Leo Tolstoy: War and Peace

[Crystal]

This book deserve more than that.

From wikipedia: (in case other members like to have a look.)

War and Peace (Война и мир [Voyna i mir]) is an epic novel of Russian history and society by Leo Tolstoy, first published from 1865 to 1869, which tells the story of Russia during the Napoleonic Era. The Russian words for 'peace' and 'world' are homonyms, so the novel's title can also be translated as 'War and the World'.

War and Peace offered a new kind of fiction, with a great many characters caught up in a plot that covered nothing less than the grand subjects indicated by the title, combined with the equally large topics of youth and age. While today it is considered a novel, it broke so many novelistic conventions of its day that many critics did not consider it as such. Tolstoy himself considered Anna Karenina (1878) to be his first attempt at a novel in the European sense.

Link

I just thought that i haven't yet digested it. *hmm, what have I known about*

 

[hay82]

Finished it yesterday and really loved it except for the parts where Tolstoy expresses his views.
I really felt for the characters and just like true said in a previous post, I got really upset about Natasha falling for that Anatole guy, didn't help that Andrew was my favorite character.
Really thought for most of the book that Pierre and Mary would end up together seemed like they would have made a nice couple.
I really saw the story, as someone said before, to be about the war and peace inside man and the development inside.
Some questions to people...

Two questions to those who have read it.

There has been some talk about men's ability to describe women, I think that Tolstoy does this quite well but what do you think?

What do you think about Tolstoy's notion that one man can not really influence events?

 

[Talbyreader]

I ploughed my way through War and Peace last year. I'm glad I read it and I'll probably read it again one day. It's one of those books where you don't take it all in on the first read. I found it very long-winded, got the hundreds of characters mixed up, but I did enjoy it. I found it fascinating from a historical point of view, especially when people used to go and 'view' battles as if it was the theatre!

 

[Billy]

I read it several years ago, so I can't remember all the individual characters. But it took me about six months to read because I found that there was a lot in there, especially the historical essays in between the chapters, that I just had to sit and think about for a while before i continued. Some of the book really disturbed me, especially the bit where it was discussing the hospitals. But overall I thought it a great book and I'm glad I read it.

 

[txgirl2]

I picked up War and Peace a few years ago and never got through the first hundred pages, I don't think. Too much war talk...battallion this, battallion that. It bored me senseless. Someone here actually read it TWICE?!