Has anybody ever Read WAR and PEACE?

[General Grievous]

I got this for 3 euro's recently which is a frigging great price for something so big which would have cost around 25 euro's brand new.

The copy I got was second hand but it's in fine condition.

I have to admit. It looks pretty daunting and to think that over 500 different characters are part of this story is pretty jaring as well.

So my questions:

Have you read it?

How long did it take you to read? (showoff!)

Is it any good?

Is it worth reading?

Is the storytelling great? Or is the book really famous because of it's sheer size and epicness?

[Matthew E]

I tried it once and got, I think, a little more than a chapter into it. I remember liking it okay; I just couldn't get into it that time. I'm going to try again someday.

[Julusnc]

I read War and Peace in college about fifteen years ago.The class discussed fifty pages read the day before in each class over an entire year.War and Peace is an amazing book but most will find it just a book written for a different time.

My advice is read the book along while looking at notes or google search for discussion on each chapter you read.It will help and better prepare you for the long read.

[General Grievous]

Originally Posted by Julusnc

My advice is read the book along while looking at notes or google search for discussion on each chapter you read.It will help and better prepare you for the long read.

So the plot itself is densely complex? This is clearly the case as it contains so many characters. is it not about napolean fightning the russians?

[Paul McEnery]

I've read the first 100 pages three times. But I was young and callow at the time.

Also, I was reading the Penguin translation, and experience has taught me to look elsewhere for translation that catches somethng -- anything! -- of the author's style.

[General Grievous]

Thanks Paul.

I was hoping you read it all. No worries.

Anybody else?

[mikekerr3]

I read it 30 years ago m when stuck in an isolated location, the next time i'll read tech manuals they move faster. It must be better in the original,but then I really don't like any of the Russian greats.

[berk]

Originally Posted by Paul McEnery

I've read the first 100 pages three times. But I was young and callow at the time.

Also, I was reading the Penguin translation, and experience has taught me to look elsewhere for translation that catches somethng -- anything! -- of the author's style.

Funny you say that, I have found myself drifting away from the Penguins the last few years. Not that I've noticed as well-defined a pattern as you have, but it does seem that the alternatives are often the way to go. OTOH, in a lot of cases there are few or no cheap or readily available alternatives, so you're pretty much stuck with the Penguin. Though the Oxford University Press are giving them a run for their money.

I find it really tough, not being able to read the original language, to decide which translation does a better job of evoking something of the original author's voice. If there are choices available I usually try to sample them all, if only for a few lines or paragraphs, just to get some kind of feel for the flow.

But it's really a leap of faith. If I have nothing else to go on, I usually opt for the most recent translation, which at the very least aren't bowdlerized. Conversely, I also like to look at translations from as close as possible to the original's era, since one could hope that at least they might capture something of that temporal or historical aspect of the original author's worldview.

Haven't read War and Peace, BTW, and wasn't ever that interested in reading Tolstoy, for some reason, up to a few years ago. But I find myself slowly coming round to the idea of giving it a shot one of these days.

[Paul McEnery]

Originally Posted by mikekerr3

I read it 30 years ago m when stuck in an isolated location,.

I know what you mean. I raced through Moby Dick when I was alone in Mexico City.

[FanboyStranger]

I read War and Peace one summer while working in a toll booth. As a result, my memories of it are interspersed with memories of people handing me change and asking for directions. I found War and Peace to be alternately enthralling and tedious, with the latter more frequent than the former. I greatly preferred The Cossacks. Also, I enjoy Dostoevsky and even Gogol far more than Tolstoy as their themes are much more interesting.

I guess the best review of War and Peace I've ever heard is that it is a book that people read just to say that they have read it. (I've heard that said of Moby Dick as well, but I liked Moby Dick.)

[SlightlyMad]

Originally Posted by Paul McEnery

I know what you mean. I raced through Moby Dick when I was alone in Mexico City.

Congratulations for finishing it. I rarely give up on a book, but that one beat me a few years back. The main story was OK, but the constant breaking away from it to discuss the history of ship-building, geography, natural history, etc. kept sending me to sleep.

[General Grievous]

Originally Posted by FanboyStranger

I guess the best review of War and Peace I've ever heard is that it is a book that people read just to say that they have read it. (I've heard that said of Moby Dick as well, but I liked Moby Dick.)

Yeah. I don't want this to be the case for me. I can't imagine wanting to be one of these people you meet at a party or night out who like to tell people how many books they have read and what books they read.

I want to read war and peace because I have an honest to god interest in it. But I might not enjoy all the same.

When I finish the next few books that I am reading I might give it a crack.

[General Grievous]

Just found a cool piece by william golding(lord of the flies) in an essay he wrote about this book-war and peace.

About when to read this book.

"it is a book to defeat generals november, December, January, february, March."

[Melchior]

Read it..... more than a decade ago? Took between 10-12 weeks, though I did stop for a week completely to read a book for class.

I do recall enjoying it, though some parts did seem to bog me down (I gave myself a 25-page-minimum per day after school in order to get through the thing in a timely manner).

Afterwards, I took the Accelerated Reader Test on it. 90%, 113.5 points in one go. I was confused throughout the test, though, since the westernized the names. "Michael? Who's Michael? Oh, wait, Mikhail!" Difference in translations, though I think I read a better one.

[Crowforge]

It's not my thing.