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alaynam 's review for:
War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy
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)