A review by indylinda71
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

5.0

I'm not sure what I can say that a thousand others haven't. Yes, it's dull in places, yes, Tolstoy goes off on tangents about his displeasure with the way historians present the events of the past, yes, the main body of the book ends in a weird place, and the epilogue is kind of tacked-on. And why does it end with a long diatribe on free will? No idea. But in long stretches, this book simply contains the best writing I've ever read. The characters, the story, the setting are all unforgettable. Tolstoy not only creates wonderful fiction, but he has brilliant ideas about life, nature, man, and God, and uses his fiction to frame those ideas. Rare for a male writer of his time period, he takes his female characters seriously and treats them as fully developed human beings. Reading this book is a commitment of time, and yes, you have to power through some uninteresting parts, but it's entirely worth it.