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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
slow-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:
Complicated
Oh my, Tolstoy. You savage war like no other author I’ve ever read and your characters are brilliant and complex and you make me think about History, capital H, and question every definition I’ve ever read. I loved Anna Karenina, and I love this book too. But OMG, Tolstoy, I know you were technically writing at the dawn of the modern novel, so brave new world and all, but could you have cut it short just a bit? Like, saved the 60 page essay at the end for, you know, a book of essays? And edited some of the 1,300 pages - most of which honestly I loved and would never have wanted to be cut, but still? You get 5 stars for me because of course you do, but you’re a cheeky bastard all the same.
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
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
slow-paced
Truly love this book, even on my third reading. This translation is definitive!
Look, you don’t need me to tell you to why this book is great – there are a lot of smart people who have explained that much better than I can. What I can recommend is the experience of reading this during a pandemic year if you’re a certain kind of person. There have been times in the past year when I’ve only wanted to read fun escapist books, but there was also a time when War and Peace was what I needed. There was something particularly lovely in thinking about the nature and depth of history when everyone is talking about the strange, historic time we’re living in. (And there were certainly times when this book helped put things in perspective – things are pretty awful, but at least Napoleon isn’t invading.) The depiction of life is just so beautiful, and I particularly loved Vol II Part 4 for this. Dancing to Russian folk songs after a September day spent hunting. Christmas at Otradnoe, riding troikas over the moonlit snow in costume. A reminder that life exists.
(I read the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation)
(I read the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation)
3.2/5, full review to come! I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again “War
1 star
Part 1
Chapter 1
Tosloy is sexist and his depiction of women questionable. The women in this book are either stupid or driven by love, or both. There is one notable exception but that one's even worse.
E.g. Wassili Kuragin wants to convince Catherine to help him cheat Pierre out of his inheritance. In her condescending attitude she claims that, as an illegitimate son of Besuchow, the testament is void and Pierre won’t inherit anything. Wassili explains that she is wrong as Besuchow wanted to legitimise his son and that Pierre will be the only heir (kind of a dick move seeing how lovingly Catherine looked after her dying father, but ok). She doesn’t listen to him and explains smugly that he's wrong. This goes on for a while (which explains how this is sooo long, ugh) as Wassili doesn’t change his argument or the way he delivers it, he just repeats the same fact over and over, until Catherine, seemingly slow in the head, understands.
(Fun fact: the way that she explains this stuff to him came off like some men mansplain with Tolstoy perfectly nailing the exact air of condescension).
She ('cosgod Tolstoy forbid women have integrity in this book) agrees to help him, after having said previously that she doesn't even want the money, since she's (understandably) upset that she looked after her father and isn’t thanked for it.
So they both develop a plan to steal the testament and the letter to the emperor. Of course, this plot point goes nowhere, like so many of Tolstoy’s plot points. He's never heard of Chekov’s gun, has he? (MOTL)
There are many instances where female characters act irrationally and don’t listen to their male counterparts for some reason, when the latter obviously would've been the better idea. While the male characters also make wrong decisions, and Tolstoy is ruthless in his judgement for them, too, he doesn’t seem to come off quite as condescending in their regard. The women make wrong decisions because they just don’t get it. The men make wrong decisions because of a lapse of judgment.
Chapter 2
Women are only defined through their relationships with men. Marie's an obvious example. She spends her entire life looking after her old, verbally abusive father and is content with her choice. Of course, she's happy when she finally gets the freedom to marry another verbally abusive guy and to start a family.
Natasha's another example. As one of the less insufferable characters in the story, it's quite disappointing how she lost her fire after marriage. She does as she's told and, finds everything that her husband says to be delightful and great. When her husband has a fight with her brother she defends him but of course her defense is "weak and awkward" and she's only tiredly smiled at by the men present in the room.
Chapter 3
The dualism of women present in the story with women being either portrayed as scheming and cold-hearted, or pure of heart, kindred souls seems to reflect Tolstoy’s own views on women. While not surprising for the zeitgeist, it's still off-putting to see this, also known as the Madonna-Whore-Complex, outside of the manosphere.
One of the explanations Freud proposed for the Madonna-whore-complex is cruelty experienced by the hands of a cold or narcissistic mother. Looking at Tolstoy’s inability of writing healthy and loving relationships, this begs the question of:
Leo? You ok?
D'you need a hug, or psychotherapy?
Chapter 4
The one notable exception previously mentioned is Helene. She's beautiful and intelligent, independent and headstrong. The perfect opportunity to have at least one (sorta) positive depiction of a woman in here, right?
Ha, NO!
Helene isn’t intelligent, but only good-guy Pierre seems to think this, as the rest of society's head over heels for her.
Of course, Tolstoy can’t allow for this ambiguity where it's unclear whether to trust Pierre or Helene (who Pierre (figuratively) threw right under the droshka when he believed a stupid rumor of her having an affair, challenging her "lover" and giving the rumor credibility in the process). Not only is she an imposter and gold-digger, she's emotionally cold and cruel as she supports her brother in faking a marriage with Natasha (which Natasha isn't aware of).
Helene later decides that she won’t endure her sad marriage any longer and converts to Catholicism in order for her marriage to be declared void and for her to be able to marry a young, good-looking prince who probably appreciates her more than Pierre.
Of course, this leads nowhere, as she.
Part 2
Chapter 1
“If the world could write itself, it would write like Tolstoy.“ ― Isaac Babel.
Uh, I'd hope tf not. Not even the world's as negative of a place as Tolstoy would imagine it. Also, he is a terrible writer.
Tolstoy can’t write. I’ll grant ma boi that: it’s not for a lack of trying. He overwrites, has too many useless descriptions while at the same time having the most dull writing eva. I *could* give him the benefit of the doubt and blame it on the translation, but as I’ve both read and listened to both to the English and German translations – nah, it’s not that. The writing sucks. Tolstoy's seemingly never heard of the concept of "show, don’t tell" and I suspect that he didn’t know how to spell "subtlety" because he hits the reader right over the head with his messages and opinions which are, quite frankly, shit.
Chapter 2
Chekov stated in a letter on nov. 1st 1889 that "One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn't going to go off. It's wrong to make promises you don't mean to keep."
Now, War and Peace came out in 1869 so I can’t exactly blame Tolstoy for not having heard of Chekov’s gun earlier, but I can blame him for not adhering to the concept of "don’t include pointless shit into you story, yo". War and Peace has a serious lack of focus with too many characters being introduced, artificially bloating the story. It doesn’t help that at the beginning characters are introduced that are of no importance to the rest of the story, like Catherine or Anna Pavlovna. If you’re currently reading the book and struggling, worry not, friend. 90% isn’t crucial information, and the important stuff gets repeated often enough.
Chapter 3
Not only the main story line, the war part in War and Peace also lacks focus which makes for one helluva boring story. The war/ action scenes are written in a very dull and dry way and couldn’t have been less exciting had they been taken out straight from a history book. At least Tolstoy did his research. I’d almost recommend you skip them entirely, but there were a few memorable scenes and I want everyone else to regret their decision of reading this as much as I did.
I know, I know, I’m almost as cruel and cold-hearted as Helene.
Part 3
Why care?
Seriously, why should I care about some rich white nobility living above their means? I couldn’t find one drop of compassion for the plights of the Rostows in me. Them fleeing out of Moscow and having to pack all of the useless shit that they couldn’t afford in the first place and struggling with getting everything on their wagons was kind of funny to me. Ah, schadenfreude is really not wasted on them.
Even the drama wasn’t exciting. What do I care whether Nikolai is able to marry his cousin Sonja or not?
Part 4
None of his characters are likable or charismatic enough for me to feel anything more than apathy, mild annoyance or incredulousness at times.
Nikolai's the worst character in that aspect. He is mean, hyper sensitive and at the smallest gesture that *could* feel like a slight he is immediately insulted (like when Pierre didn’t recognise him immediately).
He's also a terrible judge of character who lost a fortune through gambling because he couldn’t say no to a "friend" who he did knew was a terrible person (as he participated in the duel between Dolochow and Pierre. He also knew that Dolochow had proposed to Sonja, so he knew why he would feel hostile towards him. But no, he went on to gamble away money that he knew neither he nor his family had).
In a bout to reduce his cognitive dissonance about his son and to reconcile the picture of his son as a responsible young man with the person his son is (an idiot), Nikolai's father forgives him for his mistake and declares that this could have happened to everybody. What? No? Are you kidding?
Well, your son did learn how to handle money from you.
Nikolai has a weird boner for the emperor who is literally compared to a lover and who, when on scene, makes the world a better place, the sun brighter, lifts the mood, etc.
At some point Rostow is all like notice me Senpai, uwu with the emperor, but at the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, when the emperor stands all alone on the battlefield after a huge loss, Nikolai is too shy to go to him and comfort him. Later, he is annoyed with himself because of it.
Didn’t I tell you that his boner for the emperor was weird?
Other flaws of his include him being verbally abusive to his wife and not respecting boundaries. When she writes in her diary, he takes it from her and reads it. Of course, as a woman, she doesn’t write about her own thoughts or feelings. Instead, she writes about what happened with her children and what she wants to tell Nikolai about them in order for them to receive the best education possible.
The other characters were less bad but still annoying, especially Pierre and Andrej were very whiny. They did have their redeeming qualities, so I didn’t hate them nearly as much.
What I want to mention about Pierre though: him joining the Freemasons definitely makes my top 10 list of anime plot twists this year (no seriously though, I did not see that one coming).
As for the female characters: apart from my issue with his depiction of them, Tolstoy's completely incapable of writing believable female characters. I didn't buy a single one of them. They all read like Tolstoy doesn’t realise that women are people. It felt like he thinks us to be objects or animals who only mimic how men behave and only act like we have emotions or wishes.
Part 4
His opinions are shit and I don’t care about them.
Chapter 1
War and Peace is pro-monarchist, pro-feudalist propaganda. As previously mentioned, Rostow has a crush on the emperor. But not only Rostow puts the emperor on a pedestal, every character does. He's seen as being with almost no flaw and as someone who shouldn’t be criticised as everyone is just too stupid to understand the intricacies of his thoughts. This seems to be a leitmotif of War and Peace: don’t question the decisions of people higher on the social hierarchy than you, do as you're told. If that isn’t what Tolstoy intended, I’m sorry, but it comes across this way and this belief is never questioned nor challenged.
Chapter 2
In the same vein, Tolstoy seems to underestimate the intelligence of subordinates.
While he seems to be of the opinion that you shouldn’t judge or wonder about decisions made by people higher than you, he also seems to believe that people lower than you (peasants, serfs, etc.) don’t even have the mental capacity to question orders.
One instance of this is when the Rostows flee Moscow with all of their belongings. The servants are alternatingly told to load and unload the wagons and don‘t question any of it or wonder about it. Because ~obviously~ they are too stupid to get it.
This seems to reflect Tolstoy’s general attitude towards servants and their intelligence.
Oh Leo, bless your heart. I’m glad I’m not able to break this to you (by virtue of you having been dead for how long?) Because, honey, the servants do wonder, they do complain. Just because they don’t say anything to your face (because they can’t afford to) that doesn’t mean that they don’t gossip behind your back. I would have loved to listen to what your servants had to say about you.
Chapter 3
Tolstoy is a prick who can shove his condecension up where the sun don’t shine.
In regards to women (also see above):
His female characters act out of stupidity or love against their own wants (Marie) or against common sense/ societal standards (Natasha). They don’t have any moral integrity and don’t act because of the values they hold (Catherine). Or, in the case of Helene, they are just irredeemably evil. Male characters always seem to know better than female characters, are the ones to be right and have to forgive the female characters for their stupidity.
In regards to Napoleon and the war:
Another reviewer called Tolstoy a sore winner, and that hits the nail on the head. I don’t understand how he can’t admit that Napoleon was a brilliant strategist. The Russians still won.
Also, the war and its course didn’t happen because of ~fate~ and because previous actions destined future actions to happen. People, tactics, weather, and yes, luck, played a role and it makes no sense diminishing these or your enemy’s accomplishments. Except, you know, it would, if you have no idea what you’re talking about.
In regards to Germany:
"The Germans have never won against anybody". Heh. Rich coming from a Russian.
(that was the only reason I even mentioned Germany here. I found it funny how the Russian characters always insulted the Prussians while the Germans were the only consistent allies throughout the entire book with the Russians flip-flopping in regards to the French and Austrians).
Epilogue 1
Credit where credit is due: the characters started to grow on me, simply by virtue of accompanying them for so long. I especially appreciated Natasha and Marie’s friendship which was a nice turn of events as they didn’t like each other the first time they met.
Of course, no scene with them manages to pass the Bechdel test.
Epilogue 2 (Because I also can write two epilogues)
Credit also to the narrator, the translator and the editor who wasted too much of their limited time on earth on this book. And to me, for reading it. And to you, for wasting your time on me ranting about it.
Tl;Dr: War and Peace is shit. Don’t read it.
PS: I don’t see how this is supposed to be (one of) the greatest novel ever written or why this is a classic, never mind this being published in the first place. Although I do have a theory: it’s a conspiracy to bring people who don’t usually read (especially not books this long, because War and Peace is thiccc) to read a really long, really boring book.
Part 1
Chapter 1
Tosloy is sexist and his depiction of women questionable. The women in this book are either stupid or driven by love, or both. There is one notable exception but that one's even worse.
E.g. Wassili Kuragin wants to convince Catherine to help him cheat Pierre out of his inheritance. In her condescending attitude she claims that, as an illegitimate son of Besuchow, the testament is void and Pierre won’t inherit anything. Wassili explains that she is wrong as Besuchow wanted to legitimise his son and that Pierre will be the only heir (kind of a dick move seeing how lovingly Catherine looked after her dying father, but ok). She doesn’t listen to him and explains smugly that he's wrong. This goes on for a while (which explains how this is sooo long, ugh) as Wassili doesn’t change his argument or the way he delivers it, he just repeats the same fact over and over, until Catherine, seemingly slow in the head, understands.
(Fun fact: the way that she explains this stuff to him came off like some men mansplain with Tolstoy perfectly nailing the exact air of condescension).
She ('cos
So they both develop a plan to steal the testament and the letter to the emperor. Of course, this plot point goes nowhere, like so many of Tolstoy’s plot points. He's never heard of Chekov’s gun, has he? (MOTL)
There are many instances where female characters act irrationally and don’t listen to their male counterparts for some reason, when the latter obviously would've been the better idea. While the male characters also make wrong decisions, and Tolstoy is ruthless in his judgement for them, too, he doesn’t seem to come off quite as condescending in their regard. The women make wrong decisions because they just don’t get it. The men make wrong decisions because of a lapse of judgment.
Chapter 2
Women are only defined through their relationships with men. Marie's an obvious example. She spends her entire life looking after her old, verbally abusive father and is content with her choice. Of course, she's happy when she finally gets the freedom to marry another verbally abusive guy and to start a family
Spoiler
Nikolai certainly didn’t come across as a loving husbandNatasha's another example. As one of the less insufferable characters in the story, it's quite disappointing how she lost her fire after marriage. She does as she's told and, finds everything that her husband says to be delightful and great. When her husband has a fight with her brother she defends him but of course her defense is "weak and awkward" and she's only tiredly smiled at by the men present in the room.
Chapter 3
The dualism of women present in the story with women being either portrayed as scheming and cold-hearted, or pure of heart, kindred souls seems to reflect Tolstoy’s own views on women. While not surprising for the zeitgeist, it's still off-putting to see this, also known as the Madonna-Whore-Complex, outside of the manosphere.
One of the explanations Freud proposed for the Madonna-whore-complex is cruelty experienced by the hands of a cold or narcissistic mother. Looking at Tolstoy’s inability of writing healthy and loving relationships, this begs the question of:
Leo? You ok?
D'you need a hug, or psychotherapy?
Chapter 4
The one notable exception previously mentioned is Helene. She's beautiful and intelligent, independent and headstrong. The perfect opportunity to have at least one (sorta) positive depiction of a woman in here, right?
Ha, NO!
Helene isn’t intelligent, but only good-guy Pierre seems to think this, as the rest of society's head over heels for her.
Of course, Tolstoy can’t allow for this ambiguity where it's unclear whether to trust Pierre or Helene (who Pierre (figuratively) threw right under the droshka when he believed a stupid rumor of her having an affair, challenging her "lover" and giving the rumor credibility in the process). Not only is she an imposter and gold-digger, she's emotionally cold and cruel as she supports her brother in faking a marriage with Natasha (which Natasha isn't aware of).
Helene later decides that she won’t endure her sad marriage any longer and converts to Catholicism in order for her marriage to be declared void and for her to be able to marry a young, good-looking prince who probably appreciates her more than Pierre.
Of course, this leads nowhere, as she
Spoiler
diesPart 2
Chapter 1
“If the world could write itself, it would write like Tolstoy.“ ― Isaac Babel.
Uh, I'd hope tf not. Not even the world's as negative of a place as Tolstoy would imagine it. Also, he is a terrible writer.
Tolstoy can’t write. I’ll grant ma boi that: it’s not for a lack of trying. He overwrites, has too many useless descriptions while at the same time having the most dull writing eva. I *could* give him the benefit of the doubt and blame it on the translation, but as I’ve both read and listened to both to the English and German translations – nah, it’s not that. The writing sucks. Tolstoy's seemingly never heard of the concept of "show, don’t tell" and I suspect that he didn’t know how to spell "subtlety" because he hits the reader right over the head with his messages and opinions which are, quite frankly, shit.
Chapter 2
Chekov stated in a letter on nov. 1st 1889 that "One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn't going to go off. It's wrong to make promises you don't mean to keep."
Now, War and Peace came out in 1869 so I can’t exactly blame Tolstoy for not having heard of Chekov’s gun earlier, but I can blame him for not adhering to the concept of "don’t include pointless shit into you story, yo". War and Peace has a serious lack of focus with too many characters being introduced, artificially bloating the story. It doesn’t help that at the beginning characters are introduced that are of no importance to the rest of the story, like Catherine or Anna Pavlovna. If you’re currently reading the book and struggling, worry not, friend. 90% isn’t crucial information, and the important stuff gets repeated often enough.
Chapter 3
Not only the main story line, the war part in War and Peace also lacks focus which makes for one helluva boring story. The war/ action scenes are written in a very dull and dry way and couldn’t have been less exciting had they been taken out straight from a history book. At least Tolstoy did his research. I’d almost recommend you skip them entirely, but there were a few memorable scenes and I want everyone else to regret their decision of reading this as much as I did.
I know, I know, I’m almost as cruel and cold-hearted as Helene.
Part 3
Why care?
Seriously, why should I care about some rich white nobility living above their means? I couldn’t find one drop of compassion for the plights of the Rostows in me. Them fleeing out of Moscow and having to pack all of the useless shit that they couldn’t afford in the first place and struggling with getting everything on their wagons was kind of funny to me. Ah, schadenfreude is really not wasted on them.
Even the drama wasn’t exciting. What do I care whether Nikolai is able to marry his cousin Sonja or not?
Part 4
None of his characters are likable or charismatic enough for me to feel anything more than apathy, mild annoyance or incredulousness at times.
Nikolai's the worst character in that aspect. He is mean, hyper sensitive and at the smallest gesture that *could* feel like a slight he is immediately insulted (like when Pierre didn’t recognise him immediately).
He's also a terrible judge of character who lost a fortune through gambling because he couldn’t say no to a "friend" who he did knew was a terrible person (as he participated in the duel between Dolochow and Pierre. He also knew that Dolochow had proposed to Sonja, so he knew why he would feel hostile towards him. But no, he went on to gamble away money that he knew neither he nor his family had).
In a bout to reduce his cognitive dissonance about his son and to reconcile the picture of his son as a responsible young man with the person his son is (an idiot), Nikolai's father forgives him for his mistake and declares that this could have happened to everybody. What? No? Are you kidding?
Well, your son did learn how to handle money from you.
Nikolai has a weird boner for the emperor who is literally compared to a lover and who, when on scene, makes the world a better place, the sun brighter, lifts the mood, etc.
At some point Rostow is all like notice me Senpai, uwu with the emperor, but at the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, when the emperor stands all alone on the battlefield after a huge loss, Nikolai is too shy to go to him and comfort him. Later, he is annoyed with himself because of it.
Didn’t I tell you that his boner for the emperor was weird?
Other flaws of his include him being verbally abusive to his wife and not respecting boundaries. When she writes in her diary, he takes it from her and reads it. Of course, as a woman, she doesn’t write about her own thoughts or feelings. Instead, she writes about what happened with her children and what she wants to tell Nikolai about them in order for them to receive the best education possible.
The other characters were less bad but still annoying, especially Pierre and Andrej were very whiny. They did have their redeeming qualities, so I didn’t hate them nearly as much.
What I want to mention about Pierre though: him joining the Freemasons definitely makes my top 10 list of anime plot twists this year (no seriously though, I did not see that one coming).
As for the female characters: apart from my issue with his depiction of them, Tolstoy's completely incapable of writing believable female characters. I didn't buy a single one of them. They all read like Tolstoy doesn’t realise that women are people. It felt like he thinks us to be objects or animals who only mimic how men behave and only act like we have emotions or wishes.
Part 4
His opinions are shit and I don’t care about them.
Chapter 1
War and Peace is pro-monarchist, pro-feudalist propaganda. As previously mentioned, Rostow has a crush on the emperor. But not only Rostow puts the emperor on a pedestal, every character does. He's seen as being with almost no flaw and as someone who shouldn’t be criticised as everyone is just too stupid to understand the intricacies of his thoughts. This seems to be a leitmotif of War and Peace: don’t question the decisions of people higher on the social hierarchy than you, do as you're told. If that isn’t what Tolstoy intended, I’m sorry, but it comes across this way and this belief is never questioned nor challenged.
Chapter 2
In the same vein, Tolstoy seems to underestimate the intelligence of subordinates.
While he seems to be of the opinion that you shouldn’t judge or wonder about decisions made by people higher than you, he also seems to believe that people lower than you (peasants, serfs, etc.) don’t even have the mental capacity to question orders.
One instance of this is when the Rostows flee Moscow with all of their belongings. The servants are alternatingly told to load and unload the wagons and don‘t question any of it or wonder about it. Because ~obviously~ they are too stupid to get it.
This seems to reflect Tolstoy’s general attitude towards servants and their intelligence.
Oh Leo, bless your heart. I’m glad I’m not able to break this to you (by virtue of you having been dead for how long?) Because, honey, the servants do wonder, they do complain. Just because they don’t say anything to your face (because they can’t afford to) that doesn’t mean that they don’t gossip behind your back. I would have loved to listen to what your servants had to say about you.
Chapter 3
Tolstoy is a prick who can shove his condecension up where the sun don’t shine.
In regards to women (also see above):
His female characters act out of stupidity or love against their own wants (Marie) or against common sense/ societal standards (Natasha). They don’t have any moral integrity and don’t act because of the values they hold (Catherine). Or, in the case of Helene, they are just irredeemably evil. Male characters always seem to know better than female characters, are the ones to be right and have to forgive the female characters for their stupidity.
In regards to Napoleon and the war:
Another reviewer called Tolstoy a sore winner, and that hits the nail on the head. I don’t understand how he can’t admit that Napoleon was a brilliant strategist. The Russians still won.
Also, the war and its course didn’t happen because of ~fate~ and because previous actions destined future actions to happen. People, tactics, weather, and yes, luck, played a role and it makes no sense diminishing these or your enemy’s accomplishments. Except, you know, it would, if you have no idea what you’re talking about.
In regards to Germany:
"The Germans have never won against anybody". Heh. Rich coming from a Russian.
(that was the only reason I even mentioned Germany here. I found it funny how the Russian characters always insulted the Prussians while the Germans were the only consistent allies throughout the entire book with the Russians flip-flopping in regards to the French and Austrians).
Epilogue 1
Credit where credit is due: the characters started to grow on me, simply by virtue of accompanying them for so long. I especially appreciated Natasha and Marie’s friendship which was a nice turn of events as they didn’t like each other the first time they met.
Of course, no scene with them manages to pass the Bechdel test.
Epilogue 2 (Because I also can write two epilogues)
Credit also to the narrator, the translator and the editor who wasted too much of their limited time on earth on this book. And to me, for reading it. And to you, for wasting your time on me ranting about it.
Tl;Dr: War and Peace is shit. Don’t read it.
PS: I don’t see how this is supposed to be (one of) the greatest novel ever written or why this is a classic, never mind this being published in the first place. Although I do have a theory: it’s a conspiracy to bring people who don’t usually read (especially not books this long, because War and Peace is thiccc) to read a really long, really boring book.
May 2022:
Still my favorite. I will say though that I did not enjoy the P&V translation as much as the Garnett translation. I found the P&V translation to be too thorough and it is easy to get lost in all the technical parts of the translation which distracts from the story.
July 2021:
Officially my favorite book of all time. It really contains everything you need to know about life and i feel so comforted by Tolstoy's words.
Sept 2020:
This is the greatest book I've ever read and it's only one book but I am convinced that Tolstoy is the greatest author of all time. I plan both on rereading this in December and collecting various editions.
Still my favorite. I will say though that I did not enjoy the P&V translation as much as the Garnett translation. I found the P&V translation to be too thorough and it is easy to get lost in all the technical parts of the translation which distracts from the story.
July 2021:
Officially my favorite book of all time. It really contains everything you need to know about life and i feel so comforted by Tolstoy's words.
Sept 2020:
This is the greatest book I've ever read and it's only one book but I am convinced that Tolstoy is the greatest author of all time. I plan both on rereading this in December and collecting various editions.