jollyquaker 's review for:

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

5.0

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I started it after the great BBC adaptation, so it's taken me over two years of stopping and starting to get through this one. It's a combination of riveting characterisation and Tolstoy theorising about how history gets written. I can take or leave the latter, but the characters are utterly absorbing and so engagingly real. A particularly moving moment for me was Prince Andrei's death. Really glad I persevered, and the translation is excellent. Make's me want to read biographies of both Tolstoy and Napoleon. My only complaint is that the book ends with twelve chapters of historiography, when I'd rather it ended in a way where I could say goodbye to the Rostovs and the Bezhukovs properly.