. I was wrong. Love is in the title, you just have to look for it.

Certainly there is love in peace. It is the time of children, serenity, growth. The mother peacefully raising her children. The farmer lovingly tending his fields. The elderly passing their final days in comfort surrounded by family.

But there is love in war as well. The love for one's country. Such is a person's violent attachment to their
Love

That was the one thing I thought was missing from Leo Tolstoy's title, War and Peace. I was wrong. Love is in the title, you just have to look for it.

Certainly there is love in peace. It is the time of children, serenity, growth. The mother peacefully raising her children. The farmer lovingly tending his fields. The elderly passing their final days in comfort surrounded by family.

But there is love in war as well. The love for one's country. Such is a person's violent attachment to their motherland that they will die for it. To give up your own life so another should live, that is love indeed.

What is this preoccupation with love? Well, the Leo Tolstoy I've read is incomplete without this aspect within his writing. I knew this book would be about war, specifically Russia's involvement in the Napoleonic Wars, but I didn't right off see where the love would come in. It arrived in spades. There are peace-loving characters and there are those who are uber patriotic. Then there is man's love for the good he sees in another man's actions. And then there is the love that weds a couple for life.

Tolstoy's genius as a writer lies in his ability to dash his pen across all this with the same level of integrity regardless of whether his subject is a gallant officer in love with death or the daisy-fresh, springy step of a blossoming girl smitten by good looks and dash. Tolstoy transcends himself to become these hearty or hapless creatures. Then he marries them to our soul. Over these seemingly effortless hundreds upon hundreds of pages, these characters become family to us. We love them like brothers. We root for them. We are annoyed by them. We hate a few of them, but after all, they are family and therefore we must abide by them at least to a certain degree.

And when you step back from the book and see your attachment to these characters, it amazes you…and then it disheartens you, for you realize they are nothing but Tolstoy's puppets used in a grand way so that he may slash and burn the icon of his hatred, Napoleon Bonaparte.

Tolstoy seethes with loathing for this man. In large spurts through out, he devotes half the book to lampooning the man and his military deeds, and then as if that weren't enough, he piles on an average-sized book's worth of epilogue on essentially the same topic. In an effort to portray fairness, he also fillets his own. The Russian military leaders of the day come in for their share of condemnation. At times Tolstoy pours so much vitriol upon his own that you have to stop to recall who "the enemy" is.

Why is this a 5 star book? After all, it's not perfect, being neither fully a novel nor a military treatise, but rather both and not always successfully joined. For all its many pages, there was only a small handful of moments where I felt my heart fly or crash. Perhaps it is the vast scope of it all and the effortless way in which it is carried off. So much happens. Tolstoy gives us many rare experiences, puts us in battle after battle - whether it's upon the field amidst cannon and rifle fire, within the home during a dangerous pregnancy, or between an embattled couple bereft of love. Each of these scenes rings true, ringing to their own tune and yet all combining into one beautiful symphony.

PS: Here's my video review of this book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gfPf... ...more

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Feb 03, 2008 Joshua Treviño rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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, 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, few have actually read it; and few reviewers of new editions do more than assess relative merits of the latest translation.

Therefore: the one thing the reader ought to know about the new translation of War and Peace from Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is that it is worth reading, both in itself (the book is a classic in any translation) and in this particular form (this translation is superb). As with every other review of this edition, this one must start with what is new about it: the translation.

The husband-and-wife team of Pevear and Volokhonsky have built a long and successful career on translating Russian works into English. (I still recommend their translation of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, which kept me company in my Army days, as the best around.) They are ideally suited to the task, not merely by virtue of their marital compatibility — a translating team spends nearly as much time together as a married couple, and probably communicates better — but by virtue of their birth. Volokhonsky, as might be guessed, is a native Russophone, and Pevear’s first language is English. In a column in the New York Times on October 14th, 2007, Pevear described the method of their collaboration:

---We work separately at first. Larissa produces a complete draft, following the original almost word by word, with many marginal comments and observations. From that, plus the original Russian, I make my own complete draft. Then we work closely together to arrive at a third draft, on which we make our “final” revisions.---

This is, of course, the idealized process. The actual work of conveying literature, with its poetry and rhetoric more or less intact, from one language to another is necessarily slow and inexact. Douglas Hofstadter, the author and professor of computer and cognitive science at Indiana University at Bloomington, addressed this problem at length in his book Le Ton beau de Marot. In this, a rather simple little poem by the 16th-century French poet Clément Marot — "A une damoyselle malade," or "To an ill girl" — is shown to have a surprising number of possible translations from French into English, with none of them quite right. There are dozens of variations in Hofstadter’s book. The necessary tradeoffs, even in Marot’s simple verse, are swiftly evident. Literal accuracy, or rhetorical beauty? Rhyme structure, or metric consistency? Cultural fidelity, or cultural comprehensibility? These are the issues with which translators must contend. The perverse, like Vladimir Nabokov in translating his rigid and un-lovely Eugene Onegin, simply give the reader their ideal of literal exactitude. The more well meaning will often give the reader their idea of comprehensibility in both the rhetorical and cultural spheres. Thus, Constance Garnett, who translated the great works of 19th-century Russian literature into Edwardian-era English, not only rendered prose as would an English novelist of her era: she also “translated” cultural concepts into familiar objects of reference for her intended readers. As a pseudonymous Amazon reviewer of the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation of War and Peace notes, in previous translations, “we often get ‘holy images,’ attended ‘Mass,’ ‘the Virgin Mary,’ etc., instead of ‘icon,’ ‘attended Liturgy,’ or ‘the Theotokos.’” It is pleasing to report that though the occasional clunky passage survives in its over twelve hundred pages, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have done well by War and Peace. And well they should have: as Pevear notes, in translating, they each read the massive work five times.

Beyond the translation, there is the great work itself, which presumes to take on the very topics of its title. The grand sweep of its epic, to say nothing of the welter of Russian names and perhaps-unfamiliar places, is daunting to many readers. (Who knows where Mozhaisk is, or why it matters?) They should not feel ashamed of this: the very first sentence of the book presupposes a grasp of European politics and Russian society circa 1805, and the inferences and references never let up. It is a peculiarly Russian work, of course — the French invasion of 1812 was to Tolstoy’s generation what the Civil War was to our grandfathers’ — but it is nonetheless comprehensible to Europeans grounded in their own history. For an American, War and Peace is something else: not an artifact of our own heritage, but a work we read to sustain and deepen our connection to the West at large. Its themes of sacrifice, patriotism, and humanity are universal.

Leo Tolstoy was not, it must be said, the master of the human condition that many of the other literary greats were — Shakespeare, for example, or even his contemporary Dostoevsky — and this shows through even in the superlative Pevear/Volokhonsky translation. In life, the great author was keenly interested in developing his own thesis of Christianity, which veered into that curious territory where extreme altruism and profound selfishness intersect. A rare Russian aristocrat who cared for his peasants, he treated his devoted wife with often shocking neglect; he was excommunicated from the Orthodox Church; and he ended up dying at a train station while essentially running away from home as an old man. War and Peace, with its long internal essays on history, fate, and morality, gives us a glimpse into the mind of this troubled and brilliant figure, as his plot and his characters bend to his ideas of life and meaning.

Tolstoy was a contemporary of the men whom the philosopher Karl Popper called the historicists — that is, those who believed in the superiority of historical “laws” and inevitability to God-given free will and volition — and he shared much of their thesis. He did not, as some of them did, deny the possibility or relevance of human goodness and choice; but he did believe that those choices only affected a limited context, and mostly concerned one’s internal state toward himself and God. War and Peace, then, is to a large extent a historical exposition on why the individual does not matter to history, even as he does matter to his Creator. A central character of the work, Pierre Bezukhov, undergoes a transformation throughout from dissolute if well-meaning youth, to solid paterfamilias with an assured sense of God and self — and the transformative event is a death march in French captivity, in which he realizes that all is for naught in this world. Similarly, the wartime mistakes of the Russian generalissimo Kutuzov are excused as historical inevitabilities which Kutuzov had the wisdom to accept.

Tolstoy’s view here is wholly alien to the American character, and its relation to the Christian view is dubious (certainly the Orthodox Church saw little good in it). It does not follow from this that the Christian should not read it. To the contrary, it is a work so very rich, despite its flaws, that it is endlessly rewarding to those who persevere and allow themselves to become happily entangled in its endless narrative. Is it the best Russian novel? Is it the best Tolstoy novel? Is it the best 19th-century novel? It is none of these things: Tolstoy himself wrote better novels, Anna Karenina chief among them; Zola’s La Debacle is a far superior exposition of battle; and nearly everything is shorter. But we ought to read War and Peace nonetheless. We read it because, like Everest, it is there; we read it to join Prince Andrei on the field at Austerlitz; we read it to enter the mind of the young Natasha, insane with what she believes is love; and we read it because in it, as in all great art, we find something of ourselves.

...more

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Jul 06, 2012 Kelly rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: russians, grand-opera, the-continent, fiction, great-and-terrible-men, owned, 19th-century, cultural-meetings, international-affairs, worlds-lost-dead-and-dying

I tried for five months to write something more polished, less rambling. This is all I've got:

"While he is alive, the morning is still fresh and dewy, the vampires sleep. But if the sun sets, if father Tolstoy dies and the last genius leaves - what then?"
-Alexander Blok, as Tolstoy lay dying at Astapovo

"[War and Peace] is positively what might be called a Russian Illiad. Embracing the whole epoch, it is the grandiose literary event, showcasing the gallery of great men painted by a lively brush ...more

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Jul 25, 2018 Supreeth rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2018, books-i-own, fiction, philosophy-psychology, geopolitics, russian, favorites, classics

It's been three months since I read War and Peace. The after effect of this book is more like chewing the cud once you're done with the whole quote-unquote reading experience. I've thought about this book a lot, I've been thinking about this a lot and I'll probably keep this relevant in upcoming days, but I don't think I'll never gain enough intellect to seriously write anything about this. My first read of war and peace(assuming I'd read it again) was mainly about the existential crisis of It's been three months since I read War and Peace. The after effect of this book is more like chewing the cud once you're done with the whole quote-unquote reading experience. I've thought about this book a lot, I've been thinking about this a lot and I'll probably keep this relevant in upcoming days, but I don't think I'll never gain enough intellect to seriously write anything about this. My first read of war and peace(assuming I'd read it again) was mainly about the existential crisis of Andrei and Pierre, and the tragic yet fortunate heroine Natasha. Three human beings left in the middle of a crowd, a crowd bigger enough to fill thousand something pages. Andrei and Pierre are basically same people, but Pierre is absurd questioning his life, acts, rights and wrongs while Andrei is more of Dostoyesky-absurd-esque. And Natasha, Natasha. Natasha—she's either the privileged rich girl everyone seems to hate or privileged rich girl everyone seems to love. It's more of apathy related thing. I don't really know where I stand, but her character is tragic and calamitous. But not enough tragic to overshadow Sonya. Sonyas in Russian lit are destined to suffer.

And there's Napolean and Russian history.
If you are from the place I'm from there's no way you'd know about Russian history unless you seriously wanted to know. So I didn't know more about Napoleonic wars(ask me why Alexander couldn't invade India I'll weave you a roman-à-clef ). But after a thousand something pages of these battles and Cossacks and Russian cold winning over everybody, you just feel so contained, you just feel confident enough to say why Russia is the way it is without ever comprehending what way it is.

I believe at most ten percent of the book is French. Maybe it's just my edition. It's frustrating in the beginning, but you'd just get used to it. You'd seriously get used to anything if the book is worth reading and bragging, you'd even get used to internal monologues. Ancient Russia seemed to have class systems (like everywhere else). Most of the hotshots and noblemen spoke French or German while normal working class and proletariat spoke Russian. So Tolstoy does this thing where he lets you know who's who. If the speaker is all fancy in French, he's definitely one of those bourgeoisie men in the book. I guess it's the same in Russian edition. If you don't find French in Crime and Punishment it's because most of the book has textbook lowlives in it. I read the P and V translated edition of the book, which I believe is the easiest one of all, maybe not the one closer to the original but it definitely serves the purpose.
If there's one thing I detest about the book it's this epilogue. Oh, and it comes in two parts. After all the magnificent piece of fiction part, there are pages of a dry abstract essay written from the POV of the author. It's like you have a pizza with cheese-burst base and then fill the top with pineapples. I didn't want it to remember book that way, so I'd skimmed the chapter and read the summary. It does make a point. ...more

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Jul 03, 2011 Lyn rated it really liked it

One commentator of War and Peace wryly remarked,” war and peace … that about covers everything.”

That is as succinct a book report as can be given to a work of this magnitude. This novel does contain just about everything; war and peace, battles, hospitals, military strategy, love and romance, marriage, estrangement and divorce, death, birth, families, relationships, friends, enemies, hatred, jealousy, fear, gambling, dueling, hunting, dances, music, religion and politics, mysticism, philosophy, One commentator of War and Peace wryly remarked,” war and peace … that about covers everything.”

That is as succinct a book report as can be given to a work of this magnitude. This novel does contain just about everything; war and peace, battles, hospitals, military strategy, love and romance, marriage, estrangement and divorce, death, birth, families, relationships, friends, enemies, hatred, jealousy, fear, gambling, dueling, hunting, dances, music, religion and politics, mysticism, philosophy, economics, aristocracy, nobility, peasantry and farming, merchants, horses and cavalry, traveling and most all things Russian, European and universal.

A critic could cynically remark, with some truth, that if you put enough words on enough pages, you can talk about everything, but to do so in this epic, historic narrative is an extraordinary accomplishment. About a third of the way through it occurred to me that I had never read a book like this, at once on an epic, grand scale and yet at the same time personal and with great attention to detail. Of course the truth is that I never have read another book like this because there probably is not another book like this, it is unique, even among other literary masterpieces.

Tolstoy may indeed have created the greatest novel ever, because I’ve never before read such a complete work on such a grand scale. Tolstoy uses an abundance of literary devices and techniques, from irony to metaphor and simile, analogy, imagery and symbolism, foreshadowing, epiphany, characterization and all under the very approachable omnipresent, omniscient realism of the author’s voice. There are even elements of surrealism, absurdism and humor. Himself a veteran of the Crimean War, Tolstoy has an adept ability to describe life in the army and to detail military scenes. And it’s a good story.

What is it about? Four families living in the time of the Napoleonic Wars and the invasions of Russia. Just as many people today regard the WWII generation, my grandparents’ generation, as our greatest, Tolstoy wrote about these events as Russia’s greatest generation, his grandparents’ generation. These were the people, after all, that had defeated Napoleon.

Many historic personages are present in the story, including Napoleon and Alexander, and also a whole populace of counts and countesses, princes and princesses, generals, officers, sergeants and soldiers, statesmen, freemasons, servants and serfs. Tolstoy has a rare gift, akin to Dickens, at characterization, painting most all characters in a realistic, multi-dimensional brush. The leading protagonists are almost all dynamic, evolving and complex and the inter-relationships are rich.

Finally, this is a vehicle for Tolstoy to expound on his philosophic and theological views, commenting on the inherent irrationality of man and at the same time man’s small place, even as an emperor, in history.

description

...more

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Oct 07, 2015 Lizzy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics-literay-fiction, russia-soviet-union, favorites-of-all-times, read-years-ago, stars-5, read-2017

Just finished my second reading of War and Peace. Couldn't have loved it better. Maturity and knowledge of the times certainly helped my enjoyment. It didn't feel as long as it actually is. I loved all Tolstoy's meticulously created characters.

I hope to write more soon.

Not to be missed!

_____
I read Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace a long, long time ago. However, I still remember how I enjoyed this epic, even if I might have been too young and lacked the knowledge about Russian history that would have ...more

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Jul 28, 2009 Cait Poytress rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: war, russia, read-in-2011, bloom-canon, cold-weather-reading, bookish-big-reads, 1001, owned, favorites, covers-i-love

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 fantastic. I even ...more

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Jun 07, 2019 Violet wells added it

Shelves: classics, faves

I always believed War and Peace was one of my three favourite novels. Now, after reading it a second time, I wouldn't include it in my favourite 30. Without question, to my mind, Anna Karenina is the better novel.

On the positive side, it's astonishing how well Tolstoy knows all his characters and how vibrantly he brings them alive on the page. There's so much of life in this book. It's a marvel how brilliantly he dramatizes many of life's key emotions. The first four hundred or so pages are a ...more

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Jul 30, 2007 Steve rated it really liked it

As masterworks go this one checks
All the boxes a lit prof expects.
But a colt seeking brio
Might've wished author Leo
Had condensed one called War, Peace, and Sex.

I once submitted a limerick to Poetry Magazine, and got a letter back saying I'm Bard for Life (only they used what must have been an Old English spelling: "barred").

All kidding aside, I really did read this back in my student days. I may have skimmed 100 pages of battle scenes, but felt at the time at least, that I could count it as ...more

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Jan 06, 2018 Manuel Antão rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2000

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

Anti-literary-flab: "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy

I was standing at an airport lounge as a teenager many years ago, and suddenly realised I had no books to read for my family holiday. I was a SF geek at the time (still am, but I’m reading other stuff now), but had read everything that W.H. Smiths airport bookshelf could show me. In desperation and dread I turned to the classics... I'd read Frankenstein and other English literary ...more

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Mar 10, 2019 Gabrielle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, movie-fodder, favorites, russian, own-a-copy, mandatory-reading, reviewed, classics, read-in-2019, doorstoppers

500th review!!!

The "Abridged Classics for Lazy People" comic summarizes "War & Peace" as follows: "Everyone is sad. It snows." Hmmm. Accurate, but I have a bit more to say about it than they do. This book has left me full of thoughts and words the way few books have done before.

Though to be fair, how exactly is one supposed to review this? This book might be titled “War & Peace”, but it’s also about the human experience as a whole: the high, the lows, the beauties, the agonies and ...more

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Aug 17, 2013 Ted rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, lit-russian, fiction-of-wartimes, have, reviews-most-liked, boat-of-a-million-years

That 5 star rating stares down at me. Does it need to be justified? Probably not … but anyway

In my seventieth year, I have finally for the first time read this novel, a book that I bought over half a century ago, proudly displayed on one book shelf after another as the years rolled by. Will I ever open it again? I surely hope so. It seems to me at this moment that I could turn the book over, open the front cover and begin reading again.

No matter what prism one looks at W&P through - sublime ...more

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Apr 23, 2014 Renato Magalhães Rocha rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014, 1001, tolstoy, all-stars, reviewed, 100-best-books-world-library, the-novel-100

You mustn’t let Tolstoy’s classic’s reputation and length intimidate you in the least! Contrary to popular belief, it is not a hard read and you'll be surprised to see that it is quite a page turner. And here’s a tip: having some knowledge about the Napoleonic wars and the French invasion in Russia is all it takes for the war scenes to come alive and not seem like such a drag.

This is a book that deserves to be read and you’ll be glad once you conclude this enterprise - not because you're at the You mustn’t let Tolstoy’s classic’s reputation and length intimidate you in the least! Contrary to popular belief, it is not a hard read and you'll be surprised to see that it is quite a page turner. And here’s a tip: having some knowledge about the Napoleonic wars and the French invasion in Russia is all it takes for the war scenes to come alive and not seem like such a drag.

This is a book that deserves to be read and you’ll be glad once you conclude this enterprise - not because you're at the finish line - but because you'll be different from who you were when you started it, as J. Donald Adams charmingly put it: "No intelligent person can read it without a deep enrichment of experience. And having once read it, he is certain to turn to it again, to be amazed once more by its veracity, its tremendous vitality, its epic scope."

In War and Peace, Tolstoy masterfully brings together historical figures - such as Napoléon Bonaparte and Alexander I - and a whole cast of fictitious characters - Natasha, Pierre, Andrei - and manages to paint them all equally human, as if they all really coexisted in that time and at that place. His imagined human beings are shown as complex and realistic individuals with their weaknesses and strengths, living moments of despair and hope, showing selfishness and benevolence - whether we’re talking about the charismatic Nikolai Rostóv or the perverse Hèléne Kuragina.

We're in for a comprehensive study on history and how history sees and narrates events and its effects on human lives from a rationalized perspective. The author forces us to question whether our fate is in the hands of a few important and designated, chosen people as we’ve been told to believe or if everything belongs to a higher set of causes inaccessible to human reason. Although at some point it may seem we’re simply seeing the outcome the wars had on the lives of those five families, Tolstoy is taking us to a much bigger and more interesting quest.

Closing this amazing, entertaining and enlightening journey is an Epilogue divided in two parts (mind you that a number of publishers simply left it out of some War and Peace editions! The nerve!) The first one concludes the story of our main characters, while still leaving hints of how their lives should continue and what they will possibly experience next, mostly by presenting to us an eager to quest and conquer Nikolenka Bolkonsky.

Epilogue, Pt. 2 is a luminous (one might even call it a philosophical) essay where Tolstoy summarizes the questions he’s been asking us all along through this literary experience: what’s the reason for whatever it is we go through in life? What does it mean? Why does it happen? What powerful forces acted on it? He shows us how attributing objectively the cause and consequence argument simply won’t answer all of our inquiries. Without pondering upon the laws of necessity and freedom, reason and conscience and, most of all, power, we’ll be as far from any spiritual achievement as we were from finishing War and Peace when we started our read on page one.

Rating: a true undeniable, mind blowing masterpiece couldn’t be rated anything less than 5 stars.

P.S.: As far as film adaptations go, I’ve watched two of them: 1) Voyna i Mir (1966, directed by Sergey Bondarchuk): very faithful to the book, follows all the events, most original dialogues and even character’s physical descriptions. It ended up winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and 2) War and Peace (1956, directed by King Vidor) and featuring a cast with stars Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda and Mel Ferrer; this adaptation suffers a strong condensation of events and changes up a lot of the dialogues. Even at 208 minutes long, it felt very rushed. As lovely as it is to see Ms. Hepburn giving life to our beloved Natasha Rostóva, if you have to pick one of these to watch, go with the first option. ...more

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Dec 09, 2010 Cindy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, in-translation, ebook, book-club, does-my-book-look-big-in-this, 1001-books

A Review in Three Parts:

I. The Analytical Analysis

II. The Review

Here's the thing that surprised me the most about War & Peace: it's extremely readable. It's not filled with difficult or outdated language. (At least in the P&V translation.) It doesn't have long, hard to parse sentences. The action and dialogue is fairly straight-forward. The characters become easy to follow. If you are freaked out by War & Peace because you think it's hard, it's not. Although you will have to ...more

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Sep 19, 2011 Nilesh Kashyap rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to Nilesh by: William Somerset Maugham

Shelves: 1001-books, russia, goodreads, translated, favourite

Not a review, and whatever is this, is incomplete due to my inability to express myself.

In childhood’s pride I said to Thee:
‘O Thou, who mad’st me of Thy breath,
Speak, Master, and reveal to me
Thine inmost laws of life and death.

‘Give me to drink each joy and pain
Which Thine eternal hand can mete,
For my insatiate soul would drain
Earth’s utmost bitter, utmost sweet.

‘Spare me no bliss, no pang of strife,
Withhold no gift or grief I crave,
The intricate lore of love and life
And mystic

Not a review, and whatever is this, is incomplete due to my inability to express myself.

In childhood’s pride I said to Thee:
‘O Thou, who mad’st me of Thy breath,
Speak, Master, and reveal to me
Thine inmost laws of life and death.

‘Give me to drink each joy and pain
Which Thine eternal hand can mete,
For my insatiate soul would drain
Earth’s utmost bitter, utmost sweet.

‘Spare me no bliss, no pang of strife,
Withhold no gift or grief I crave,
The intricate lore of love and life
And mystic knowledge of the grave.’

This poem describes exactly the way I feel about War and Peace. I read this poem just to re-live the ‘War and Peace experience’ over and over again.
War and Peace experience? Huh!
Journey of Pierre Bezukhov. That is what this experience refers to, in my case.
Journey of Pierre is the way I perceive W&P, you may or may not think the same way. Many of you will find my experience to be shallow, because you found something that was deep, that perhaps went by unnoticed by me OR that was something I couldn’t connect to. It's all about how one relate to something.

A bee settling on a flower has stung a child. And the child is afraid of bees and declares that bees exist to sting people. A poet admires the bee sucking from the chalice of a flower and says it exists to suck the fragrance of flowers. A beekeeper, seeing the bee collect pollen from flowers and carry it to the hive, says that it exists to gather honey. Another beekeeper who has studied the life of the hive more closely says that the bee gathers pollen dust to feed the young bees and rear a queen, and that it exists to perpetuate its race. A botanist notices that the bee flying with the pollen of a male flower to a pistil fertilizes the latter, and sees in this the purpose of the bee's existence. Another, observing the migration of plants, notices that the bee helps in this work, and may say that in this lies the purpose of the bee. But the ultimate purpose of the bee is not exhausted by the first, the second, or any of the processes the human mind can discern. The higher the human intellect rises in the discovery of these purposes, the more obvious it becomes, that the ultimate purpose is beyond our comprehension.
All that is accessible to man is the relation of the life of the bee to other manifestations of life.

Tolstoy says this about life, but the thing is that this novel is so big that it starts to get close to being something that life itself is.
We don’t find everything in our life to be meaningful or we don’t hold onto every moment of life, only few are worth. Similarly we find in W&P a particular thing to connect to, something that we underwent in our life, something that we are undergoing now. And believe me W&P has something to offer for everyone. For me it was ‘journey of Pierre’.

What kind of journey!
I think it was a ‘round’ journey, starting from a point and returning to the same point, and thereafter make a forward journey. All so innocent and careless Pierre makes a journey, vacillating between freemasonary, philanthrophy and mysticism in his desperate search for truth. At the end of his journey he is not further in his life but at the same point, but just strong and life, much more under his control.

Because truth has been revealed to him.

Lord, Thou didst answer stern and low:
‘Child, I will hearken to thy prayer,
And thy unconquered soul shall know
All passionate rapture and despair.

‘Thou shalt drink deep of joy and fame,
And love shall burn thee like a fire,
And pain shall cleanse thee like a flame,
To purge the dross from thy desire.

‘So shall thy chastened spirit yearn
To seek from its blind prayer release,
And spent and pardoned, sue to learn
The simple secret of My peace.

‘I, bending from my sevenfold height,
Will teach thee of My quickening grace,
Life is a prism of My light,
And Death the shadow of My face.’

- The Soul's Prayer, a poem by Sarojini Naidu ...more

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Jun 12, 2013 Apatt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics

War and bloody Peace eh? Started June 12, 2013, finished August 26, 2013! How am I supposed to review this?! I will apply my usual rambling slapdash technique I think.

War and Peace looks like a formidable challenge for the average reader, in term of length and legendary status, this is not "just another book" you can just read and forget. Personally, I read fiction mainly for entertainment purposes ( the best past time I know), some books I read purely out of curiosity, some books like Moby Dick War and bloody Peace eh? Started June 12, 2013, finished August 26, 2013! How am I supposed to review this?! I will apply my usual rambling slapdash technique I think.

War and Peace looks like a formidable challenge for the average reader, in term of length and legendary status, this is not "just another book" you can just read and forget. Personally, I read fiction mainly for entertainment purposes ( the best past time I know), some books I read purely out of curiosity, some books like Moby Dick I even read for bragging right (that did not turn out well!). Anyway, as far as War and Peace is concerned it is a combo of all three, I am glad to report (not brag) that the result turned out to be more than satisfactory as far as I am concerned. The most daunting part of reading this book is when you tentatively start on the first page and constantly feel aware of the remaining thousand or so pages, I think the trick is just to ignore the remaining page weighing down your right hand and just follow the characters along and see what they get up to. After all, you don't need to read the entire book if you don't find the first few chapters to your liking. For myself, I kind of cheated and went the audiobook route which adds up to more than 60 hours in total (read with consummate skill and probably gallons of coffee by Alexander Scourby). I pity the poor chap who read it but then I remembered he probably took well over a month to finish the reading it.

In term of entertainment and readability War and Peace easily met these basic requirements for me. It starts off lightly enough with a "soiree", there are several soirees in this book, they seem like high society dinner parties which I avoid like the plague at every opportunity. The reader is gently introduced to the current situation of the day and some central characters also make their first entrances. The narrative then moves from house to house and we soon meet all the central characters, which are surprisingly few in number. Yes, it is a whale of a book with a large cast of characters but there are only a few protagonists for you to concern yourself with. This book is more about the characters than about two countries at war. Looking at the title I believe it is more about peace than about war if anything it seems like an anti-war book to me, the message is not communicated through humor and satire like Heller's Catch-22 but through Tolstoy's profound psychological insight and humanity. This makes it more serious and dryer than Heller's book - and I did doze through the odd passages - but over all, I found it much more rewarding.

The main source of pleasure for me are the beautifully developed main characters, they really came alive once I settled into the groove of the book. My favorite character is certainly Pierre Bezukhov, a chubby, sensitive, thoughtful and compassionate gentleman, not your archetypal heroic figure but certainly not an anti-hero. The best part of reading the book for me was to share Pierre's thought processes. He does tend to overthink things and is prone to changing his mind about what the meaning of life really is (a bit like me but with high IQ); following his thoughts is akin to some kind of telepathy. The other central characters are also very nicely fleshed out and believable, particularly the main female character Natasha Rostova who practically grows up before the reader's eyes. A few real-life individuals such as Mikhail Kutuzov and Napoleon Bonaparte are presented to us as part of the novel's cast of characters, whether their fictional representation is true to the real people I can not say but to live inside their heads is a fascinating experience.

The prose style (from the English translated version of it) is just stupendous, Tolstoy seems to casually toss in phrases like "sorrowful pleasure" and put it in just the right context. People who like to pick quotations from a book will have a field day with this one. Nary a page goes by without finding something quotable. Here is a couple I picked almost at random:

“Here I am alive, and it's not my fault, so I have to try and get by as best I can without hurting anybody until death takes over.”

“Because of the self-confidence with which he had spoken, no one could tell whether what he said was very clever or very stupid.”

There are dull chapters and passages in several places of the book, the practical side of warfare is of little interest to me, but those are far outweighed by wondrous materials that feed the brain and the heart. At least I picked up some knowledge about "scorched earth principle" and Kutuzov's military genius. Special mention should be made about the epilogues, the two epilogues total moire than 100 pages, the first one wraps up the story of the protagonists and their settled down lives after the war. The second epilogue is something like a treatise on the nature of power, the real causes and meanings of war and so forth. This part of the book is so dry you may want to read it while in a bath. Still, if you have the capacity to patiently absorb what Tolstoy has to say about these weighty matters you will probably be the wiser for it.

Basically, the best way to read this book in whatever format is to immerse yourself in the story, the length becomes fairly insignificant once you are along for the ride, of course, you need to have a lot of patience and don't expect to race to the end of the book. Come to think of it reading it just for the bragging right is probably a waste of time. I personally like this book more than Tolstoy's equally legendary Anna Karenina which I also like, but I find War and Peace more emotionally resonant. Certainly, I am glad I read it, and some day (a few years from now) I would be quite happy to read it again. ...more

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Jun 15, 2011 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: novel, russia-and-soviet-union, 19th-century, read-in-translation, tolstoy

An oak tree that I passed on the way into a town reminded me of the scene in War and Peace in which Andrei Volkonsky passes an oak in late spring and sees himself as that tree - its branches bare even while other trees already are showing bright green leaves. He feels, after his experiences in the novel up to that point, old before his time and looking forward only towards the grave(view spoiler) ...more

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Jan 25, 2016 Dem rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites, war, russian-history

Tolstroy's epic masterpiece intertwines the lives of private and public individuals during the time of the Napoleonic wars and the French Invasion of Russia.

I had always wanted to read this epic Novel by Tolstroy's but was completely put off by the sheer size of the book at 1350 pages. I am not a lover of books over 500 pages and this was certainly going to be a challenge for me.

I have planned a trip to Russia this year and this was the encouragement I needed to finally pick up this novel, also Tolstroy's epic masterpiece intertwines the lives of private and public individuals during the time of the Napoleonic wars and the French Invasion of Russia.

I had always wanted to read this epic Novel by Tolstroy's but was completely put off by the sheer size of the book at 1350 pages. I am not a lover of books over 500 pages and this was certainly going to be a challenge for me.

I have planned a trip to Russia this year and this was the encouragement I needed to finally pick up this novel, also the fact that the BBC had filmed a new adaptation of the novel which had aired in January and it was getting great reviews. So I approached the masterpiece by ordering a hard copy as I wasn't sure I could handle this one on Kindle. I also taped the complete BBC Series and decided I would watch the first episode to get the characters, names and places firmly set in my head and then read the book as a side read over a three month period(finished it in 6 weeks)

I finally finished this masterpiece last night and really did enjoy the read. Today( Mother's day) I sat down and watched several hours of Television Series and really enjoyed so much having completed the book.

1812 napoleon invades Russia in an order to expand his ever-growing Empire. Three Russian families of Nobility The Rostovs, The Bolkonskys and the Bezukonskys become intertwined and an immense story of War, Romance, Riches, betrayals, jealously and hatred make this story so compelling.

This is not an easy read by any means as it is a challenge, with all the war descriptions and long descriptive passages and at time dialogs that tends to go on and on and yet its story and characters are amazing and I found myself engrossed and loved picking up the book and getting back to the characters.

This is not a book I would recommend friends to read, but if like myself you want a challenge and this is on your TBR List then I would encourage you to read it over a period of time and I think you will be surprised at how readable and enjoyable it really is.

I have to applaud the BBC Series which was extremely well adapted to screen and very close to the actual book except for the accents!

...more

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Mar 17, 2019 Jojo rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, historical-fiction

Well, I've done it! I can finally say that I've conquered this somewhat complex beast, that is, War and Peace. I've had it on my to-read list for around ten years, and now, I too, can finally be at peace. The novel isn't as readable as I expected, especially when one compares it to other large novels, like Les Miserables, but, it was less taxing on the brain than I had imagined. It might have something to do with the English translation that I have.

This is my second Tolstoy novel, the first Well, I've done it! I can finally say that I've conquered this somewhat complex beast, that is, War and Peace. I've had it on my to-read list for around ten years, and now, I too, can finally be at peace. The novel isn't as readable as I expected, especially when one compares it to other large novels, like Les Miserables, but, it was less taxing on the brain than I had imagined. It might have something to do with the English translation that I have.

This is my second Tolstoy novel, the first being Anna Karenina, which I just adored. Tolstoy has a unique writing style, that I generally favour. You can tell that he was before his time in regards to humanity, in the way in which he writes about the characters and their flaws, etc. This novel taught me history about Napoleon, that to be honest, I wasn't even aware of.

There are many scenes set in battle that I thought were just dire. They dragged, and were really quite dull. I get that there are going to be battle scenes, as we only need to refer to the title of the book, but, I noticed that the characters came in second in regards to military strategies and Napoleon. There are also many philosophical contemplations in this, so if you are greatly interested in this kind of thing, then this is certainly the book for you. Unfortunately, for me, I need something much more to make a story complete, and an abundance of philosophical ramblings, just didn't cut it.

I'm probably making it sound that there is a total lack of character development here, which actually isn't the case. Pierre's character is interesting and so is Prince Andrey's, but, both were not interesting enough to make the story better for me. There were other, more significant characters that had more of a role, but unfortunately, there wasn't enough development to enable them to grow on me. I must add, at the end of the novel sits the epilogue. Don't worry about reading it, as it adds nothing to the story, except a kind of yawn factor.

I probably shouldn't be doing so, but throughout this novel, I was comparing it to Victor Hugo's, Les Miserables. They are both hefty in size, and are both historical fiction, so with this information, I assumed that I'd love War and Peace. For me, Les Miserables exceeded my expectations and dazzled me from beginning to end. (Even throughout the rather detailed descriptions of The battle of Waterloo and the sewerage systems)It is inevitably, my favourite book of all time, and for me, War and Peace lives comfortably in it's shadow.
...more

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Jan 16, 2017 Simona Bartolotta rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1800, in-italian

"She kept thinking that no one could understand all that she understood and all there was in her."

Approximately from the start of book three (middle of the whole War and Peace) onwards, the focus massively shifts to military strategy and the specifics of the Napoleonic campaign, and those parts were really difficult to get through. I missed the main characters and wasn't interested. But the first half is inexpressibly beautiful.

*To my Italian friends: io ho acquistato anni fa l'edizione della ...more

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Dec 19, 2014 Gautam rated it it was amazing

Shelves: epic, russian-literature, favorites, war, inspiration, psyche

I was sitting in my upstairs room with the Paperback on my lap. I could not believe that all the tumultuous, heart-rending, and unforgettable events I encountered were finally behind me, though safely residing in my memory lane. I closed my eyes and sat pensively without actually thinking anything. A soothing feeling of tranquility gradually possessed me I am calm like a placid sea.

Suddenly I heard a bizarre sound: it was like a hoof sound, something galloping in my yard; A horse? .I didn’t ...more

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Aug 03, 2019 TBV rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019, favourites-2019, fiction, classic-literary, historical, russia

"On any first reading, War and Peace is bound to dazzle with its immense panorama of humanity. The whole of life appears to be contained in its pages. Tolstoy presents us with a cast of several hundred characters. Yet to each one he brings such profound understanding of the human condition, with all its frailties and contradictions, that we recognize and love these characters as reflections of our own identity." - Afterword by Orlando Figes, War and Peace (page 1395)

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About Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy

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Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой; commonly Leo Tolstoy in Anglophone countries) was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist fiction. Many consider ...more