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Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read Often called the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is at once an epic of the Napoleonic Wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of the Russian spirit. Tolstoy's genius is seen clearly in the multitude of characters in this massive chronicle--all of them fully realized and equally memorable. Out of this complex narrative emerges a profound examination of the individual's place in the historical process, one that makes it clear why Thomas Mann praised Tolstoy for his Homeric powers and placed War and Peace in the same category as the Iliad: "To read him . . . is to find one' s way home . . . to everything within us that is fundamental and sane."… (more)
CurrerBell: Hardy's "Immanent Will" has much in common with Tolstoy's historical determinism. Personally, I'm in that probably quite small minority that prefers The Dynasts over Tolstoy's novel – partly because I find in Hardy's "The Road to Waterloo" scene (3.VI.vii) one of the greatest of antiwar poems.… (more)
Eustrabirbeonne: Well, Henri Troyat is no Tolstoy of course, and he did not pretend he was : he described himself as a mere "storyteller". Yet some of his fiction is real good, and this "cycle" is certainly his best. And of course, Russian-born Lev Aslanovich Tarasov had in mind the never-written sequel to "War and Peace" about the Decembrist uprising, which Tolstoy initiates in the final chapters of "War and Peace" with his hints at Pierre's active participation in a "society". Would Natasha, already a mother of four in 1820, have left her children behind to follow Pierre in Siberia, as other convicts' wives did?… (more)
carajava: Es muy recomendable despues o, en todo caso antes de leer guerra y paz, puesto que, mejorarà tu forma de ver el mundo donde viviàn los rusos, comprenderlo y razonar sus precarias situaciònes.
Listened to seven and a half hours, a fair attempt. But this is very dull. Far inferior writing compared with "Anna Karenina". Given the epic events the novel is set among, I was surprised by the sheer blandness of the plotting. Better ways to spend one's precious reading time! ( )
I scored this Classic English translated Literature 17 stars out of 20 stars.
It took me quite a long time to finish breezing through it the first time i read it because I ended up putting it down and picking up where I left off reading at least a couple good times due to my own life story and events catching up with me and requiring my attention.
You think it's not long but eventually you'll concede that's its a lengthy title.
I'll pore through it studying it a second time and that of course is to the work's credit ( )
My first impression of this book was that it was not for me. The book left me feeling unsatisfied, because I had fully expected epic and grandiose.
To me, Tolstoy’s War and Peace is unbearably dull. I attribute this to translation (although I'm not convinced). Despite the large and diverse cast of characters, it seems he himself could not track their development and abandoned it altogether. There is one common trait among all the characters, no matter their name or gender alone: fickleness.
I am particularly disturbed by Tolstoy's portrayal of Napoleon, the novel's antagonist, in a clearly biased light. Characters seem generic, uninteresting, and not special if one looks beyond the famed historical events (the core of the work).
Nothing in this novel is original or hasn't already been done, or better, since published. There is no need to read this book. Put your time to better use by reading something else. ( )
I was a teenager when this book became famous again, and enjoyed reading it chapter by chapter. I was still, without thinking, finishing every book that I started reading, even this big ponderous volume. ( )
The title Tolstoy finally settled on was taken from the political theorist Pierre-Joseph Proudhorn's book La Guerre et L Paix (1861) a title which means what it says and no more. But when Tolstoy completed and published the final version of his novel Voyna i mir in 1869, the word mir carried a number of connotations and meanings, including a slightly obsolete one referring to society, mankind. In this case the word could mean, roughly speaking, humanity. Tolstoy's novel is concerned not merely with war and the cessation of war, it is about human beings, for whom war is a vast muddle, which is the curse of society. It is about the triumph of the human spirit in time of war; and the side that wins the war is the side that displays the stronger spirit. Natasha's dance and Andrey's sudden understanding of what matters are triumphant leaps of the human spirit; each results in an inner joy, a peace.
added by Cynfelyn | editSlightly Foxed, Christopher Rush(Feb 1, 2023)
The novel is not just a masterclass in fiction, Ms Li believes, but a remedy for distress. At the most difficult times in her life, she says, she has turned to it again and again, reassured by its “solidity” in the face of uncertainty.
I had it on my desk for about a year, and now I've given up and put it back on the shelf.
added by Sylak | editStylist [Issue 338], Paula Hawkins(Oct 12, 2016)
Tolstoy’s singular genius is to be able to take the torrent of conscious experience and master it. There are countless moments in the book where this happens ...
In the first case it was necessary to renounce the consciousness of an unreal immobility in space and to recognize a motion we did not feel; in the present case it is similarly necessary to renounce a freedom that does not exist, and to recognize a dependence of which we are not conscious.
End of Book 15: "But why go to Petersburg?" Natasha suddenly asked, and hastily replied to her own question. "But no, no, he must. . . Yes, Mary, He must . . ." [tr. Maude/Maude]
Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read Often called the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is at once an epic of the Napoleonic Wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of the Russian spirit. Tolstoy's genius is seen clearly in the multitude of characters in this massive chronicle--all of them fully realized and equally memorable. Out of this complex narrative emerges a profound examination of the individual's place in the historical process, one that makes it clear why Thomas Mann praised Tolstoy for his Homeric powers and placed War and Peace in the same category as the Iliad: "To read him . . . is to find one' s way home . . . to everything within us that is fundamental and sane."
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Haiku summary
There's a bear in there and people as well. Stories to tell, and a war. (alsoCass)