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War And Peace (Signet Classics) |  | Author: Leo Tolstoy
Creators: Ann Dunnigan, Pat Conroy
Publisher: Signet Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $10.95
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as of 11/27/2009 11:49 CST details
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Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 27161
Media: Paperback
Pages: 1456
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.1 x 2.1
ISBN: 0451530543
Dewey Decimal Number: 891.733
EAN: 9780451530547
ASIN: 0451530543
Publication Date: June 5, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Set in the years leading up to and culminating in Napoleon's disastrous Russian invasion, this novel focuses upon an entire society torn by conflict and change. Here is humanity in all its innocence and corruption, its wisdom and folly.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
 from a younger perspective July 5, 2009
Maggie
I first read this book because my mother kept going on and on about me needing to read more classic literature, but when i started reading it I was amazed. War and Peace chnged my entire outlook on life. Every character in this book is unique and has his own voice and style. Tolstoy captures every feeling of these people when their lives are torn apart by war so beatifuly, he shows to us every emotion and makes us feel it just as his characters do. You cant help falling in love with these characters and feeling heartbroken when things go bad. This book definitely lives up to its reputation as one of the greatest books ever written and will change the way you look at your own life.
War and Peace June 18, 2009
Natasha Rosewitt (Ottawa, ONT. Canada)
This novel is a classic! I received it well within the estimated time frame and in EXCELLENT condition. The description said that it was used and in good condition, but when I received it, I could hardly tell if it had even been read before. There were only small folds in the cover on each end of the binding. It was in much better condition than I was expecting.
 Worth it! January 23, 2009
Ravenskya
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Reviewing classics is always a touchy thing to do... but I'm so freakin proud of myself for reading this book that I had to document it some way. How did I do it? Simple, I read it online with little bits being sent to my email each day... that way I never knew how many millions of pages I had left, and believed that I was making progress.
I have had this book mentioned to me, and quoted to me for years, but I have never met anyone who has actually read it. True the size is daunting... but then again... so is the material. To be honest I didn't have the first clue what this book was going to be about. It turns out that the reader follows several people, of nobility through the Napoleonic invasion of Russia. When I say several, I mean it... you'll want to keep a list, and leave lots of room because each person has several variations of their names that are used interchangeably. We follow about 12 main characters and a few other extraneous ones from before the invasion through the end of the conflict. Most of them are nobility and they go through all kinds of soap opera drama, generally self inflicted. Guy A is in love with Girl A but she's poor, so he marries Girl B who's really in love with her brother (Guy B I guess) who loves Guy A's sister (Girl C?), but she tries to run off with Guy C who was just screwing with her head, so now she's tainted and no one wants to marry Girl C. But Girl C is best of friends with Girl A so they hang out and throw little pity parties for themselves. Meanwhile Guy D is everyone's pal, who's married to Girl D who's really a bit of a hoe, so he wanders about joining clubs and thinking to himself. Then Guy D figures out that he's in love with Girl C, but she's still in love with Guy B. Then the war breaks out and all of the guys other than Guy D go to war, and the Girls whine and cry about it... oh, and they move around a lot... seems like they are always packing up and moving... not that they do any of the packing... that's what servants are for!
So just when we think we are getting a handle on who is who, who they are in love with at the moment, and what the heck is going on... we have a cut scene to - history class... Tolstoy will rant and rave for a bit about war in general, Napoleon, or the idiocy of both Historians and the Russian Military leaders. Okay you think, I can deal with a bit of sarcastic Russian historical education, but just as soon as you get your mind in gear for that - BAM you are knee deep in fighting and trying to remember just who the German guy was and how he was related to all of the people you were reading about before the cut scene.
This book ends up feeling like 3 books mixed into one - a satirical historical text, a family drama, and a wartime epic. Now each in its own is a very interesting tale, but when mashed up together, they can be rather jarring to the mind. I do have to agree with the others that the battle scenes are very well written, and I did enjoy Tolstoy's commentary on the Russian leadership during the war... and after a while I liked some of his characters. But don't get too attached to them... Tolstoy has no problem killing off the people you like, and when you get to the end, and are expecting a huge revelation, or some sort of major explosive dynamic finale... the curtain closes without even a spark.
Still, this is a brilliant work... I'm glad I read it, and I wish I knew someone else who had because it would be interesting to discuss it with someone. It will never go down as one of my favorite novels, but it will go down as one of my lifelong accomplishments. Tolstoy's writing appears excellent (remember, we're reading a translation so we have to give them credit too) and he has a brilliant wit and handle on his subject matter. I don't agree with much of his philosophy but it is certainly an interesting topic to read on. If you can make it through 1300 pages of one book, I recommend at least giving this a try.
 What other authors leave in their heads January 2, 2009
Scott Walker (Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Tolstoy goes far beyond just hitting the peaks of the story but also, writes at length on the hills, valleys, and everything in between (the material that other authors leave out). It is exhaustively detailed, down to the most mundane description of a character. Being that the high-points are few and far, I did have to trudge through this mammoth work. But what an opportunity to perfect, enhance and, give character to our own writings, through these wonderful, brilliant prose.
The story is played out in the present tense but sporadically, Tolstoy intervenes in short chapters with a second person history lesson on how the historians got things wrong (we discover history revisionists are nothing new) and a delving into the workings of the human mind. The epilogue is almost completely devoted to these assessments and can be read virtually on its own merit. This edition (translated by Garnett) is complete with helpful footnotes and endnotes.
Always with a spiritual force, Tolstoy captures well the cultural interactions and the Russian aristocrat families as they are caught between their fanciful lives and the looming French invasion, lead by the delusional Napolean. There was a feeling of contentment at the beginning, but that would soon be dispelled as Russia would be forced to wage unconditional war to push the French out. And it would be spirit that ultimately wins the war for Russia. Finally the story brings us to the aftermath and what befell the families.
Tolstoy reminds us, the varied perceptions of the war can only give us a partial understanding of the truth: We must dig deeper to understand. This straight-forward thinker finds a way to search through the clutter to critique the cause, and the why, and with it, generate a unique hindsight. For Tolstoy I believe it was more important to find the goodness and cheerfulness amongst the chaos, as if the war didn't exist----life moves on. Most enthralling of all is his examination of the contradiction, or is it conundrum, that arises between mans' free will and law through reasoning, that "if the will of every man were free, that is, if every man could act as he chose, the whole of history would be a tissue of disconnected accidents", though "once admit that human life can be guided by reason, and all possibility of life is annihilated".
May the LORD bless you
Scott
Great Book!! October 15, 2008
Spencer M. Orso (Battle Ground, WA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am loving this book because it gives me something to keep my mind active during my down time!!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
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