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A review by maneatingbadger
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
"I read a Russian novel once," Anderson cut in bleakly. "People with unpronounceable names did nothing for seven hundred and eighty-three pages, after which somebody's aunt died."
- Crusade by David Weber and Steve White
I cannot say this was worth reading. War and Peace alternates between aristocrats' social lives and scenes from the Napoleonic Wars. The former passages are so tedious I gave up a hundred pages into my first attempt and waited more than a year to start over. The latter are relatively more intriguing but not enough so to carry a book, let alone almost a thousand pages, and Tolstoy's philosophical musings on history might've made for an okay, entirely separate short essay (as indeed the Second Epilogue proved to be) but otherwise clog everything up. Occasional moments of brilliance shine through, as when Tolstoy assesses human behavior under duress or the shortfalls of eyewitness accounts amid battlefield chaos. One day I'll figure out how to upload Kindle highlights from Project Gutenberg to Goodreads.
So why did I read this? Well, my partner saw Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 on Broadway (which adapts only a 70-page section of War and Peace, though I do appreciate that the first song bemoans how difficult it is to remember all the characters' names) a few years ago and was so smitten by the storytelling she asked for the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation for Christmas, which she seems to still be enjoying. Shortly after, I came across the Maude translation at a used bookstore and decided to read it alongside her. 'Twas a simpler (pre-COVID) time... Then we named our cat after a Tolstoy portrayal in a YouTube comedy series. The rest, as Tolstoy would explain at length, is the interplay between free will and inevitability defining the intangible and infinitesimally reducible force of power that drives history.
I cannot say this was worth reading. War and Peace alternates between aristocrats' social lives and scenes from the Napoleonic Wars. The former passages are so tedious I gave up a hundred pages into my first attempt and waited more than a year to start over. The latter are relatively more intriguing but not enough so to carry a book, let alone almost a thousand pages, and Tolstoy's philosophical musings on history might've made for an okay, entirely separate short essay (as indeed the Second Epilogue proved to be) but otherwise clog everything up. Occasional moments of brilliance shine through, as when Tolstoy assesses human behavior under duress or the shortfalls of eyewitness accounts amid battlefield chaos. One day I'll figure out how to upload Kindle highlights from Project Gutenberg to Goodreads.
So why did I read this? Well, my partner saw Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 on Broadway (which adapts only a 70-page section of War and Peace, though I do appreciate that the first song bemoans how difficult it is to remember all the characters' names) a few years ago and was so smitten by the storytelling she asked for the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation for Christmas, which she seems to still be enjoying. Shortly after, I came across the Maude translation at a used bookstore and decided to read it alongside her. 'Twas a simpler (pre-COVID) time... Then we named our cat after a Tolstoy portrayal in a YouTube comedy series. The rest, as Tolstoy would explain at length, is the interplay between free will and inevitability defining the intangible and infinitesimally reducible force of power that drives history.
Content Warnings
Moderate: War
Minor: Misogyny