A review by ed_moore
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

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?