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Title: War and Peace (Modern Library) by Leo Tolstoy, Constance Garnett ISBN: 0679600841 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: June, 1994 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.50276
Rating: 5
Summary: W&P- Best Novel Ever?
Comment: W&P is up there in the top books ever penned due to several reasons:
1. Complete picture of historical Russia during the Napoleonic Era, capturing all classes of people.
2. Great story. Basically its a bunch of characters, with the two primary characters (The young Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Buzehov) observing the human scope of the world and attempting to answer the BIG QUESTIONS- what are we here for, what should we do, how should we conduct ourselves, etc etc. Pierre finds his answers he can be happy with after a long struggle with various alternatives throughout the book. Andrei is not so fortunate. A large volume of the story revolves around soap-operaesque aristocratic themes, but there is a strong power and mind behind the prose moving it along, and even the seemingly trivial bits are still a pleasure to read with usually more to them then meets the eye.
3. Tolstoy works his own philosophical theory of History in. Some reveiwers say this isn't useful or could be skipped, but I found it to be an excellent perspective that is one of the contributing factors to putting W&P a 'cut above.' He portrays Napoleon as being an unimportant figurehead captaining a ship he really has no control over, the real deciding factor in the events of history is the masses. The 'great' leaders are merely manifestations of the will of the people.
It should take 6 months to a year to finish. If you somehow read it faster then that, slow down and take it all in.
Rating: 5
Summary: Not a War of Attrition!
Comment: War and Peace had stared at me from my bookshelf for over a year before I had the courage to begin. A present from a friend, War and Peace seemed more like a challenge than a gift: a challenge that could develop into a war of attrition between my completism and my boredom.
Nevertheless, one chilly December day, I took the plunge into nineteenth century Russian life, into the lives of a circle of aristocrats, and into the Napoleonic wars. I was immediately struck by Tolstoy's flowing prose, his humour both gentle and ascerbic, and his skill in creating and developing characters of real depth. War and Peace was a suprisingly easy read. Each short chapter containing interesting incident. It is also a book of great variety. It vividly depicts the sufferings of war, the opulence of the Russian aristocracy, and the joys and woes of family life. It touches phychological, social, political, historical, and religious themes all intertwined in a charming story.
However, its outstanding feature is its characterisation. One cannot help but feel intimately connected to the Rostov family, the well-meaning but flawed Pierre, the self-sacrificing Princess Mary, and the tragically disillusioned Prince Andrew. As I became increasingly involved in the book I looked forward with real anticipation to reading my nightly chapter. I did not want the story to end.
The only disappointing feature was Tolstoy's insistence on including chapters devoted to elaborating his historical philosophy. To my mind, his philosophy simply marred the gently unfolding story, was repetitive and boring, and seemed irrelevant. Fortunately the strength of the rest of the novel outweighs this Achilles Heel.
Rating: 5
Summary: Yes, It's Worth the Trouble
Comment: Although my blind urge to read the Great Classics has (thankfully) faded somewhat over the years in favor of reading whatever I damn please, I finally decided it was time to give War and Peace a try. After all, how can anyone who enjoys novels resist the lure of "the greatest novel of all time"? And Tolstoy himself was an unusually interesting man -- not a screwed-up genius but one who seemed to eventually figure it all out. It took me maybe a hundred pages to get into the rhythm of the book and figure out who all those characters with multisyllabic Russian names were. After that, it was totally engrossing and surprisingly easy reading. There's no point giving you a book report on what happens -- you're supposed to read it yourself -- but I do disagree with some of the other reviewers who didn't care for the sections describing Tolstoy's philosophy of history. I found those sections (a very small proportion of the book) fascinating, albeit a change of pace. This is part of what makes the book great. War and Peace is not just a story of what happens to a bunch of made-up people, but a major work of art expressing the wisdom of a great man.
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Title: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Constance Garnett ISBN: 0553211757 Publisher: Bantam Classics Pub. Date: 01 July, 1984 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Anna Karenina (Modern Library Classics) by Leo Tolstoy, Leonard J. Kent, Nina Nikolaevna Berberova, c Garnett ISBN: 067978330X Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 10 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Brothers Karamazov (Everyman's Library) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky, Fyodor M. Dostoevsky, Malcolm, III Jones ISBN: 0679410031 Publisher: Everymans Library Pub. Date: May, 1992 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Tolstoy's War and Peace (Cliffs Notes) by Marianne Sturman ISBN: 0822013665 Publisher: Cliffs Notes Pub. Date: May, 1967 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The Idiot (Oxford World's Classics) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Alan Myers, Fyodor M. Dostoevsky ISBN: 0192834118 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: May, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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