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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It's been a long journey, one that I never thought I would see the end of, but I've finally done it. I finshed War & Peace. I can finally stop lugging my twenty pound book around town.
This book really seemed like three books in one (and not because of the length). There were the war parts and the peace parts obviously, but towards the second half of the book, Tolstoy really started getting philosophical and would have these long, boring chapters on the science of history. I'm not ususally one for reading about warfare, but I started out actually really enjoying the sections describing the War of 1812. It wasn't just all about action - Tolstoy really knew how to draw you into each character's experiences and emotions during every part of the war. The only annoying thing about the war sections was that Tolstoy would start out with a long chapter telling you exactly what the outcome of a major battle was, and then you would go back and have to read twenty more chapters going into greater detail on the same battle. It made me anxious already knowing what happens, and I found myself just wanting to hurry up through the war sections since I knew exactly where they were leading. Also the peace sections were so good that I wanted to hurry through so I could see which man Natasha was after at the moment. As far as foreshadowing in the peace section, either was very little or I'm very dense because I had no idea who was going to end up with who. Tolstoy would introduce many different characters, build up their relationships with each other, lead you to believe they are going to get together, and then suddenly something would happen or someone else would swoop in. I almost felt like it was a soap-opera at times, which never got boring.
But sadly for me, the philosophical parts made me want to tear my hair out, ESPECIALLY the epilogue. Chapter after chapter after chapter of babble on why history should be considered a science, how historians and artists are alike but different, and most of all how man can never truly have free will. I would be understanding if Tolstoy wanted to get these points across and wrote a few chapters on them. Yes, I would still find them boring, but I would read them and move on. But to have hundreds of pages repeating his same message over and over made me want to chuck the book out the window. And right at the very end, when you see the light at the end of the tunnel! But at that point, I just couldn't live with myself if I quit. So I made it through, and despite the torturous epilogue, I really did enjoy the book. Would I ever attempt to read it again? Not if you paid me.
This book really seemed like three books in one (and not because of the length). There were the war parts and the peace parts obviously, but towards the second half of the book, Tolstoy really started getting philosophical and would have these long, boring chapters on the science of history. I'm not ususally one for reading about warfare, but I started out actually really enjoying the sections describing the War of 1812. It wasn't just all about action - Tolstoy really knew how to draw you into each character's experiences and emotions during every part of the war. The only annoying thing about the war sections was that Tolstoy would start out with a long chapter telling you exactly what the outcome of a major battle was, and then you would go back and have to read twenty more chapters going into greater detail on the same battle. It made me anxious already knowing what happens, and I found myself just wanting to hurry up through the war sections since I knew exactly where they were leading. Also the peace sections were so good that I wanted to hurry through so I could see which man Natasha was after at the moment. As far as foreshadowing in the peace section, either was very little or I'm very dense because I had no idea who was going to end up with who. Tolstoy would introduce many different characters, build up their relationships with each other, lead you to believe they are going to get together, and then suddenly something would happen or someone else would swoop in. I almost felt like it was a soap-opera at times, which never got boring.
But sadly for me, the philosophical parts made me want to tear my hair out, ESPECIALLY the epilogue. Chapter after chapter after chapter of babble on why history should be considered a science, how historians and artists are alike but different, and most of all how man can never truly have free will. I would be understanding if Tolstoy wanted to get these points across and wrote a few chapters on them. Yes, I would still find them boring, but I would read them and move on. But to have hundreds of pages repeating his same message over and over made me want to chuck the book out the window. And right at the very end, when you see the light at the end of the tunnel! But at that point, I just couldn't live with myself if I quit. So I made it through, and despite the torturous epilogue, I really did enjoy the book. Would I ever attempt to read it again? Not if you paid me.
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
War - what is it good for?
I didn't make it through. I was in tenth grade when I tried. I'll try again.
Please do not be discouraged by the length of War and Peace or by how highly regarded it is as a classic. I find it important with all classics to remember that I am not being tested on it, I will take from it what I will and that, in itself, is good. Also the book being split into 3 volumes, 15 books and 2 epilogues (all with many chapters) makes it more manageable because you’re really only consuming a segment at a time.
I have found with all of the Russian literature that I’ve read so far that you cannot passively read them and I think that the active engagement with the text is one of the most beautiful things. This is why I’m hesitant to say that War and Peace could be shorter because I wonder if I would have lost the immersion had some of the description been removed. I’ve also found that they all come with morals to be thought about and that was what I really loved about War and Peace- that Tolstoy sporadically popped in with his own voice, his own philosophy to try and get you to think about the morality of a character’s actions.
I’ve heard some people say not to bother with the epilogues but I disagree (but read how you want to read). I found the first epilogue was just like another chapter, it told you about the characters lives afterwards and I thought it really was a necessary addition. Then the second epilogue is probably more optional because it’s really just Tolstoy’s philosophical musings about war, about history and about freedom as a concept but I’m glad to have read it because it gives more perspective on where Tolstoy was writing from when he wrote the characters.
I really would recommend this though like the character development was amazing and the way certain aspects of the plot interlinked with others was wonderful and somewhat seamless. My only reservation was that it was something I had to truly dedicate myself to reading because of it’s length but part of me thinks that it kind of had to be that long.
I have found with all of the Russian literature that I’ve read so far that you cannot passively read them and I think that the active engagement with the text is one of the most beautiful things. This is why I’m hesitant to say that War and Peace could be shorter because I wonder if I would have lost the immersion had some of the description been removed. I’ve also found that they all come with morals to be thought about and that was what I really loved about War and Peace- that Tolstoy sporadically popped in with his own voice, his own philosophy to try and get you to think about the morality of a character’s actions.
I’ve heard some people say not to bother with the epilogues but I disagree (but read how you want to read). I found the first epilogue was just like another chapter, it told you about the characters lives afterwards and I thought it really was a necessary addition. Then the second epilogue is probably more optional because it’s really just Tolstoy’s philosophical musings about war, about history and about freedom as a concept but I’m glad to have read it because it gives more perspective on where Tolstoy was writing from when he wrote the characters.
I really would recommend this though like the character development was amazing and the way certain aspects of the plot interlinked with others was wonderful and somewhat seamless. My only reservation was that it was something I had to truly dedicate myself to reading because of it’s length but part of me thinks that it kind of had to be that long.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It was always a challenge for me to stay engaged by this book. No one character's story significantly grabbed me in either my emotion bone or my interest bone. In fact, none of my bones felt very much about it all really. I liked it most of the time, and there was some occasional nice writing. It all ends with a bit of a whimper too, with a rambling essay on freedom, power, the perception of time and a whole lot more.
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
the most beautiful book with insanely real characters and intensely moving arcs.. and hundreds of pages of tolstoy ranting
pierre you are the character ever. no one gets you like me. pierre has a crisis of conscience ever 5 minutes and goes into a loop where he needs to immediately rewrite his life and think over everything he's ever done and ever will do, struggles with morality and the meaning of life and doing nothing and then realizes his thinking about thinking about nothing is doing nothing and gets thrown back to the start. he spends so much time in his head and just as much time mad at himself for doing so. sometimes this results in the decision that he can't go on with his life, other times that he has to kill napoleon; but at all times he is thinking and thinking. and then something small happens, and he is overwhelmed with love, and all his and everyone else's pains fade away and, for a moment, it is just him and the sky, him and the stars, him and a comet.
there's just something about a character perpetually trying to make himself a better man while being constantly stuck in his head agonizing over his life and beliefs that makes whenever they do act, and whenever, for a second, they surface out of this loop bring me to my knees. namely, pierre confronting natasha after anatole, confronting the frenchman in the redoubt, looking at the sky during his prisoner march, and his last conversation with andrei KILLED me
andrei's storyline here is also ridiculously compelling. the scene where he's contemplating the vastness of the sky after the battle of austerlitz was one of my favorites, and his life contemplation before borodino & talk with pierre after were also phenomenal.his death was so well done too, and his reacknowledgement of love and understanding of life killed me
i love the parts of this book where characters regain the will to live and the ability to love and forgive. i love examining how subjective and illusory happiness and the meaning of life are. i love how deeply tolstoy explores human nature
i do not, however, love the disjointed and long-winded history and philosophy lectures. tolstoy is exceedingly heavy-handed with his beliefs, and wastes so much time recounting them ad infinitum. you'll have just finished an absolutely phenomenal battle, get a ridiculously moving scene with one of our characters learning and growing from their experiences with it, and then boom. immediate 1oo pages of a political essay. this happens several times throughout war and peace, but the most egregious of them is the ending. you get the exceptionally written battle of borodino and you’re crying about andrei & you’re crying about pierre. and then throw away wrap-up lines for the characters and ending the book with a history and polsci lesson. i mean what???? so much momentum and pages are just thrown away
having said that, i'm so conflicted on my rating. this book has one of my favorite charactes of all time, made me cry several times, and is definitely a book i see myself continuously revisiting at different stages of my life. but god damn did tolstoy's rants get tiring. i gave les mis 5 stars and hugo does pretty much the same thing with history and the sewer system so what the hell do i know. leaving it as a 4.5 for now, but, like pierre, i will sit and think
pierre you are the character ever. no one gets you like me. pierre has a crisis of conscience ever 5 minutes and goes into a loop where he needs to immediately rewrite his life and think over everything he's ever done and ever will do, struggles with morality and the meaning of life and doing nothing and then realizes his thinking about thinking about nothing is doing nothing and gets thrown back to the start. he spends so much time in his head and just as much time mad at himself for doing so. sometimes this results in the decision that he can't go on with his life, other times that he has to kill napoleon; but at all times he is thinking and thinking. and then something small happens, and he is overwhelmed with love, and all his and everyone else's pains fade away and, for a moment, it is just him and the sky, him and the stars, him and a comet.
there's just something about a character perpetually trying to make himself a better man while being constantly stuck in his head agonizing over his life and beliefs that makes whenever they do act, and whenever, for a second, they surface out of this loop bring me to my knees. namely, pierre confronting natasha after anatole, confronting the frenchman in the redoubt, looking at the sky during his prisoner march, and his last conversation with andrei KILLED me
andrei's storyline here is also ridiculously compelling. the scene where he's contemplating the vastness of the sky after the battle of austerlitz was one of my favorites, and his life contemplation before borodino & talk with pierre after were also phenomenal.
i love the parts of this book where characters regain the will to live and the ability to love and forgive. i love examining how subjective and illusory happiness and the meaning of life are. i love how deeply tolstoy explores human nature
i do not, however, love the disjointed and long-winded history and philosophy lectures. tolstoy is exceedingly heavy-handed with his beliefs, and wastes so much time recounting them ad infinitum. you'll have just finished an absolutely phenomenal battle, get a ridiculously moving scene with one of our characters learning and growing from their experiences with it, and then boom. immediate 1oo pages of a political essay. this happens several times throughout war and peace, but the most egregious of them is the ending. you get the exceptionally written battle of borodino and you’re crying about andrei & you’re crying about pierre. and then throw away wrap-up lines for the characters and ending the book with a history and polsci lesson. i mean what???? so much momentum and pages are just thrown away
having said that, i'm so conflicted on my rating. this book has one of my favorite charactes of all time, made me cry several times, and is definitely a book i see myself continuously revisiting at different stages of my life. but god damn did tolstoy's rants get tiring. i gave les mis 5 stars and hugo does pretty much the same thing with history and the sewer system so what the hell do i know. leaving it as a 4.5 for now, but, like pierre, i will sit and think
it’s so good for like 1100 pages and then tolstoy decides to reward all of the reader’s attachment, patience, and emotion with one of the most depressing endings of all time. i fundamentally disagree with his philosophy - he set out to create the grandest portrayal of human life ever put to page, and i both hate the fact that at the end i was left thinking “is that all there is” and am terrified at the notion that tolstoy might be right. 90% of this is a surprisingly terrific story, but i am choosing optimism over giving in to tolstoy’s philosophy
Long. Never ending. Not much else to say about such a classic, certainly worth the read and learning about one of the most influential moments in history. With so many damn characters, you can't help but find at least one or two you enjoying following through the years.