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slasselle 's review for:
War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy
Before you start this book, think long and hard about why you want to read it. Do you, as I did, want to read it for the sake of lording your cultural elitism and intellectual superiority over your friends? While that’s a great reason for any undertaking, I would caution you against reading W&P solely for that purpose because this book is a slog like no other.
Come page 700 you’re going to need more than your preconceived conversations around the office coffee maker - where you brilliantly and subtly mention that you just finished War and Peace and everyone is super impressed - to get you through 700 more pages of, admittedly, engaging, beautiful characters, but who are cruelly interrupted with long essays about Tolstoy’s philosophy of history and the fact that Napoleon wasn’t that smart.
Don’t misunderstand. Tolstoy writes like no other. Every sentence is smooth and he writes characters as if he’s lived a thousand lives, but you pay dearly for this literary gold with more and more frequent treatises on the study of history, why the generals made stupid decisions informed by self-interest, and, most importantly, why Napoleon wasn’t THAT smart.
The essays pop up in places where the other plot lines are most interesting and you’re most desperate to find out what happens, and the further the story is developed the longer the essays. This isn’t necessarily a knock on Tolstoy. At the time he wrote the book, his ideas on the causes of war and the movement of peoples were probably quite progressive, and he couldn’t know that a 2019 reader could just watch a much more engaging TED talk on these things instead, but unfortunately for me, these essays ruined my enjoyment of the book.
All I’m saying is that you should consider carefully before you read this, and think about what you want to get out of it. It took me five months. Do you have 2-6 months of your reading life to give? Are you a good skimmer? Do you harbor a burning passion for Russian literature? (No shame in that, many do). Do you want to know more about Napoleon?
If the answer to these questions is yes, then go for it. If not, my advice to you is to read Anna Karinina and call it a day.
Come page 700 you’re going to need more than your preconceived conversations around the office coffee maker - where you brilliantly and subtly mention that you just finished War and Peace and everyone is super impressed - to get you through 700 more pages of, admittedly, engaging, beautiful characters, but who are cruelly interrupted with long essays about Tolstoy’s philosophy of history and the fact that Napoleon wasn’t that smart.
Don’t misunderstand. Tolstoy writes like no other. Every sentence is smooth and he writes characters as if he’s lived a thousand lives, but you pay dearly for this literary gold with more and more frequent treatises on the study of history, why the generals made stupid decisions informed by self-interest, and, most importantly, why Napoleon wasn’t THAT smart.
The essays pop up in places where the other plot lines are most interesting and you’re most desperate to find out what happens, and the further the story is developed the longer the essays. This isn’t necessarily a knock on Tolstoy. At the time he wrote the book, his ideas on the causes of war and the movement of peoples were probably quite progressive, and he couldn’t know that a 2019 reader could just watch a much more engaging TED talk on these things instead, but unfortunately for me, these essays ruined my enjoyment of the book.
All I’m saying is that you should consider carefully before you read this, and think about what you want to get out of it. It took me five months. Do you have 2-6 months of your reading life to give? Are you a good skimmer? Do you harbor a burning passion for Russian literature? (No shame in that, many do). Do you want to know more about Napoleon?
If the answer to these questions is yes, then go for it. If not, my advice to you is to read Anna Karinina and call it a day.