War and Peace in Reading the Chunksters

Sep 12, 2021 Gerrit Gmel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Most people, including me, have a healthy dose of respect, if not fear, of this epic 1000+ page tome with a title that leaves no doubt as to how seriously the author has taken his work. And yes, you have to put some work in, and you have to be a serious reader to tackle this one. But it also fully deserves every accolade as one of the best books ever written.

Tolstoy is simply one of the greatest thinkers and feelers I've ever come across. He manages to express complex emotions in succinct sente Most people, including me, have a healthy dose of respect, if not fear, of this epic 1000+ page tome with a title that leaves no doubt as to how seriously the author has taken his work. And yes, you have to put some work in, and you have to be a serious reader to tackle this one. But it also fully deserves every accolade as one of the best books ever written.

Tolstoy is simply one of the greatest thinkers and feelers I've ever come across. He manages to express complex emotions in succinct sentences with complete mastery. I have so much respect for this guy, a true and genuine artist of the highest caliber. He has an incredibly well-balanced understanding of our complex world and the human psyche. While Anna Karenina is deeply emotional, War and Peace is more philosophical.

After reading the second epilogue (yes, there are not 1, but 2 epilogues!) I realised that Tolstoy had created this incredibly detailed and intricate story as an artistic rendering of one of his philosophical investigations which he then lays out in essay-form in that second and final epilogue. This book can be read many many times, and at different stages in life you will get different things out of it and latch on to specific themes and story arcs. If I had to pick one major theme to summarise the book (and that certainly doesn’t do it justice) I would describe it as an immensely beautiful and engaging tableau of the duality of free will and determinism.

In over 1000 pages, Tolstoy explores hundreds of facets of life, various people from different backgrounds, what drives them, their characters, idiosyncrasies, and changes they undergo, and brings them all to a head in a few historical events (read: battles). It seems like a slow burn, but it isn't. You can feel that with each chapter, the picture becomes fuller and clearer, and you can't wait to see how it will all unfold, how the pieces link together (or not!), how decisions impact outcome (or not!), how some people rise and some fall and how fates reverse.

I could ramble on forever, there is so much meat here, so much to think about and discuss, but you shouldn't read my words about Tolstoy's words, you should just read War and Peace. Call me when you're done and we can talk about it! ...more

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