![]() ![]() I enjoyed the war parts, but I’m not sure if most readers will.Īgain, I’m reminded of Jane Austen. If you’re a fan of Downton Abbey or Jane Austen, just imagine that kind of story on a much bigger scale with two epic battles, and the downfall of an emperor thrown in. ![]() It’s actually a wonderful novel, quite philosophical, but mainly about romances within large aristocratic families during the Napoleonic Wars. When I’ve mentioned to folks that I was reading it, many reacted like I was doing something yucky. My friends also ask me if War and Peace is worth all the trouble to read. Those four films of War and Peace are currently available on HBO Max. Yes, the Russian names are problematic, but I think it helped that I watched the BBC series first, and watched the Russian language Mosfilm version that was released as four films over two years (1966-1967) while I was reading the book. ![]() Thus it makes for a hard novel to recommend emphatically. ![]() That wouldn’t bother some readers, however, War and Peace mixes in countless pages of Tolstoy pontificating about war, power, military command, freedom, history, free will, leadership, etc., and I’m afraid that could turn them off. The plot and characterizations of War and Peace is about as complicated as reading all the Austen novels by round robin her novels chapter by chater. That’s almost like listening/reading all six of Jane Austen’s novels together. War and Peace has always been intimidating for his size – 55 hours and 30 minutes on audio, and 1,300+ pages in teeny tiny print. It did make an excellent companion to 2020, and illuminated the present with the past.Īs I mentioned in my earlier review, War and Peace reminds me of Jane Austen because it’s set from 1805-1812 (plus epilogue 1813-1820), which was around the time Jane Austen was writing her famous novels. War and Peace is currently #7 on The Greatest Books list. Every year I read one literary classic, and I had promised myself that War and Peace was going to be my 2020 read. Then a couple weeks ago I decided I needed to finish it before the year was out. I finished about forty percent of the novel and then stopped reading it in early summer. I began reading War and Peace (1869) by Leo Tolstoy back in April after watching and reviewing a recent 6-part BBC miniseries (2016) based on the book. By James Wallace Harris, Monday, December 28, 2020 ![]()
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