Reviews - War and Peace Vol. II

4.29k reviews for:

War and Peace Vol. II

Leo Tolstoy

4.08 AVERAGE

_nikkinightmare's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 18%

This is the most mind-numbingly dull book I've ever attempted to read. I also don't care for the narrator.

nickartrip102's review against another edition

5.0

Everyone was sad and horny and I love it.

yarnmama10's review against another edition

4.0

What to say about such a well known and revered work such as this? I hardly feel qualified for the task.

What I will say is that I am very glad that I finally got around to reading it. It took me almost 11 weeks to accomplish, but it was worth the time spent. I greatly enjoyed learning to know the characters and following their lives. There are many happy points as well as tragic ones, but such is life.

I admit that I skimmed and even skipped the very last section where he was waxing philosophical about war, nations and society. Maybe I will return to it another day but I was not into right now. I liked to read the thoughts of the characters when they mused but this was more narrative in nature and I was not in the mood for it.

All in all this is a classic for good reason.

justagirlwithbooks's review against another edition

3.0

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

“We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.”

Over 1300 pages and three whole months later, I can finally say that I FINISHED WAR AND PEACE!! Now, was it an enjoyable read? At times, yes. Other times, it was quite hard to get through, and the philosophy aspects of this book did drag at times. I did lose interest sometimes. At times, the story felt a little bit like the Count of Monte Cristo, but less entertaining. My favorite character has to be Andrei, because I loved his story so much. I think Tolstoy did a great job in interweaving historical figures into his story. Sometimes, the battles were boring, but I was here for all the family drama. This book does jump around a lot between the actual plot and the story, which was frustrating at times and it took me out of the story. Now, I'm going to go and watch the 2016 show!

Content Warnings

nicpop's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous challenging informative tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

isabellesbooks's review against another edition

5.0

Based on the first 20 times I attempted to start this project of a book, I did not expect to end up laying in my bed crying over it, but that is what happened. It just took like three years.

cocoonofbooks's review against another edition

3.0

This was more enjoyable than I expected, even if the "War" sections were fairly dry most of the time, and the interspersed reflections on the mistakes of historians and on cause and effect -- while interesting at times -- ought to be their own book or essay and not part of a novel. (Like Moby Dick and Les Miserables, you could definitely read the abridged version without missing any of the actual story.) Although the events on the warfront and on the home front were separated near the beginning, they began to blend more and more as the book went on and characters became more affected by and involved in the war efforts, which was well done. I read this as an audiobook and, while Frederick Davidson's narration style put me off at first, I was impressed by his narration abilities by the end and picked up another audiobook narrated by him (Ivanhoe) to start next. Unless you're like me and want to read this for the accomplishment of reading such an epic classic, I'd recommend picking up an abridged version of this book.