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Loading... War and Peace (Vintage Classics) (original 1868; edition 2008)by Leo Tolstoy, Richard Pevear (Translator), Larissa Volokhonsky (Translator)
Work InformationWar and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1868)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. I took on the challenge of reading War and Peace in a positive frame of mind. I consider myself reasonably well read and willing to tackle books that aren't immediately easy, and I'd read many enthusiastic reviews and I was looking forward to finally tackling this classic. I've failed. I had difficulty getting to grips with the vast cast of characters, though I did eventually master these, and indeed became interested in the various family sagas which form such an important part of the narrative. I tried to interest myself in the War aspects of the book, and failed dismally. And as for the philosophical digressions, which increased towards the end of the book, and most particularly in the epilogue: I ended up skim-reading these. I kept on thinking that an editor with a very big red pencil should have been let loose on the book. I'm sure the loss is mine, but it's a book about which I'm now pleased to be able to say 'I've finished it!' ( ) Obviously, I'll look like an idiot if I give this book a rating of less than five stars, but I read it after I had read many of Tolstoy's later religious works in which he had grown out of the pantheism I found inherent in this greatest of novels. It's awesome, of course, just not my favorite work of his. It's hard, if not impossible to give a rating for this book. Good: It's about Russia during the reign of Alexander I. I didn't know anything about Russia, and for that sole reason this book was interesting to read. The book reads like a movie. There is variety in the text. Some parts are a bit Jane-Austen-like (salon-situated satire), others more like philosophical musings on the workings of men and war and some parts are like an episode of the BBC-series Sharpe, when Tolstoy follows officers during the Napoleonic wars. Tolstoy sketches brilliant psychological portraits of his characters. Eventually you can relate to any of them (or at least you'll have a friend that is a lot like that character). Tolstoy describes phenomena in human interaction that are still applicable today (and probably always will be), such as what we (at my office) call Weasels: people that behave in such a way that they earn the rewards for the work and suffering of other (lower-ranking) people. Bad: Some parts are slow and a bit boring. Some characters are introduced with great care only to be mentioned in later books with the greatest indifference. In the first part, you cannot but hate all the characters in the salon. Tolstoy described their faults in great detail and no one is left to like which makes reading on difficult. Pierre varies between a hero and an anti-hero.
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. 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. 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 ... Belongs to Publisher Series — 20 more Great Books of the Western World (Volume 51) Modern Library Giant (G1) La nostra biblioteca Edipem (65-66-67) Os Grandes Romances Históricos (21-24) Penguin Clothbound Classics (2016) Is contained inGreat Books Of The Western World - 54 Volume Set, Incl. 10 Vols of Great Ideas Program & 10 Volumes Gateway To Great Books by Robert Maynard Hutchins (indirect) GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD--54 Volumes 27 volumes 1961-1987 GREAT IDEAS TODAY (Yearbooks) 10 volumes GATEWAY TO THE GREAT BOOKS 10 volumes GREAT IDEAS PROGRAM. Total 101 Volumes. by Robert Maynard Hutchins (indirect) I capolavori (Anna Karenina - Guerra e pace - La morte di Ivan Il'ič- Resurrezione - La sonata a Kreutzer e altri racconti) (Italian Edition) by Lev Tolstoj International Collector's Library Classics 19 volumes: Crime & Punishment; Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; Mysterious Island; Magic Mountain; Around the World in 80 Days; Count of Monte Cristo; Camille; Quo Vadis; Hunchback of Notre Dame; Nana; Scaramouche; Pinocchio; Fernande; War and Peace; The Egyptian; From the Earth to the Moon; Candide; Treasure of Sierra Madre; Siddhartha/Steppenwolf by Jules Verne ContainsIs retold inHas the adaptationIs abridged inHas as a supplementHas as a commentary on the textHas as a student's study guideAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Classic Literature.
Fiction.
HTML: Napoleon's turbulent history with Russia including his doomed 1812 invasion provides the setting for Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. Often referred to as the greatest novel of all time, Tolstoy's classic follows the tumultuous personal lives of two aristocratic families touching on all of the great human epochs; youth, matrimony, age and death. .No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)891.733Literature Literature of other languages Literature of east Indo-European and Celtic languages Russian and East Slavic languages Russian fiction 1800–1917LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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