I’m reading this grand novel, and I’m curious what you folks think/thought about it. I’ve just started reading it, and so far it’s decent. It’s pretty obvious we’re going somewhere and I understand it will take a while to get there, so I’m patient (and so on). But at 1400+ pages, it’s really a mammoth read. I just finished Russka by Edward Rutherford and about half way through that decided I’d read the big Tolstoy novel next. Anyways, Russka was a damned good read, but War and Peace is just about twice as long. Think I’ll get twice as much entertainment out of it? Think it’ll change my life? Or is it just another novel? I’m a pretty fast reader, but with competing priorities (two classes, a family, a demanding white collar job) it takes me a while these days to get through a recreational read, so I hope it’s worth the hype. The back cover blurb says it’s the “the greatest novel ever written”. I’d hate to miss out on that.
Jeez, I read it *decades *ago, but remember really loving it. At the time, I remember being all smug when I realized “hey, it’s just a big ol’ soap opera.”
But what a soap opera - I would find myself really enveloped in the world of Pierre and Natasha and the pages would just rush pass. I gave myself permission to skim over some of the war strategy parts - I know it is all part of the narrative, but I am at peace with my choice.
Now that I have been exposed to mini-series, good and bad, and other serial, epic storylines that veer from the very good to execreble, I remain struck with War and Peace’s consistent quality. I remember it carrying me along the entire time - I guess I respect the technical feat of that as the most enduring thing that stuck with me over the years…
I’ve read the first chapter umpteen times, and never was able to get past it. You should at least give it a try, I suppose. For some reason I found the characters confusing and the plot not all that riveting (and I usually enjoy epic scale novels quite a bit), but obviously YMMV.
could it be because they have tongue-twisting, overlapping, gender-specific-so-you-forget-their-relationship Russian names?
I swear, between W&P, 100 Years of Solitude and McCullough’s Masters of Rome series, I have had more than my quota of confusing names. I usually take notes on the inside front cover (or regularly check the included family tree if there is one) if the book is worth it. W&P ended up being worth it for me…
I’m pretty well into it, and I’m definitely interested enough to finish it. As I mentioned in the OP, I just read Russka, and it gave me some insight into Russian culture that I think is critically helpful in putting some of the events of the first pages in perspective.
Plus, I don’t have anything else to read at the moment, except for the Regan Diaries, but that can be devoured in small bites over a very log period without losing anything.
I thought it was worth the time to read it. I had read some historical fiction set in the Napoleonic Era, and thought I should go for The Big One, so I started reading it just for the heck of it. Then I noticed that there was a class being given on it, and figured I ought to get credit for all the work I was doing.
It was worth it, both as an independent exercise and as a class. There’s a huge amount of stuff in there, a lot of ideas, and greeat characterization. It’s worth it just to read Tolstoy’s weird view of history.
If you can, watch the 7 hour Russian film version of it.
I’m sure you didn’t mean for that to sound patronizing.
I’m just trying to open a dialog, Lance. I like getting the opinion of others, particularly dopers. My circle of friends does not include a single avid reader, and my wife hasn’t read it, so there’s no one around for me to turn to and say “Hey, I’m reading War and Peace. You read it. What did you think?”. Further, I’m an extremely busy guy, so I don’t really have time for a book club (I don’t really think that would be my kind of scene, anyways), and as a sad consequence this is really the only place I have to discuss what I’m reading.
My next door neighbors are Russian immigrants, but I think it would be sort of presumptuous to corner one of them and say “Hey! You’re Russian. What do you think of War and Peace?”.
I’m 1/4 of the way through and I’ve put it down for the moment to read a few other books. So far it’s really good and deserves it’s place in the classics section.
One thing to keep in mind is that War and Peace is actually two different books. Tolstoy will spend two or three chapters telling the story of the characters. Then he well spend two or three chapters preaching a sermon on the meaning of life. A couple more chapters of story, then a couple more chapters of sermon.
The sermon-chapters are a good cure for insomnia. But the story-chapters are wonderful.
Same here. Well I didn’t skip, but I greatly preferred the war strategy parts.
I also had a little trouble keeping track of the characters and their names. All in all I’d say it was a good story, but I’ve read many others far better. I will properly never re-read it, but I’m glad I have, if nothing else, just to be able to say so
I think it helps if you read it with someone. I read it with my son the first time. Not physically with him, we lived across country from each other, but at the same time. We bounced ideas off each other thru-out.
I tried to read it again alone and only got half way thru. Maybe I’ll finish it again this summer.
Well, that’s better than I did with Moby Dick. I was on page three when I realized I’d read a grand total of six sentences, not counting “Call me Ishmael.” I gave up at that point.
The problem with War and Peace is that it is written Russian (with French), which is incredibly difficult to translate into English. The translator is left with bad choices - to alter the original meaning or end up with unnatural, stilted prose. A good translator will try to get something in between, but still it is not the best reading experience.
It’s one of those really talky 19th Century novels; if you like that sort of thing, it’s one of the best. It moves along much better than Les Miserables or Moby Dick, to name a couple other talky books. The only thing I find off-putting is some the battle descriptions. I’ve never done well keeping track of those things.
I enjoyed it a lot more than I though I would when I read it in college. I doubt I would have made it through without class discussion led by the best professor I had, who actually encouraged us to skip over the war bits if we were struggling. I think I read nearly every word, even though I got quite bored with some of the battle scenes. But they’re a necessary piece of the whole.
I highly recommend finding someone to read it with so you can have a discussion as you go. Maybe you’ll find a reading buddy here. I’m not volunteering, though - spring is not the time to tackle that novel again. I find Russian lit goes really well with winter.
