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A review by i_love_big_books
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
That was quite an experience!
The size of the novel did not intimidate me as much as what I thought it contained that would be beyond my understanding.
However, it was surprisingly(to me) easy to follow and very interesting.
The sheer scope awed me. The amount of detail given to the characterization, period, culture and most of all the war descriptions is mind boggling.
For a work based on war, there are numerous instances of humour in the astute observations of Russian society made by Tolstoy. Yes, there are a lot of examples of a very patriarchal mindset but given it is set in and written in the nineteenth century, that is a function of the period. It reflects the reality of the time.
While it is a treatise about the Napoleonic wars, it is also a comprehensive study of human nature, be it of the nobility of Russia, the peasants, the soldiers fighting because they were spurred on to do so, the actual commanders and generals of the war or the man (dis)credited with conceiving the war with his singular actions..Napoleon!
Some of the thoughts expressed on the battlefield, the visions his heroes have, especially Prince Andrew and Pierre Bezukhov are so incredibly explained. The footnotes indicate that much of the novel is drawn from the author's own experiences. Even so, to pen a book of this length with so many characters, some of them real historical figures even, and switch between life during the battle and the battle itself is phenomenal.
Words or ratings cannot do justice to what this epic is. I would venture to say only that it seems to me that this is a book that should be read, possibly multiple times, to get the full essence of the ideas encompassed in it.
The size of the novel did not intimidate me as much as what I thought it contained that would be beyond my understanding.
However, it was surprisingly(to me) easy to follow and very interesting.
The sheer scope awed me. The amount of detail given to the characterization, period, culture and most of all the war descriptions is mind boggling.
For a work based on war, there are numerous instances of humour in the astute observations of Russian society made by Tolstoy. Yes, there are a lot of examples of a very patriarchal mindset but given it is set in and written in the nineteenth century, that is a function of the period. It reflects the reality of the time.
While it is a treatise about the Napoleonic wars, it is also a comprehensive study of human nature, be it of the nobility of Russia, the peasants, the soldiers fighting because they were spurred on to do so, the actual commanders and generals of the war or the man (dis)credited with conceiving the war with his singular actions..Napoleon!
Some of the thoughts expressed on the battlefield, the visions his heroes have, especially Prince Andrew and Pierre Bezukhov are so incredibly explained. The footnotes indicate that much of the novel is drawn from the author's own experiences. Even so, to pen a book of this length with so many characters, some of them real historical figures even, and switch between life during the battle and the battle itself is phenomenal.
Words or ratings cannot do justice to what this epic is. I would venture to say only that it seems to me that this is a book that should be read, possibly multiple times, to get the full essence of the ideas encompassed in it.