How can anyone like War and Peace by Tolstoy?

Comments ( 5 )

1. selkie says

   It is a good book, but not his best in my opinion. I liked "Anna Karenina" much better.
   Have you read any of his short stories, like "The Death of Ivan Ilych". Perhaps they would be more to your liking?

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2. Filled_with_enthusia says

   Different people, different taste. As in, some have it and some don't.

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3. haroldpohl2000 says

   "War and Peace" is a great piece of writing in my opinion, by a very imaginative, wide-ranging mind, covering the fascinating period of European history when Napoleon invaded Russia and then was forced to retreat. I like it and have read it twice. I have noticed that many people who have a negative opinion of it – on examination – have never read it! Or have read only a portion of it. The size of it is a little intimidating, as is a list of the characters, but it goes fast once you get hooked on the writing and the events, and as the characters come to life with the vivid descriptions of them. Those who are used to tight, neat little plots may be put off by one of such scope as this one has. The forces that move the plot are not small ones. What in reality brought Napoleon into Russia with such bad timing, and what drove him and his army out? Not the Russian Army. Was it the country, its size and its weather? Was it the character of the Russian people who would withdraw from Moscow rather than submit? Was it the French themselves when they could not put the stamp of victory on such a place as they found Moscow to be? There are no neat, summary answers.

   I defy any male to read about the young girl growing up on the country estate and not fall for her. How many writers have created a fictional character so real and having such universally appealing feminine traits, that you can't resist her even though you know she is a fiction?

   It's full of good stuff for anyone who likes to read and who likes the line between fiction and reality to be narrow and crossable. In concept, it has a similarity to "In Cold Blood," more than a 100 years earlier.

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4. quotationdujour says

   Never got through it myself–then again I can't imagine trying to get through Gone With the Wind either (or even getting through the movie.) Must still be popular, though, it's still available.

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5. tim says

   I spent hours reading it. I liked the love stories, and jumped over the accounts of the battles and the eternal philosophising – which is so characteristic of the Russians!

   So, it's like the curate's egg – good in parts!

   And I'm sure all the crits will have a lot to say about this.

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