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Most Helpful Reviews
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Liked It8 of 8 members found this review helpful “Reading this great novel was one of the highlights of my reading life. War? Peace? It might have been titled “Everything”, because Tolstoy’s vision is both epic and intimate enough to encompass just that. I’ve never encountered a writer so skilled at portraying change in his characters. ...” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It2 of 2 members found this review helpful “In my junior year of high school we were required to do a book report, and my English teacher took us all to the library to show a stack of books that were pre-approved for this purpose. At one point he held up War and Peace and said it was approved but nobody had ever read it for this report...” see full review » see other reviews » |
Newest Reviews
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“READ THIS IN SIX/SEVEN DAYS, WHEN I HAD A LOT OF WORK! ”
Anonymus U wrote this review 2 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Superb book”
britjools wrote this review 7 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Great book overall. First true lit book for me. Changed my life.”
Jason F wrote this review 9 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I have been told that the lastest translation of this is particularly good”
Chocolate S wrote this review 12 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Yes it's considered pretentious to read it, but if you have not read this book, then I really think you need to rework your idea of having "read the classics".
Chris M wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
The book starts off slow, but builds momentum, and by the end you are swept away by the despair and hope of all the different families.
Do not be put off by the fact that this book is commonly referred to as having a "cast of a thousand". If you did indeed count the names used in the book (and I 'm sure many have) you would most definitely come up with some ridiculously high figure. Not to worry. Most of the names mentioned in the book are throw away characters or simply scenery in the dialogue. You have about 50 main characters to follow, but even that gets whittled down to about 10 story lines.
This is one for the ages, so I strongly encourage all to read it.”
“Timeless, and well translated.”
Bart H wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Excellent! The metaphors are wealthy, in the discovering of the Self!”
AainaA wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Very close to a five star rating. But it lost that last one because of the excess philosophizing towards the very end. The prose if simply beautiful, the concepts are fascinating, the characters are more well developed and completely human than any I have ever seen before. Tolstoy seamlessly weaves in his philosophy and theology into the story and the character's thoughts and dialogue until about three quarters through, when there start being completely separate sections, but they are tightly related. By the epilogue there is no relation between the story and the philosophy, and the philosophy get longer and less interesting. I really thought I was going to make it through the whole 1,400 pages without getting bored, and I very nearly did.”
Lauren C wrote this review 3 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“A cliche, I know, but the best book I ever read.”
Scott W wrote this review Friday, October 30 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Read it 3 times. Great, great book.”
Katherine G wrote this review Thursday, October 29 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
