War and Peace (Wordsworth Classics)

This book has been on my reading list for a long time, but for some reason I have avoided picking it up - Perhaps because of the size (I am against Kindles in principle), or perhaps because of the stigma attached to this mammoth classic, I just assumed it was going to be beyond my mental faculties and I was certain I was never going to be able to finish it. I could not have been more wrong. It took me a month to read, it was never a chore to pick up and now that I have finished it, I miss it. This book is many things - It is a study on how war affects life of men and women, it is a detailed analysis of the was tactics during the Napoleonic war with Russia, it is a family saga, a coming of age tale, a quest for the meaning of life, a romance, an ode to Russia and, above all, a 900-odd page tale of what makes us human. Don't let the huge cast put you off, as the central cast is small enough, and the characters vivid enough to pose no problem in telling them apart. We have large, awkward, well-meaning lost soul Pierre, illegitimate and massively wealthy, and his devastating and unfaithful wife Helene. Then we have Prince Andrew; moody, elegant, intelligent, capable, vulnerable, a perfect masculine hero. His pious sister Princess Mary is one of the strongest female characters; She starts out plain, timid, terrorized by her father, resigned to her destiny as a spinster, but as we get to know her we see she has a heart of gold and incredible strength. Then we have the Rostovs, with the distre Count Ilya at the head of the family slowly driving them to financial ruin, the over-bearing and hysterical Countess and her children - Nicholas, Petya and not least, Natasha - Enchanting, innocent, impetuous, full of life and energy and vivacity. There is Sonya, the poor relation living with the Rostovs whose only comfort is her unwavering love for Nicholas and her satisfaction in sacrificing herself for her benefactors. There are beautiful villains like the dangerous Dholokov and Helene`s selfish, spoiled brothers, Anatole and Hippolyte. Then you have comrades in arms like Denisov, the hairy, loud well meaning friend of Nicholas Rostov and Platon, Pierre`s companion as a prisoner of war. There are cameos by Napoleon himself as well as Tsar Alexander, and a myriad of characters slipping in and out of the tale whose only importance is to create the rich, detailed and heady backdrop of this epic tale. I found myself gasping, laughing, crying and shuddering (make no mistake - the scenes of war and its aftermath are - as they should be - graphic and disturbing), as well as blown away by some of the profundity of Tolstoy's observations of human habits. I think this book should probably be read more than once, as all the intricacies are too many and too tightly packed on the page to be picked up in one read-through. My advice is, invest in a hard-back copy, try to rid yourself of any preconceptions before you pick it up for the first time, and go back to it every now and then. This is the hum-dinger of all classics, and an absolute must for all dedicated readers.

Worth Reading.

I've finally finished the book everyone has heard of but very few have read.Like a great many worthwhile things in life,it rewards effort.958 closely typed pages aren't going to be read quickly but stick in there as this book truly is an epic.It tells the story of several russian families from 1804 until after the 1812 campaign through,as it says on the cover,war and peace.The story alternates between Russia's wars with napolean and the characters who participate in them and the lives of those left behind at home. To be quite honest i sometimes found some of the peace parts a drag but Tolstoys accounts of the wars are outstanding and riveting-the notes say he served in war as a soldier in his own times and this is evident in his writing. There are a vast range of both main and secondary characters in the book,it can be quite difficult to keep up at times,but for a novel with such an epic scope this couldnt be otherwise.All the characters are three dimensional,secondary as well as main. I've often found in reading other 19th century novels that there seems to be a lot of "padding"-why use one word when twenty will do?I do not feel that this is something you could say with this book-its very long but it has a lot of ground to cover. The only fault i could give to the actual book is the constant need to flick back and fore to the notes at the end;They might better have been included as footnotes though of course the edition is maybe trying to remain true to the original page numbering so this may not have been possible.The book itself kept its shape and binding well,theres not even a spine crease despite the 1 and a half months of reading!I paid £1.74 for this,i think the value for money speaks for itself. In closing,I feel that the biggest compliment i could give this is that any novelists reading it must surely despair at what they have to aspire to.Supurb

Why read War and Peace? Having recently read about the Russian Revolution I was looking for some additional reading to take me further in to the Russian experience. Tolstoy is of course a big name in this area, War and Peace being the most well known of all his works. I ordered a copy from Amazon.com and at [...] I couldn`t really complain! I had considered getting it from the local library, but then the thought of probably having to renew over and over again combined with the low purchase price made the decision easy. On opening the packet, the first impression was of how thin the pages were, how many there were and how small the print was! I started by researching a little on the characters to make myself familiar with them to aid my reading experience. The thing which I will take away with me from this book is the immense skill with which Tolstoy describes every character he comes across. In a few lines he gives you such a vivid and enticing portrayal of the person who easily comes alive in your mind`s eye. This novel is primarily concerned with the upper class society of early 19th Century Russia and Tolstoy himself was of the same background. Tolstoy is essentially a romantic and this is precisely where his strengths lie. I found the book for the most part a page turner. However there are times when Tolstoy freezes the action while he indulges himself in some historical commentary. I found these episodes rather dull and thankfully they are fairly few and far between. In my opinion, Tolstoy is a great novelist, but not a historian. For example, he seems to have a great loathing for Napoleon, probably because the latter took Moscow and invaded the posh Russian sensibilities. `Napoleon, that most insignificant tool of history who never anywhere, even in exile, showed human dignity`. As the title would suggest, this book features episodes from both Russian society and the historical battles of the time and spans the period roughly from 1805 - 1812. For me, after the French had occupied Moscow, there seemed to be a lull in Tolstoy`s creative energy. If this was an intentional ploy to convey the severity of events, then this is a stroke of genius, but I cannot imagine this to be the case. There are moments of brilliance however, such as the episode in occupied and burning Moscow or the description of Andrew Bolkonski`s delirium while mortally injured, conveyed with such intensity and imagination. Who said films are better than books? In the notes, Tolstoy addresses one of the criticisms levelled at him at the time; of not portraying the harsh and depraved existence of the lower classes and the peasants in Russia. I was glad to see this as I had the same complaint. But he only goes on to say, `I do not consider these characteristics of the period as they exist in our imagination to be correct and I did not wish to reproduce them`. Personally, I feel he may be ignoring aspects of history which he does not wish to convey - he is the great romantic writer, and I feel his merits reside firmly in the romantic genre. He says himself, `An historian and an artist describing an historic epoch have two quite different tasks before them`. What is apparent is that especially on the field of battle, and of the time, the reports and descriptions of the events are at best very sketchy and at worst fabricated to suit personal position and advantage. It is interesting how Tolstoy plants his greatest character, Pierre Bezukhov, in the field at the Battle of Borodino and the impressions he relays to us through him. This episode is of course to a large degree fabricated within Tolstoy`s mind, he has already said that the official reports from the military are untrustworthy and that the artist cannot rely on such material. This leaves the author with no option but to create much of the record himself with obvious implications. It is also worth taking note of the fact that this book was written in the mid 19th Century and therefore a certain flexibility on the part of the modern reader is desirable. The story ends with the French being evicted from Russia and with the Russian army in hot pursuit, well they were in fact freezing in very cold winter conditions. There is much talk of the fact that the Russian army never managed to regain their pride with any kind of military conquest at this time. I think Tolstoy felt this very much and it certainly comes across as such in his writing. The French came to Moscow and they also decided to retreat without being forced to do so although the Russians often insist that the Battle of Borodino was in fact a victory for them having inflicted a mortal wound on their opponents.

Wow!!! After many false starts, I've actually finished War and Peace!! (It was on my 2014 bucket-list! :-)) As with any Russian novel, the reader has to get past the - to me, at least - confusion between given names and patronymics which had always led me to give up before, but having done so, this is a very rewarding read. Tolstoy himself famously said that War and Peace was "not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less a historical chronicle". That is quite true. Ostensibly, the tale of the Napoleonic invasion of their homeland seen through the eyes of five prominent Russian aristocratic families, the narrative gives way to philosophical discussion in parts, and clearly this isn't a read for the faint-hearted, yet it remains - justifiably - one of the "greats" in the canon of world literature. So to anyone who - like me - might have tried and been discouraged part-way through, I can only say "Do stick with it - it's actually a brilliant book". Finally, this review wouldn't be complete without a word about the Wordsworth Classics series. I have many of these on my book-shelves - they represent PHENOMENAL value for money!! However, the cost-effective binding and thin cover means it is a lot to ask of it to withstand the putting-up and placing-down over a couple of weeks needed to get through almost 1,000 pages of this epic, AND the typeface is very small.....not perhaps the best edition for reading in bed at night!! Mine is now in tatters, so, much as I love the Wordsworth Classics, I shall be ordering a different edition of this particular novel to grace the bookshelves!!

Since you are reading reviews I would guess you are trying to deciede wether or not to purchase this book. If that is the case then you remind me of myself about a year ago. Since we have something in common (and I like you) I want to be honest with you. Yeah I admit it, im man enought to say, I was scared of War and Peace. Even before I knew what it was about or had read any other Russian novels I had heard of it as this book which eclipsed all other books, a book which had forced some of the mighty to collapse under its collosal size and scope. Well I evidently like a challenge because I went and bought it. As with most things the legend has grown beyond the thing in itself. Yes it's long but why is that a problem? How many times have you enjoyed a book only to feel dissapointed seeing the end swiftly rushing towards us knowing that this will not, and cannot last? War and Peace is a great book, a great story with a great philosopy backing it, and is a very enjoyable read. If however you haven't read a book by an old school Russian author it may be advisable to tackle something smaller, say by Dostoyevsky, first just to get you head around the odd way every person has 3-4 names depending on who is speaking to them as it can get very baffling first off. Other than this it is nothing other than a very detailed story about a group of people over an extended length of time and how events change them and how they cannot directly and conciously influence events. History is an inexorable process working its way toward some unknowable destination. It's comprised of billions of individual moving parts (people and their actions) and cannot be understood by any science. It's a organic process of which we are an integral part of. The worst part about this book is reading it in a public place. It seems it's name and infamy extend beyond just you and I, everyone has a awareness of it and / or a preconcieved idea of what the books like. This can lead to some mighty annoying comments and snap judgements about the reader. Well forget them. Tell them ol' Bobby J.R told you, "you just had to get it" Buy it, go on. You wont ever know if it was a mistake untill after, and we have all made worse mistakes than this could ever turn out to be.

Given its vast size, with nearly 1000 pages at such a small font, I'm convinced that nobody actually reads War and Peace. Therefore, I'm forced to conclude that its intended purpose is that of a projectile weapon. Having performed my own experiments against the unwitting people of Southampton I have found that in this capacity it has a 96% combat effectiveness, serving as an incredibly effective distraction to any kind of target. When deployed against targets of lesser intelligence they will be rendered immobile as they attempt to decipher the markings that adorn the cover. Depending on the target, the effects could last anywhere between 2 minutes or, in the case of one individual, 6 days, in which time it is thought that he died of dehydration (although he may simply have forgotten to breath). Against targets of somewhat higher intelligence the device, will cause them to immediately retreat to their place of residence, device in hand, under the misguided notion that they'll 'get around to reading it eventually'. Against targets of yet higher intelligence, the device will cause the target to consider the potential symbolic interpretations of having 'war and peace' thrown at them, during which time it is recommended that you follow up with a similarly themed book, to assure them that the book choice wasn't random and thus leaving them pondering for some significant time longer. In one instance, before the follow up ordnance could be delivered, the target returned fire whilst shouting "I'll take the war but I can't keep the peace". The device is not recommended for use against the most intelligent targets, as, having anticipated the eventuality of being assaulted with classic fiction whilst on their way to buy milk , they are likely to return fire with a hardbound copy of Atlas Shrugged, which can be lethal up to a distance of 200 yards. It is recommended that you only engage such targets if brandishing a complete print of The Oxford English Dictionary. Perhaps unexpectedly, the weapon is most effect against targets that have already read War and Peace. In these cases there are two possible outcomes: a direct hit to the head is likely to lead to a loss of consciousness in the target; any other hit will successfully distract the target, with them exclaiming "Hey look! A free copy of War and Peace; I could throw this at someone..."

A: When Amazon fails to make it instantly clear on the home page for the particular edition of the book you're purchasing that the copy they will be sending you has a completely different cover to that shown. Yes, the cover I received was there (hidden) somewhere in the small print, and yes, I could have returned it (probably still could) but, unusually for me, I couldn't be bothered. Yes, it was that bad! Um, those of you with eyes that aren't up to scratch might also want to know that the print in this edition is about half the size of the print in yeraverage book. Binoculars and/or aspirin most definitely in order.