First up, Peace. Now the peace sections are the main reason why i love this book so much and why i have given it such a high mark because the peace sections basically focus on the most important and engaging part of any story, the people.
This book (in particular the peace sections) has led me to be convinced that if Tolstoy is not the greatest writer of all time then he is at least one of the most observant men ever to grace our planet, being observant almost to the degree of an autistic savant. In this respect (being observant of personality types, the inner workings of their minds and how they behave in a social setting) Tolstoy reminds me very much of Jane Austen, except better, in that Tolstoy pays more attention to the inner thoughts of his characters than she and his narrative observations are more empathetic towards his characters compared to Austens more critical, ironic form of character observation.
In my opinion where Austen fails Tolstoy flourishes. Where her observations often seemed too subtle, even to the point of feeling irrelevant whilst making you critical of that character, Tolstoys observations are all vivid and allow you to see that character as a human being that you can relate to. Every relevant gesture that the characters make and every slight change that occurs in their countenance is delivered so clearly and strongly that you seem to understand every single nuance of what that character is going through and how it relates to their behaviour as if you had always noticed these things yourself in the way people around you act (even though you probably haven't). He pays an incredible amount of attention to the thoughts and feelings of his characters too, how they respond to the indiscretions of others or the way their life seems completely out of their control when they fall in love or the way they deal with loss and failure. As a result all of the many social events in this book are brought to life and never fail to make you empathise with the characters and really feel like you understand what they are going through.
Back to the point about his observance of characters thoughts and feelings, it really is nothing short of astonishing the way he understands and can express every single emotion that humankind is capable of feeling. Not only can he do this, but he does it in a way that he unearths certain unique characteristics in these feelings that you have probably never been aware of before. This is humanity, but not as we know it.
Whilst reading this book it feels like you understand every emotion that exists with startling clarity. Maybe the characters are in love and we see how they are powerless to control their feelings. Some are restless and feel incomplete and long for their lover whilst others handle it better, are able to move on with their lives and accomplish things. And maybe something happens between these two. There is confusion in one of the characters as she is seduced by a devious young man who awakens in her feelings she is completely unfamiliar with and due to her indiscretions the couple are separated. But what would happen if one of these two were to become mortally wounded? Perhaps their past troubles would be put behind them and their love for one another rekindled. And then, if he were to die, how does being so close to death change ones out look on life and how would the one who is still alive cope with her grief? Perhaps the anxiety and stress that she goes through whilst mourning change her forever, sap her youthful exhuberance from her and change the way she looks on the outside... In this manner we suddenly feel we are able to percieve and understand all the emotional shifts that occur in people and understand the consequences they have and how this changes their personality and their whole life. As a result this book has had a huge influence on the way i percieve the people around me aswell as my own thought processes and has already radically changed and informed my own ideas about death aswell as many other things. Like i said, the degree of observation that is apparent in this book really is astonishing.

Now, War.
Although the war sections are very well written and clearly written by some-one who is highly informed about the historical circumstances, they do tend to be mostly just the part where Tolstoy explains the political and historical events of the war to us and describes the typical activities of the soldiers and generals during this time. The problem with this is that much of it does not include the characters that we have already developed a strong relationship with. This is a problem because it means that although the war sections of the book are very interesting, they are nowhere near as engaging as the peace sections.
There are however plenty of scenes where our main characters are included in these war sections and these parts as a result are much more readable. One aspect of these scenes (that is more apparent in the war sections than in the peace sections) that Tolstoy should be applauded for is his unsentimental way of dealing with death and the peril of war.
Generally when directors and writers compose a war scene or a death scene you always feel that they are doing it in a way that is purposefully trying to tug your strings, to make you feel a certain way about what they are presenting you with. This can be a rather dangerous thing to do and if the audience is aware of this manipulation, can be a rather annoying thing to do. Tolstoy, commendably, does not do this. He does show you the reactions of the people who witness these things but he certainly does not try to make you feel one way or another about it. This, of course, is not to say that these scenes are empty or that they have no emotional content, for many of these unsentimentally written scenes are incredibly moving, for when a character that has been so expertly built up into a real person that we have grown to like is severed from us, we cannot help but feel a twang of pain or at least shock because of this. Tolstoy expects you to react emotionally, he just doesnt force you to. He simply presents you with the events and moves on.

The remaining sections of this book that i have already mentioned, the expostion on theories of historical movement, are the reason why I cannot say this book is flawless. I need to stress really that this is not a critical judgement I am making, this is a purely personal decision because of my own problems with reading and understanding basically anything that is not driven by characters.
These sections are Tolstoys chance to express his own ideas and gripes over the way that history is commented on and explained too much in terms of viewing the course of events as being solely shaped by people at the top who give all the orders, eg. Napoleon. He is clearly a person who is obsessed by this topic and you can tell from the various theories, analogies and even mathematical equations that he uses to get his point across that he has spent many long nights rheuminating over these ideas and so, really does know what he's talking about.
Don't get me wrong, the ideas in these sections are always fascinating and seem to make a lot of sense but if you're like me and have little patience with non-fiction in general then these sections can really be a bit of a drag.

After the main section of the story is finished there are two epilogues. The first one takes place some 8 years after the end of the story and basically just shows us how the main characters are getting on. There is a fair bit of general description about the way the characters spend their time and how their lives have turned out aswell as the inclusion of a typical scene that occurs when they all meet. This epilogue is great. It really is the summation of all the best stuff about this book aswell as giving us a real sense of closure, a kind of happily ever after ending. I'm so glad that Tolstoy included this epilogue in the book because really, i find almost every story, be it a film or a novel, to be unsatisfying and in some sense incomplete without a conclusion like this.
The second epilogue however, is not so great. This is the place where Tolstoy crams in any of the remaining ideas he has about historical development that he hasnt been able to stick in the book so far. Like I said, there is nothing wrong with this epilogue per se, just that i have little patience with this sort of writing and so as a result, after one of the most satisfying endings i have ever read, the novel ended on something of a down-note for me.

Conclusion.

There is not a single chapter of this book that is not perfect. Whatever Tolstoy is writing about, be it political events, historical philosophy or his characters he does it with masterful ability and startling originality.
The peace sections of this book are completely spellbinding, book 8 in particular i found extremely hard to put down and often ended up reading until 4 or 5 in the morning. This book has greatly influenced the way i now look at life and as such i would love to give it full marks in terms of enjoyability but cannot because of my own impatience with the philosophical sections of the book. Had it not been for the 2nd epilogue in particular i would have had no reservations about calling this book perfect in every way but as it stands, i can not. If you have the sort of mind that can cope with rather dense philosophy or if you dont and decide to just skip the 2nd epilogue then you should really find this book to be completely without fault. Either way, this book is essential reading.


What is War and Peace?   August 10, 2005
 30 out of 31 found this review helpful

Tolstoy offered his own answer to this question, in "Some Words About War And Peace," but his answer is not very illuminating. Let me try to answer the question in the simplest way possible:

It is first and foremost the story of a handful of characters: the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, Pierre. It is not a book about war or peace in the grand, overarching sense, but about people and how they cope with such times. Tolstoy's view was that there is no point in writing only about the general course of the war - it's the people that matter.

But, unlike most other novelists, Tolstoy takes you into the lives of his characters by presenting their stories within a historical context presented with an extraordinary level of detail. From this, the popular misconception arises that War and Peace is the story of the Napoleonic Wars, as thought it were some kind of 19th Century Tom Clancy novel. It is not.

As the book goes on and the ongoing war becomes more intense, a great deal of space is devoted to descriptions of the progress of the war and analysis of its causes and effects. It can seem as though Tolstoy has forgetten his characters and readers naturally become confused and wonder what the book is all about.

But when that happens to you, persevere. It *is* worth it. At the end of the First Epilogue everything falls into place and the immense value of all that historical detail will become obvious through the way you empathise with the characters.


A deep and profound classic   August 1, 2005
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

WAR AND PEACE successfully captured life's promises, challenges, joys, triumphs, and losses in a way that no other novels has done before and after. In this novel with more characters than any other I can imagine; the main characters are Pierre Bezuhov, Prince Andrey Bolkonsky, and Natasha Rostov, who are all affected by the destabilization of the war Napoleon brought upon Russia in the early nineteenth century. It is around them that the other characters revolve. Even though the sheer size of this novel of over a million words may discourage readers to pick it up, the consuming nature of the story keeps a reader glued to the book from the opening pages. The sheer power of this romantic and adventurous story made this classic story to survive as perhaps the best of all times.

The essence of Power, which is what leads individuals to move nations is the ultimate question of War and Peace. And this individuals or great men of history, are in reality the slave of history. That underlying fact can be found in other Russian stories. UNION MOUJIK, TARAS BULBA, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT,MASTER AND MAN feature that concept. The war part of the story features remarkable military campaigns such as those by Napoleon and his Russian counterpart, Emperor Aleksandr, as they employed their different strategies in the quest for victory on the lands of Russia.

War and Peace is entertaining as well as enlightening and is considered by many to be the master of all Russian novels. Its overview of Russian life and culture involving peasants and the aristocracy gives a true to life portrayal of humanity. You can find glimpses of other Great Russian novels in this story. In short, this epic cannot be forgotten after you have read it.