A review by ellaep
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

4.25

If I could explain this book in one word it would be: difficult. The process of reading it was long and arduous and it followed cultural and political situations that I had no prior knowledge of. But somehow, it was all worth it. This book is well-written, well executed, dramatic, informative, exciting, and distressing. The characters were also such an interesting feature of the story because even though there were so many, they were all given time and space to develop and change. I could hate a character in V1 that became a favourite in V3, you just truly never know where the story would take them. My only qualm with the characters is that I felt so distant from them, like I couldn’t really understand their choices and behaviours. They just didn’t feel very real to me and that may be due to my more modern perspective making me feel disconnected, because I do get similar feelings reading other classics (like: why don't you just talk out your marriage issues with your wife instead of complaining about "women" to your friends? why are you parenting your kids that way? why did you invite that guy to come over if you're gonna act all annoying because you think he's below you?). 

But all in all, this book was incredibly interesting and I am so excited to read another (hopefully shorter) Tolstoy in the future <3