Is it possible to consider yourself a truly educated person without reading "War and Peace"? - I think the answer to this question is obvious. Leo Tolstoy's epic novel War and Peace is considered to be the pearl of world literature. Critics of the whole world recognize “War and Peace” as a model of a new European novel, although it is not so full. From a technical point of view, it is possible to call this work absolutely perfect - descriptions of the epic events of the war with Napoleon of 1812, and at the same time the delicate characters of all strata of Russian society of that time. It can be said that this is a grandiose in its scope a collective psychological portrait of the Russian people, depicted as one of the most brilliant writers of all time. And this portrait is filled with such a penetrating and deep love that it is impossible not to be proud, We are Russians, this novel is about us and for us, and how fortunate that we can read this great work in our own language.
Needless to say, War and Peace is one of the greatest pieces of literature of all time. Albeit this edition's translation by Maude was done over 100 years ago, it is not only perfectly readable even by today's standards, but also has the added benegfit of retaining the 1800's atmospheric authenticity. Overall, super enjoyable read.
Read more reviews Written by Dianne
I always wanted to read this when I was in school. Now that I have started reading War and Peace I wished I would have taken the time to read it. I find it so fascinating and interesting. Excellent read by far!!!!
Written by papapownall
The thing that most people know about War and Peace is that it is long. In fact it is very long, to the extent that its length has become a byword to describe any other great tome of writing, and has passed into the modern vernacular, how often do we hear terms such as "I was not expecting War and Peace". I started reading the printed version of this and it soon became clear that the sheer weight of the book (and I mean actual physical weight rather than the density of the plot) meant that my forearms were aching after a few hours. I found a good way to counter the impact of the pain in my arm was to intersperse the reading with the Kindle edition. I always prefer an actual physical book but, in this case it was more of a need than a want. I found that this works best when you completely immerse yourself in the world that Tolstoy describes here and read not only the book, but the history of the period and also watch the film and TV adaptations of this epic story. I will not go into the actual story of War and Peace, suffice to say it is completely epic and you live rather than merely read this classic of world literature.
I thoroughly recommended to anyone who might be, for example, cooped up at home for several weeks with nothing to do.
