lianamathias's review against another edition
4.0
I wish I would have read this in grad school when I actually had the time to delve deeper into the philosophical aspect of this novel, but I'm a busy, tired mom with no attention span these days so I felt like there were so many parts I didn't read closely enough to truly appreciate. I loved the relationships and characters but the war parts bored me a little. No doubt it's a masterpiece and a bucket list item.
myaoo's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.5
kami5's review against another edition
4.0
currently in the middle of the book - its accessible and incredibly descriptive. I've feel like I've met Napoleon in person.
ivy_owl's review against another edition
2.0
2.3*
I understand why this is a classic. I really do. Tolstoy's writing is peak realism, demonstrating all bits of life.
However.
Why.
Why would you stretch so little events over ~1500 pages. And how? I'm not sure how he managed it but the book stands before me as proof.
I understand why this is a classic. I really do. Tolstoy's writing is peak realism, demonstrating all bits of life.
However.
Why.
Why would you stretch so little events over ~1500 pages. And how? I'm not sure how he managed it but the book stands before me as proof.
darkfirelights's review against another edition
4.0
It's pretty good but pretty sexist. Women can't have personalities after they have kids.
ed_m00re's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
Tolstoy didn’t recognise War and Peace to be his first novel, this title was granted to Anna Karenina, instead describing War and Peace as ‘a history’. In some ways I agree with his categorisation, but only because it was so unbelievably dull, just a dragged out recount of Russia’s involvement in the Napoleonic Wars that I cannot possibly credit it to hold the interest of being a novel. I also realise that for some reason all the 1000+ page books I have undertaken have involved Napoleon in some capacity, which is an odd coincidence. He played a much larger role in War and Peace however, Tolstoy framing him as one of the epics main antagonists. I kept going with this behemoth as firstly I don’t allow myself to DNF books, but also because I kept telling myself that it would pick up. I was continually sure that at some point the book would become more engaging, and at the start I was just entering Tolstoy’s world and in 100 pages would understand it and become immersed. 1344 pages later and that never happened. Whilst some battle scenes were partially engaging, the few segments of war could not carry the rest of the book on their back, and even those weren’t brilliant. The episodes of peace were unbelievably dry and I couldn’t follow what was happening half the time. This could be blamed upon the cast of 600+ characters in the book, none of which being particularly unique or evoking my sympathy. The part I struggled with most was the lack of cliff hangers, surprises or impactful plot points, as being a ‘history’ Tolstoy titled each chapter with a small paragraph of exactly what happens within the chapter. This destroyed the suspense of reading and left nothing to be desired within the pages. I can recognise Tolstoy’s unique ability with words and writing craft, he employing a style where he tells the reader his exact thoughts on each significant event and injecting the history of the Napoleonic wars with his political stances, and can also therefore recognise War and Peace’s significance in the literary canon, though ultimately it was far too long and wasn’t the book for me. At least I can take pride in saying I’ve read it?
sabrinaelf's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
eparsons516's review against another edition
5.0
After 21 consecutive days of reading, I have finally finished War and Peace
Thoughts (no spoilers):
-I did like Anna Karenina better. However, there are very few books that outdo Anna Karenina in my opinion. But Tolstoy’s writing is still beautiful in both.
-Highly recommend this translation; pretty language and not difficult to understand, so I didn’t have to muddle through it
-I mainly just cared about the Andrey, Pierre, Natasha, and Marya parts. Nikolay’s POV just didn’t hold my attention as much. Neither did the drawn out war/ history parts or Tolstoy’s own commentary on it (I know that’s a good part of the book and also one of the things Tolstoy was trying to do to make this more than just a novel, but it didn’t keep me entertained)
-I wish the humor/sarcasm in the first few parts was found more throughout the book
-the last paragraph of Part 8 is EVERYTHING
-all things considered, can’t give anything less than 5 stars; anything that I disliked is overshadowed by all the good parts
-Ever since I heard the name War and Peace and it’s reputation for being the “greatest novel ever written,” despite its length, I’ve wanted to read it. While it’s probably the most daunting book I’ve ever read, it was worth the read. I feel like I can read anything now.
-Time to watch the BBC mini series!
Thoughts (no spoilers):
-I did like Anna Karenina better. However, there are very few books that outdo Anna Karenina in my opinion. But Tolstoy’s writing is still beautiful in both.
-Highly recommend this translation; pretty language and not difficult to understand, so I didn’t have to muddle through it
-I mainly just cared about the Andrey, Pierre, Natasha, and Marya parts. Nikolay’s POV just didn’t hold my attention as much. Neither did the drawn out war/ history parts or Tolstoy’s own commentary on it (I know that’s a good part of the book and also one of the things Tolstoy was trying to do to make this more than just a novel, but it didn’t keep me entertained)
-I wish the humor/sarcasm in the first few parts was found more throughout the book
-the last paragraph of Part 8 is EVERYTHING
-all things considered, can’t give anything less than 5 stars; anything that I disliked is overshadowed by all the good parts
-Ever since I heard the name War and Peace and it’s reputation for being the “greatest novel ever written,” despite its length, I’ve wanted to read it. While it’s probably the most daunting book I’ve ever read, it was worth the read. I feel like I can read anything now.
-Time to watch the BBC mini series!
michelle1113's review against another edition
3.0
It took me 4.5 years to finish War and Peace, and while I'm happy that I got through it, in general I felt that it was tedious and not worth the effort. After I read War & Peace, the two books that popped into my min were Les Miserables and Atlas Shrugged, both of which are VERY different from War & Peace in subject matter and style, but which are similar in length and number of lengthy expositions on topics such as free will. I really enjoyed Les Mis and Atlas Shrugged (even though I'm ambivalent about Rand's philosophy), and it definitely did not take me months or years to finish them. For me, the difference was that Les Mis and even Atlas Shrugged drew me in with the plot and characters. At the end of Les Mis, I cried and cried, and there are parts of Atlas Shrugged that I still reread (although there was a lot of crap in that book too). Some parts of War & Peace were fairly engaging (mostly the non-war parts), but overall I was disappointed. The characters were hard to like or relate to, and most of the time I was annoyed with Natasha and/or Pierre. This might become a book that I reread over and over -- it's too soon for me to tell (I felt the same way about Pride & Prejudice the first time I read it, and now I reread it all the time), but I highly doubt it.
lyndsaydurbs's review against another edition
4.0
Just below a full 4 stars probably
I listened to the Thandiwe Newton Audible Exclusive version and absolutely loved their performance. If I had attempted to read a physical copy of this book I definitely don’t think I would have managed it but the pronunciation, the French, and just the cadence Newton had really sold me on this!
Ultimately I enjoyed the dramatics that happened off the battlefield and I enjoyed following our main cast of characters. I’m not a history kind of person so the battles dragged a bit more but I still followed along and understood vaguely what was happening. I think the most difficult part of this book was the massive cast of characters that probably didn’t need to be given full names. Every side character that gets introduced gets a full name (or just named at all…) and even if we don’t see them or are told anything about them in the future, just the fact that they were named made me think they’d be more of importance.
I now have a physical copy as well so part of me thinks it would be a fun year-long project to read that version and maybe annotate it up a bit (but that’s probably asking for too much)
I listened to the Thandiwe Newton Audible Exclusive version and absolutely loved their performance. If I had attempted to read a physical copy of this book I definitely don’t think I would have managed it but the pronunciation, the French, and just the cadence Newton had really sold me on this!
Ultimately I enjoyed the dramatics that happened off the battlefield and I enjoyed following our main cast of characters. I’m not a history kind of person so the battles dragged a bit more but I still followed along and understood vaguely what was happening. I think the most difficult part of this book was the massive cast of characters that probably didn’t need to be given full names. Every side character that gets introduced gets a full name (or just named at all…) and even if we don’t see them or are told anything about them in the future, just the fact that they were named made me think they’d be more of importance.
I now have a physical copy as well so part of me thinks it would be a fun year-long project to read that version and maybe annotate it up a bit (but that’s probably asking for too much)