Did the title of this blog post scare you? I will admit, when I picked up Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace for the first time, I was terrified. Arguably the most well-known example of long and boring books, War and Peace is a Russian epic spanning 15 years, five families, and the Napoleanic Era of Moscow High Society.  I had a high school teacher who despised word vomit and used to comment on overly-complex answers to simple questions with the phrase “I asked for a sentence, not War and Peace”. Yes, it is long, and at times, it is boring, but it is also compelling – just what I like in my books.

“Eh bien, mon prince, Gênes et Lucques ne sont plus que des apanages, des estates, de la famille Buonaparte.”

One of the more popular translation covers of War and Peace

The Book

War and Peace tells the tale of five families – the Bezukhovs, the Bolkonskys, the Rostovs, the Kuragins, and Drubetskoys – and their lives in the Napoleonic Wars (the war) and the high society of Moscow (the peace). At the center are Andrei Bolkonsky, Natasha Rostov, and Pierre Bezukhov. Andrei is an aide-de-camp in the war, Natasha is a hopeless romantic disillusioned by high society, and Pierre, a bastard,  is Moscow’s newest most eligible bachelor after his wealthy, dying father leaves him his entire inheritance. The fate of these three intertwine as they navigate through 15 years of love, loss, and of course, war and peace.

There is a character for everyone in War and Peace – strong Andrei, sultry Helené, kind Sonya, and the wild Anatol are just some examples. There is romance, there is violence, there is scandal, there is death, there is life. War and Peace is the equivalent of General Hospital – a ridiculously long-running soap opera that has explored literally every avenue possible.

There are some nuances to reading, however. My first tip is to find a good translation. This does not mean the most common translation – find one that works for you. The first copy I picked up had eliminated all the French and the Tolstoy-isms that made me fall in love with the book as soon as I tried a different translator. My second tip is to keep track of the character’s names. There are so many Natalyas, Nikolais, and Pytors. However, most of them use different diminutives – for example, Pierre and Petya. If all else fails, pay attention to patronymics – these will also help you keep families in line.

War and Peace gets four out of five stars. The history debates inserted by Tolstoy dragged, but the drama pulled mw right back in!

The Bop

War and Peace’s bop is “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer. The song encapsulates the dreamy nature of the balls of Moscow’s high society – a common setting in the novel. It also portrays the youthful innocence that follows Natasha (my personal favorite character) throughout the novel. She evolves from a naive little girl to an optimistic woman – and she doesn’t let the world beat the joy out of her.

In conclusion, don’t let the bulk scare you. Break out your ballgowns and bayonets and tackle War and Peace – you won’t regret it.

In the first case, the need was to renounce the consciousness of a nonexistent immobility in space and recognize a movement we do not feel; in the present case, it is just as necessary to renounce a nonexistent freedom and recognize a dependence we do not feel.