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Summer Reading
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This is such a grand book in terms of number of characters in all levels of Russian society, historical scope, period detail, philosophical implications, romance, drama, tragedy, action etc, etc, etc. There is just no way to enumerate all that is appealing about Tolstoy's masterpiece. The main characters are as humanly complex and interesting as real people. I feel that I know them like friends. The plot(s) are involving and get more tight and interconnected as the book progresses, so that there is a great satisfaction as various threads come together, and never with the jarring coincidences that propel a typical Dickins novel.
If I had to pick only one novel that I would ever be able to read again, it would have to be War and Peace. There is so much of interest going on in this book that it would be hard to wear it out in a lifetime.
"War and Peace" lets us follow along in the daily lives of several land-owning class characters from early 19th Century Russia. The Bolkonsky and Rostov families comprise most of these figures, but their friends and acquaintances take up nearly as much of the focus of Tolstoy's classic novel. These characters cover a wide range of personalities from the devoutly religious Maria Bolkonsky and her close and conflicted friend Natasha Rostov to the independent Pierre Bezuhov and his miserable wife Helene Kuragin. Tolstoy is able to go in and out of his creations' lives with simplicity and without exaggeration, whether its in relating the most common moments of their daily lives or the climaxes of their earthly existences. The range of emotions, feelings, and actions that Tolstoy is able to relate is easily done through his genius in setting the story in the midst of Russia's War of 1812 (the history of which he knew very well), one of the worst in its long history. It's through such a life-shattering event that people can be seen everywhere from their best to their very worst, and Tolstoy, through a compelling story line and the novel's famous length, displays the entire spectrum.
... Read more ›An adequate summary of the book, in 1000 words, is impossible. Tolstoy places his characters in the context of the Napoleonic wars. His emphasis is on three "characters": the Bolkonsky family, the Rostov family, and Pierre Bezuhov. Along the way, dozens of other characters appear: Denisov, Dolohov, Helene, Kutuzov (my favorite), and Anatole quickly spring to mind. Even Napoleon and the Russian Tsar Alexander make appearances. All aspects of life appear, in one carefully crafted scene after another. Love, death, marriage, children, combat; all come together into a seamless whole. Saying that these people become real through Tolstoy's pen is an understatement. Despite the different time frame and different society, their struggles are our struggles. Pierre's search for meaning in life will find many sympathizers in our fast-paced world. Andrei's death scene is achingly realistic, and it you aren't touched in some way by it, you should check your pulse. Even Natasha, the hyper vivacious Rostov who grows into a responsible family matriarch, is a recognizable figure in today's world (as anyone who knows teenage girls can attest).
... Read more ›