My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Finally. War and Peace is known as a long read. Just looking at its heft can be intimidating. Even the epilogue is a 100 pages. 100! And if you read as slow as I do they it’s going to be months of your life committed to one book. But it was not the slog I thought it was going to be. The book is actually quite readable. A great narrative with fantastic characters, it never felt overly difficult just long.
If I had any complaints it’s that Tolstoy seems to need three pages to say what could have been said in one. You might find yourself at times wondering just what is that point of this or that. And many of the characters, even the protagonists, are thoroughly unlikable for much of the book. But I suppose that’s what makes it so good. There are scoundrels, harlots, well-meaning fools, people with bad morals, and those with just bad luck. His characters feel like people rather than heroes or villains.
It feels a bit like a soap opera set in the Napoleonic Wars. The setting is big and bold but not overpowering. It paints the background of the narrative but rarely dominates it. Everything comes back to the intricate web of characters whose Russian names are difficult to remember at times. You may be asking yourself at times, who is Boris again? I did not take notes but sometimes wish I had. It’s a lot to try and keep straight in your mind.
All of that said, it was a worthwhile once in a lifetime read. I could have done without Part II of the epilogue where Tolstoy describes his theory of history. It had nothing to do with the story whatsoever and adds 50 pages to a book that is already over 1400 pages long. Also, may I suggest when you are done to watch the BBC mini-series (available on Amazon). It’s well done and may help you straighten out the characters and story in your head. I had already forgotten some of the beginning of the book by the time I finished. And at only 8 hours of so in length it will go by much quicker than 1455 pages.
Mid-Life Thesis 