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tmaltman 's review for:
War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy
Here’s a few short thoughts on finishing a long, long novel:
Why read it? I feel like I lost my focus during the pandemic. I wrote almost every day, but any deep reading ability declined in a time of distractions. I wanted to get that focus back.
Why else? War and Peace ranks among the greatest novels ever written, yet it defeated me twice when I tried it as an undergrad. At first, I wondered if younger me had it right since the huge cast of characters mostly just attend soirées in the first hundred pages. At first I approached my fifty pages a day (what you need to finish in one month) with all the enthusiasm of a daily regimen of push-ups.
So you regret it? Not at all. Tolstoy’s masterpiece is both amazing and maddening. As I sank into the story, it became fully immersive. Tolstoy has this cinematic eye for detail that can carry you right to the battlefield, and yet his deep understanding of the human heart also brings to life the people within these pages. I actually teared up on page 400 when the little princess died, and it surprised me. You cruel bastard, Tolstoy. You are making me cry?
And there are so many indelible scenes in this book, from wolf hunts to a midnight mummer’s dance that you won’t forget. And Natasha and Pierre and Nicholai and poor doomed Prince Andrei. They will stay with you.
But? Yeah, it’s also kind of maddening. Of the 1455 pages Tolstoy dedicates maybe 200 to letting you know he thinks Napoleon was overrated. Lengthy discussions of military German war theory and debates between generals get tedious. The last forty pages of the novel contain no narrative at all. Nope, instead from pages 1415-1455 Tolstoy treats you to a lengthy debate about whether people caught up in history have any free will at all. Then it just ends. No climax, no finality, though some characters find bliss.
Things Tolstoy doesn’t like? Napoleon. Historians who like Napoleon. War. Peace. The institution of marriage. Mysticism. Serfdom. Germans.
So, it was worth it? For any writer this book has much to teach us. Like even minor characters who only appear in one chapter somehow become fully realized. I laughed. I cried. And isn’t it comforting knowing that one of the great works of all time actually has its share of flaws? This book won’t rank in my top ten—I still prefer Dostoevsky and The Brother’s K—but it’s a great read and my life is richer for having read it.
Why read it? I feel like I lost my focus during the pandemic. I wrote almost every day, but any deep reading ability declined in a time of distractions. I wanted to get that focus back.
Why else? War and Peace ranks among the greatest novels ever written, yet it defeated me twice when I tried it as an undergrad. At first, I wondered if younger me had it right since the huge cast of characters mostly just attend soirées in the first hundred pages. At first I approached my fifty pages a day (what you need to finish in one month) with all the enthusiasm of a daily regimen of push-ups.
So you regret it? Not at all. Tolstoy’s masterpiece is both amazing and maddening. As I sank into the story, it became fully immersive. Tolstoy has this cinematic eye for detail that can carry you right to the battlefield, and yet his deep understanding of the human heart also brings to life the people within these pages. I actually teared up on page 400 when the little princess died, and it surprised me. You cruel bastard, Tolstoy. You are making me cry?
And there are so many indelible scenes in this book, from wolf hunts to a midnight mummer’s dance that you won’t forget. And Natasha and Pierre and Nicholai and poor doomed Prince Andrei. They will stay with you.
But? Yeah, it’s also kind of maddening. Of the 1455 pages Tolstoy dedicates maybe 200 to letting you know he thinks Napoleon was overrated. Lengthy discussions of military German war theory and debates between generals get tedious. The last forty pages of the novel contain no narrative at all. Nope, instead from pages 1415-1455 Tolstoy treats you to a lengthy debate about whether people caught up in history have any free will at all. Then it just ends. No climax, no finality, though some characters find bliss.
Things Tolstoy doesn’t like? Napoleon. Historians who like Napoleon. War. Peace. The institution of marriage. Mysticism. Serfdom. Germans.
So, it was worth it? For any writer this book has much to teach us. Like even minor characters who only appear in one chapter somehow become fully realized. I laughed. I cried. And isn’t it comforting knowing that one of the great works of all time actually has its share of flaws? This book won’t rank in my top ten—I still prefer Dostoevsky and The Brother’s K—but it’s a great read and my life is richer for having read it.