Make your own resolution, don't read another novel or book, read literature.


In a nutshell...   January 30, 2005
 4 out of 26 found this review helpful

1) It's not easy being posh
2) Cause and effect for historical events aren't as simple as historians make out, they occur within a nexus.
3) Women, know your limitations and don't sleep around.

I found it dated and pompous although it was pretty interesting to see the similarities and differences between how war was conducted then compared to now though.


War And Peace (penguin classics edition)   January 4, 2005
 9 out of 12 found this review helpful

War and Peace is one of my favourite novels. Quite frankly I feel that it is a superb piece of literature. War And Peace is not a book for someone who wishes to appear well read or particularly intelligent as it is too long for people like that, and not worth their effort. Also, if your historical knowledge on Napoleon, the Napoleonic Laws, and the Napoleonic Wars are sub-par, then much of the story will leave you far behind. Tolstoy wonderfully juxtaposes family life; loves (first childhood, then mature loves), tragedies, doubts and parental fears, with epic war scenes, and Prince Andrei charging forth with the standard will stay in your mind, and as each cheer of 'hurrah' is read, your mind fills with the burst of 160,000 Russian voices. This book had me hooked, but only after chapter 5, bear in mind W&P starts slowly.



Take what you want   August 3, 2004
 11 out of 13 found this review helpful

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There's a lot being said about War and Peace, the main praise seems to be that it is a great literary achievement, the worst is that it doesn't live up to it's reputation. I have two things to say

The first is that when I read this I was 18, about to sit the Leaving Cert (the Irish A levels) and my literary tastes did not really extend beyond Pratchett, Tolkien and a few random novels like Animal Farm, The Day of the Jackal, Jaws and a few Ian Flemmings. Then I discovered cheap classics like Fitzgerald, George Eliot for 1 and wondered why (what I then percieved as real adults) would pay 10 times as much for a book that was probaly a lot worse (new books, thrashy bestsellers, James Joyce etc). Also, I was the kind of person who just read a book and didn't care about reviews, reputations etc (If you told me I would be writing verbose reviews like this on the internet I wouldn't believe you)

Anyway, after a long day at school, I loved to come home and read a bit of War and Peace it was my Monday to Thursday entertainment, and I looked forward to reading it during the long school days. So if I read it now I might be a little dissapointed, but then it was both brilliant and very entertaining. I finally then understood what people meant when they said something was a page turner. I could easily sit still and read this, something I haven't really been able to do since.

I've read many pretentious books, some that deserve to be called dissapointing, not worth the effort etc, but I don't think War and Peace is pretentious or any of those corrollary insults.

Secondly, my taste in literature aside, here are the facts about War and Peace as I see them:

1) It is very long
2) It is very old
3) It is part novel, part essay
4) It probably appeals to me more than the next guy because I love Russian culture and history, so a novel with both was a dual blessing.
5) It might not be the best novel ever written, but since it is so hard to aggree on what makes the greatest novel, I think this is a happy medium.
6) Anyone who wants to sound well read or pretentious can read this instead of Ulysses. Both have similar high-brow reputations, but War and Peace is easier to understand

7 and most important) It only costs a few euro/pounds. It's better value than a bestseller like the Da Vinci Code, most people will think it better (more intelligent, entertaining, easy to read, interesting - however you rate a good book), some will think it's just as good and be glad they saved themselves the price of a pint and then the people who think it is a worse book than (insert generic bestseller name here) can at least tell their friends they've read Tolstoy's Masterpiece.


Ignore the moaners   July 12, 2004
 12 out of 12 found this review helpful

Prompted to write this because of those strange remarks questioning the novel's quality. Don't be misled. This really is one of the greatest novels ever written. Not only does Tolstoy have a commanding grasp of his recent history, and of Napoleon's strategy, but he makes war believable from the highest to the lowest levels. But one of the main reasons it is so celebrated is in the way the characters develop. We see them grow and change, partly in response to events and experience, partly as part of simply growing up. The transformation of Andre through the book is so credibly depicted you have to keep reminding yourself this is fiction. Many things happen to him, and each twist and turn is totally convincing, and where he ends up after all this makes perfect sense. And the momentous historical events that go on are not a "backdrop", but completely interweaved in the narrative. Tolstoy was capable of pouring everything that he, a wise, observant and insightful man had seen in his life, into a book that (another "greatness" quality) had a huge historical sweep, a cast of understandable, very human characters, and profound understanding of war. Don't save it up for later.