A layman's review of the greatest novel

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	• War and Peace (Modern Library Classics) Leo Tolstoy Modern Library, 2002 - 1424 pages average customer review:based on 38 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Very long and very good

I approached this book with some trepidation. After all, this is the novel of novels, revered by Hemingway, Woolf, Mann, and other literary giants. This novel probably has been started and not finished by more people than any other novel, including Ulysses. And it's so damned big. But it has been on my must-read list for some time and I happened to pick up a wonderful Modern Library version (Constance Garnett translation) at a reasonable price, so I dived in about three months ago.
I am pleased to report that this is not a difficult book to read at all (except for the last forty pages, which are Tolstoy's take on history and free will and are dreadfully boring.) If anything, it is much like a great sprawling Russian soap opera, except that there is not one clichéd character. The worst villains have their redeeming qualities. The most admirable characters have their quirks, flaws and foibles. One common quality of the characters throughout the book is that almost everyone is unhappy, for diverse reasons. My favourite character was Pierre. The length of the book allows the reader to really get to know the major characters. You see them grow up, mature, and change -sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. It might take some readers about 100 pages or so to get used to the Russian names. Having read Dostoyevsky in my youth, I didn't have any trouble at all.
My favourite parts were the war parts. Tolstoy writes like a man who has gone through all that he writes about. Take this description of Nikolay Rostov experiencing his first action at Austerlitz:

'He stood and looked about him, when suddenly there was a rattle on the bridge, like a lot of nuts being scattered, and one of the hussars, the one standing nearest him, fell with a groan on the railing. Rostov ran up to him with the others. Again someone shouted. "Stretchers!' Four men took hold of the hussar and began lifting him up. "Oooo...Let me be, for Christ's sake!" shrieked the wounded man, but they lifted him up and laid him on a stretcher. Nikolay Rostov turned away, and began staring into the distance, at the waters of the Danube, at the sky, at the sun, as though he were searching for something. How fair the sky seemed, how blue and calm and deep. How brilliant and triumphant seemed the setting sun. With what an enticing glimmer shone the water of the far away Danube. And fairer still were the far-away mountains that showed blue beyond the Danube, the nunnery, the mysterious gorges, the pine forests, filled with mist to the tree-tops...there all was peace and happiness.... "There is nothing, nothing I could wish for, if only I were there," thought Rostov. "In myself alone and in that sunshine there is so much happiness, while here...groans, agonies, and this uncertainty, this hurry....Here they are shouting something again and again, all of them are running back somewhere, and I'm running with them, and here is it, it, death hanging over me....One instant and I shall never see that sunshine, that water, that mountain gorge again...." At that moment the sun went behind the clouds; more stretchers came into view ahead of Rostov. And the terror of death and of the stretchers, and the loss of the sunshine and life, all blended into one sensation of sickening fear.
"Good God, Thou who art in the sky, save and forgive, and protect me," Rostov whispered to himself.'

Tolstoy has very strong views on history as a phenomenon. He is quite cynical about pedantic, cut and dry views and accounts, especially if written by winners and those with vested interests. Certain historians, some of them French, have insinuated that Napoleon lost the battle of Borodino because he had a head cold at the time. By presenting the facts of the battle, Tolstoy illustrates the absurdity of reducing a hyper-complex interaction such as a battle involving hundreds of thousands of troops to a single dubious factor. Others dispute whether Napoleon even lost this battle. He lost 25,000 men, while the Russians lost 50,000. He advanced into Moscow after the Russians retreated. Again Tolstoy demonstrates quite convincingly that this was the battle that fatally wounded the French tiger. The French army just took another month or so to die. Tolstoy is also very sceptical of the real power and effectiveness of so-called geniuses like Napoleon. He sees such personages as riding a wave composed of multitudes of factors. Many historians want to tidy everything up and attribute outcomes to the force of a few individuals instead of admitting that they really don't know why events turned out the way they did.
In the end, although his actions seem to be presented in a fair way, Napoleon is held in contempt by Tolstoy. A truly great man, says Tolstoy, does not posture, does not self-aggrandize, or casually waste lives as Napoleon did. A great man is not convinced that everything he does must be right, because he, the great man, did it. A great man (like Kutuzov, the Russian general) does his duty to his country without interest in popularity or his position in history. He will do whatever is necessary to save his country and his men, even if it means attracting criticism from both superiors and inferiors. The price paid is that almost always such men are not recognized for their actions by those who write the histories.
Reading this book gives one a feeling for the Russian people. What a crime that this savvy, creative, energetic people were diminished and homogenized under bleak, savage, humourless Communism for so long. Not that Tolstoy presents Russian life in the early nineteenth century as being ideal. Far from it. One can see the ground from which Communism sprouted and was embraced as a reasonable alternative. But think of the music, the books, the ideas, and the art that has been lost forever, because it was excoriated by the Communists.
Sure this is a long book, but it had to be long to cover all that it does. There is no word padding here.
Feminists might not like this book very much. There are some strong female characters, but the two most prominent of these abandon their talents to devote themselves to marital bliss. Quite disappointing. The author is quite clear in indicating they have done the right thing. I found his depiction of a happy household at the end of the book to be frustrating and depressing. The male quite literally rules in a family and a female can only effect change through oblique manoeuvring. Tolstoy feels it is fine for a woman to forgo her career, appearance and place in society once she has snared her man. The important thing is that she remain devoted to her husband, supply him with a lot of children, and care for the running of the household. Yuck! To think that Madame Bovary had been written just a few years before.
And yes, there are a Boris and a Natasha in the book, but be forewarned -they bear little resemblance to the characters in Rocky and Bullwinkle.

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A layman's review of the greatest novel

I am not a literary critic of any sort, nor do I discriminate between the great classics and the paperback thrillers sitting in the airport kiosk. I will say that War and Peace, however, stands in a place by itself.

Tolstoy's magnum opus is an epic blending philosophical dissertations and a work of historic fiction, which chronicles a few of Russia's elite families during the Napoleonic Wars. In particular, Tolstoy focuses on the role of the individual in the historical process. The story itself flows well. The younger characters' struggles with love, war and life draw you into Tolstoy's narrative.

This really is a must read. My only criticisms are slight - I found the few battle scenes to be a little thin and the philosophical comments at times seem to drag on when I desire to return to the story. These criticisms do not even cast a shadow on this work whose characters will leave a lasting mark on the reader.

I find most reviewers to be quite liberal on their 4 and 5 star ratings, but this novel is worthy of its reviews. Don't be deterred by the length or when you make it 100 pages in and you can't keep the characters straight. This should be a must-read on everyone's list.

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Magnificent Achievement

"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the
Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don't tell me that this means war,
if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by
that Antichrist--I really believe he is Antichrist--I will have
nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer
my 'faithful slave,' as you call yourself! But how do you do? I see
I have frightened you--sit down and tell me all the news."

- Anna Pavlovna in War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

It was 1805 and the novel opens up at a reception given by Anna. With these words she greeted Prince Vasili Kuragin who we learn in the novel is a personage of stature and importance among the St. Petersburg elite.

Anna is referring to Napoleon as the antichrist, she feels that he is routing Europe; and that the king of Russia, Alexander I, must save them all against this terrible and dreadful man.

And so begins one of the most famous masterpieces of all time.

WAR AND PEACE has a simple plot which encompasses the valiant attempts by the Russian people to hold off a military invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte and the French. Some of the segments of the novel deal with war strategy which could have benefited leaders if they simply perhaps had read Tolstoy.

As the story begins we find that the Russians have formed an unlikely alliance with the Austrians. Because of this alliance, we find the small and inadequate Russian army having to march from Moscow to Austria. That in of itself is daunting.

This alliance falters at best and as a consequence the Russian army loses almost all of its army resulting oddly enough in several years of peace. The Russian aristocracy does not have to make any sacrifices at first and their lives continue just as before. Thus the meaning of the title, WAR AND PEACE.

However, after 1810, another five years later, we find Napoleon becoming more successful in Europe and worries arise that he will plan next to invade the Russian homeland. In June of 1812, he does precisely that which the Russian people and the army feared most: he crossed the frontiers into Russia and the real war began.

As Tolstoy described, "an event took place that was contrary to all human reason and human nature."

We meet the Bolkonski's (the elder Prince, the younger Prince Andrei, his sister Princess Marya, Andrei's pregnant wife Lize), the Rostov's (the Count and Countess, Vera, Nicholai, Natasha, Sonya and Petya), the Bezukhov's (the dying Count, his illegitimate son Pierre and various relations to the dying man), the Kuragin's (Prince Vasili and his wife, the beautiful Helene, Anatole, and Hippolyte), Denisov, Dolohov, Boris, Kutuzov (the general) and about 600 characters in the book. The primary ones are the ones that I have named.

Prince Andrei and Count Pierre Bezukhov (very important Tolstoy characters) are opposites in every way; yet are friends and their friendship, separate lives and families play a critical role in Tolstoy's novel. The Bolkonski's and the Rostov's lives weave and bind together as one goes further into the novel and these threads of their lives become a strong and durable fabric which will support these families as they progress through their respective years together. Though each of us, as do these characters, exercises free will; the decisions that we make (even years before certain life's events) depict the relationships that all of our decisions have upon each other and the impact they have on our future happiness or prosperity. Tolstoy even takes a detour at the end of the novel and digresses "much more than he should" about this and that...and how power is bestowed and basically how we reap what we sow (a familiar Tolstoy theme not always related to agriculture).

The novel is quite long, and that is the reason I found that I picked up this book in the past and then put it down (not completely grasping the naming structures and not having time I felt to give it my full attention). However, after having finally taken the time to read this great manuscript, it really is a simple story about life, love (true or not), loyalty, friendship, responsibility (real accountability or feigned) and leadership. It is also once again a story of families and their love for each other and how they are able to show their love for one another or how the love is still present; but remains emotionally hidden or ineffectual. And it is a story of how one must understand the true meaning of life and must be content in one's own skin; before love can truly blossom and be realized.

Truthfully, the plot does revolve around the aspects of war and peace as it relates to Napoleon invading Russia; but it also shows a country growing and changing as the characters do in the novel. Each one of the families goes through its own reflective period of war and peace in their own lives as well. The story line is superb...if you like historical fiction; and the characterizations and their development are unparalleled.

Some Helpful Suggestions:

1. Take the time to read and/or listen to an unabridged version of this masterpiece (like the one done by Neville Jason). Just start out slowly and read a few chapters every day if you are limited in time. It is one of those novels that can be reread and not only do you enjoy the story line each time; you also come away from it learning a lot about life itself and you can profit from this reflection while embarking on your own personal path. Some of the events may ring true with your own life or with your own family. Even though the country and/or time period may be different; life, heart felt emotion remain quite the same.
2. Secure a translation that you like and/or a reader you can stay with. Go to your local bookstore and/or sample a chapter on line to see if you like the language used; do you like a more traditional translation much like Tolstoy's own language or would you prefer more modern jargon and interpretations. I prefer the traditional; but that is not always what works for everyone. If you want to listen to the book, make sure to listen to samples of the reader's voice to make sure that their voice is palatable to your tastes. Everyone's taste in sound is different.
3. Join a book club or an on line discussion group to keep you going and/or read or listen to the book with a friend or family member. These discussions will add to the enjoyment of reading this masterpiece. It really is meant (I feel) to be shared.
4. Get used to the Russian naming conventions and their use of nicknames. Write them down as you come across them and then you will know which characters to associate with which nicknames the next time. Nicknames are common with us today as well. If a girl's name is Jennifer, some may call her Jennifer, Jen, Jenny or if her middle name is Patricia (JP for short) and different members of the family could call her different pet names. This Russian novel is no different than real life.
5. I gave the following assistance when I reviewed Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and the characters and names in War and Peace follow the same rules regarding patronymics and names with three parts. Here is a reprint of the suggestion: "Sometimes the names of the characters themselves can be confusing: so a hint to the reader might be to think of each Russian character's name as having THREE PARTS: the FIRST part is the first name (examples here are for Levin and Kitty) like Konstantin or Ekaterina, the SECOND part is a patronymic which is the father's first name accompanied by a suffix which means son of or daughter of like Dmitrich (son of Dmitri) or Alexandrovna (daughter of Alexander) and then the THIRD part which is the surname like Levin or Shcherbatskaya. Thus the explanations of the three part names for Ekaterina Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya (nicknamed Kitty) and for Konstantin Dmitrich Levin (Levin).

War and Peace is not a novel to be missed; very much like Anna Karenina (both by Leo Tolstoy). With both, but especially with War and Peace, you must envision that you will finish the book and keep at it. It really is not hard; you will get to know the characters in the book as if they were family members or best friends with all of their strengths and their frailties - the spectrum that makes these characters real in their humanness.

Note: I like the Constance Garnett translation (it was my preference); of course, it is a matter of personal taste and comfort and that is why I suggested one read a chapter to see if they are accepting of the language and of the translator. A very important choice and decision. FYI: Ms. Garnett passed away in 1946 and had traveled to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yasnaya Polyana during her lifetime and actually met Leo Tolstoy. She remains very close to the syntax and the vocabulary of the original. Her translations of all of the Russian authors at the time were highly acclaimed. You may prefer the traditional or there is a newer translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky which may resolve issues for those who want a more purist translation done by a Russian linquist.

Rating: 5 stars - A+ (Very highly recommended)

Bentley/October 2007

War and Peace (Modern Library Classics)

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I felt compelled to review this...

This book DOES have a multitude of characters. It DOES cover so many different subjects and themes. However, all these forces within it contribute to this amazing piece of literature. I think that precisely because of the scope of this book, everyone can find in it something that speaks to them, recognizing their values, beliefs, relationships, fears, desires, and hopes.

I loved the prose of the story. Tolstoy has the most beautiful way with words and an unbelievable insight into the soul of man.

"as a youth in love trembles and turns faint and dares not utter what he has spent nights in dreaming of, and looks about in terror, seeking aid or a chance of delay or flight, when the moment he has longed for comes and he stands alone at her side,..."

I do, however, have a warning, I don't think this book is for everyone. Some people may need patience to become accustomed to names and read through the philosophical inqueries. (I think I had it easier because I grew up in Russia) Read it only if you feel you want to and not just because people say you should.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Often called the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is at once an epic of the Napoleonic Wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of the Russian spirit. Tolstoy?s genius is seen clearly in the multitude of characters in this massive chronicle?all of them fully realized and equally memorable. Out of this complex narrative emerges a profound examination of the individual?s place in the historical process, one that makes it clear why Thomas Mann praised Tolstoy for his Homeric powers and placed War and Peace in the same category as the Iliad: ?To read him . . . is to find one?s way home . . . to everything within us that is fundamental and sane.?

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