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War & Peace

murphyz

murphyz

New Member
Has anyone read this?

Myself and a few others are planning to start it in May, and lend moral support to each other for wading through it so that we can actually read it and see what all the fuss is about.

I would be interested to hear views of those who have read it beforehand, such as how good it is, whether the pace slackens at any point and if we need to stick with it until it picks up again...etc.

Mxx
 
He trys to hard to blend history with the story, and it comes out all contrived. Maybe, it isn't he trys to hard, but he isn't clever enough. Read Joyce or Pynchon, instead.
 
I read War and Peace 5 or 6 years ago. Like Murphyz, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

I must say, I enjoyed quite a bit. He is not that hard to read, I think. But, then again, I am into historical novels.

The tricky thing is to keep track of all the people in it. At some point, I had to make a list, to keep as a bookmark.

Hobitten :)
 
That's a good idea. I did that for my first reading of The God of Small Things, simply because the same people can be called different things by different people, and I was not familiar with Indian family petnames.

I'm not a huge fan of historical novels, but what have I got to lose? (well, £25 for a start, but still....)

soo...do you still have that bookmark? :D

Mxx
 
murphyz said:
That's a good idea. I did that for my first reading of The God of Small Things, simply because the same people can be called different things by different people, and I was not familiar with Indian family petnames.

I'm not a huge fan of historical novels, but what have I got to lose? (well, £25 for a start, but still....)

soo...do you still have that bookmark? :D

Mxx
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Oh! Ahh! :eek:

Ehh! Nooo, It's 5-6 years ago. I just checked the book, it's not there, so I must have chucked it out (silly me). :(

£25?. It costs £25? Have you thought of trying to get a 2nd hand copy? It might be one of those lying about for a couple of quit. Or maybe even sitting in an uncle's book case... :)

Hobitten :)
 
I'm collecting the Everyman's Library books and will always buy a book I want in that range if they have it. They have the box set of War & Peace on amazon for £25, comes in three volumes. This will look nice on my shelf and also make it easier to read as a 'trilogy' type thing :) )

Mxx
 
murphyz said:
I'm collecting the Everyman's Library books and will always buy a book I want in that range if they have it. They have the box set of War & Peace on amazon for £25, comes in three volumes. This will look nice on my shelf and also make it easier to read as a 'trilogy' type thing :) )

Mxx
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Oh, I see!

Hobitten
 
murphyz said:
They have the box set of War & Peace on amazon for £25, comes in three volumes. This will look nice on my shelf and also make it easier to read as a 'trilogy' type thing :) )

Mxx
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Blimey. Considering that you can buy it brand new for £1.50, it must be a very pretty book indeed. :eek:
 
They are hardback and are black and white covers...nice and plain, decent quality books. Most of them go for £9.99 but are sometimes on sale for £6.99.

I also collect the Everyman's Wodehouse - which feature gorgeous covers, such as this:

aimages_eu.amazon.com_images_P_1841591092.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

They make me very happy indeed too.

Mxx
 
Murphyz, it's really VERY good book!
The characters are great...And there isn't so much history, although the attitude to Napoleon could be called controversial.
 
Beatrycze said:
Murphyz, it's really VERY good book!
The characters are great...And there isn't so much history, although the attitude to Napoleon could be called controversial.
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I agree!

Murphyz, READ IT!

Hobitten
 
I agree with most of the above. It's definitely worth reading and not at all difficult once you get past the Russian names. My copy had an introduction by the translator who summarized all the families and the variations on the individual names - made it much easier to follow. Maybe you can find something similar online. The only part I found a bit ponderous was the ending where Tolstoy very obviously espouses his philosophy on life.

Read and enjoy!

Ell :)
 
He trys to hard to blend history with the story, and it comes out all contrived. Maybe, it isn't he trys to hard, but he isn't clever enough. Read Joyce or Pynchon, instead.
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Wait wait wait . . .

We're talking War And Peace here, right? That Tolstoy chap?

Cheers, Martin :D
 
Ell, do you know which copy you were reading. I tried to read war and peace once but got bogged down in all the names. Maybe now I'm older I'll try again, if I ever finish inferno! I'll try writing down the names, it worked for the Sillmarilion.
 
Cassandra said:
Ell, do you know which copy you were reading. I tried to read war and peace once but got bogged down in all the names. Maybe now I'm older I'll try again, if I ever finish inferno! I'll try writing down the names, it worked for the Sillmarilion.
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Cassandra, I read the New American Library Signet edition translated by Ann Dunnigan with introduction by John Bayley. I checked Amazon and they have it available.

Ell :)
 
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