Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Guerra e Pace by Leo Tolstoy

7 reviews

zeasea's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Just incredible. Everyone should read at least once.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, Pregnancy, War, Miscarriage, and Suicidal thoughts

jackmchristensen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Murder, Violence, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

ivana's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Violence, and War

audreybelle's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Undeniably worse than the actual published text. At first it seemed like Tolstoy was writing in a more grounded, character focused voice (for example: wherein actual War and Peace, Tolstoy says something to the effect of "ippolit told a nonsensical story in his terrible Russian with his French accent" in this we are actually given the dialogue of that story and can tell how nonsensical it sounds) but eventually Tolstoy shifts into his normal philosophical bullshit prose. The Andrew Bromfield translation is terrible, and often awkwardly modern, including such poorly chosen phrases as "Anatole is trash" and "Ippolit's stupid face". I suppose it's worth a read if you're obsessed with the same mid-tier villains I am and want the two chapters in which they are slightly more fleshed out. Overall it is still War and Peace (but shorter!)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Violence

Minor: Incest, Domestic abuse, and Miscarriage

dani007k's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, and Pregnancy

Minor: Incest, Terminal illness, and Sexism

vlntnmz's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Pregnancy, Murder, Medical content, Incest, Grief, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Abortion

erryesmith's review against another edition

adventurous challenging sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

But for the epilogue, it would have been 3.5 stars.
The novel and Tolstoy's writing is at its best here when focussing on the cast of characters and the human drama. It was this, against the backdrop of real events, that kept me coming back. The characters were all flawed, to the point of dislikeable at times, but many developed well.
Unfortunately, Tolstoy's repetitive and dry rambling musings on the nature of history, philosophy and God and lengthy description of military manoeuvring, when not done through the lens of a well established character, were a challenge to read and, for me, detracted more than they added.

Can we also talk about Tolstoy's view and interpretation of women? The word problematic may be overused but the only other that comes to mind is "ooft".  Uncomfortable depictions of nearly every woman in the text who are all written as controlling, selfish, greedy, conniving, unfaithful and a host of other attributes less than favourable. The character development of Natasha was completely undone and actively subverted in the deeply unpleasant epilogue.

Who hurt you, Leo?

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Antisemitism, Child death, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, and Violence