Jordan’s Reviews > War and Peace > Status Update

Maybe just because it's a round number, but page 1000 feels like a milestone. Napoleon has invaded Russia, made it into Moscow even, & the fortunes of the chief aristocratic families of the novel have changed. I was deeply affected by a scene from a recent chapter, when the governor of Moscow offers up a political prisoner to the mob, who beat him to death. A chilling scene, expertly described & explained by Tolstoy.

Book Four is a short interlude b/t descriptions of the war. We learn of young Nicholas Rostov's visit home, the adolescent development of his sisters, and drama at the estate outside Moscow where some of the most interesting & frustrating characters of the novel reside. In this year-long interim, we learn that Napoleon has made short work of Prussia & advanced as far as Poland; he's now a threat to Russia's borders.

Napoleon is on the march, and in Book Two, Tolstoy introduces us to all the personalities on display at the front: the eager, the frightened, the dutiful, the cynical, the jokesters, soldiers & officers alike—including a few people from Book One. Young Nicholas Rostov, whose excitement for battle and subsequent disillusionment once he actually experiences its horrors, seems to embody and speak for Tolstoy himself.

My edition of War & Peace is divided into 17 "books," including two epilogues. Book One, which I've just finished, introduces most (I assume) of the major characters, split between St. Petersburg, Moscow, and a country estate 100 miles outside of Moscow. War with Napoleon has not yet begun, but almost none of these characters—even though they live comparatively easy, aristocratic lives—are truly at peace.

I've finally decided to tackle "the great novel." I've wanted to for years but have always been too intimidated. That all changed last summer when I read The Brothers Karamazov. It was another novel that I had been intimidated by; instead I found that it was not only a page-turner but one of the very best books, if not THE best book, I've read in my life. I'm curious to see how War & Peace will compare...