/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.5132653]

hi /lit/
is War and Peace a worthwhile read for the casual reader? I've read many classics, so I don't think I'll have any comprehension troubles, I just don't read too often and I'm fairly slow. A book about Napoleonic wars in Russia sounds pretty bad ass but I wanted to know if you all think it's worth my time or if it's overrated. thanks! also is there a specific print or translation that is best?

[Anonymous No.5132665]

i really enjoyed it. the characters are great and the story is interesting. honestly if you ignore the bits where tolstoy goes off on a tangent about how historians all suck compared to him, it's just like marathoning an especially good tv show

it's not a hard book, just a long one

[Anonymous No.5132678]

Very worthwhile but as was mentioned, Tolstoy's discussions of history can be grating. Most of them went right over my head when I read it. The story really is incredible though and the characters are some of the absolute best ever created.

[Anonymous No.5132696]

For dummy like you, it shouldn't be too difficult to read aside from Tolstoy's philosophical digressions, which even then aren't that obscure, relatively. The biggest difficulty is that it's really long and there's a lot of characters to keep track of. Also, if you're only excited about the war part, you should keep in mind the other part of the title plays a really large role as well.

[Anonymous No.5132711]

>>5132653

I found it dull for the most part and like a bombastic soap opera. I don't give a shit about these high flying members of the Russian upper classes, or these tangentially related characters who fall in and out of the narrative of the story as it plods along. It can be pretty dry at parts, and the descriptions of the battles can be pretty hard to follow and visualise, at times it completely lost me. I'm not familiar with Russian military tactics or indeed how war went in that era to have made sense of what was going on. As the characters grow, as the story progresses, you do feel a sense of attachment if only because they are like firm footholds that you started with when starting to tackle this monster of a story.

I've only read an english translation and probably it doesn't do the original full justice (I hear that Tolstoys prose is one that is to be admired).

Personally I wish I hadn't read it. For any 'insights' or social commentary it gave in the 1000+ pages one could have very easily gotten from a few pages long essays.

Go for it if you like a massive narrative and some sense of interest in that time period.

[Anonymous No.5132718]

>>5132711
> I don't give a shit about these high flying members of the Russian upper classes

they're all just people, man. were you totally set against empathising with the varied characters just because they were rich?

[Anonymous No.5132719]

>>5132653
Don't expect it to be all about the Napoleonic Wars. It does have some kickass, realistic battle scenes but the wars are mainly a backdrop to the personal struggles of the characters.

It's a long one, but it's also immersive and comfy as fuck. I'd recommend the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation.

W&P tl;dr: Napoleon a shit

[Anonymous No.5132764]

So is the P&V translation the best? Or does that not apply to Tolstoy?

[Anonymous No.5132789]

>>5132764
personally i read the first book of maudes, p&v, and edmonds to see which one i liked most before continuing, and i liked edmonds most by a mile
p&v was kind of clunky (which from what i gather is probably more faithful) and the having to read the french dialogue in tiny footnotes totally disrupted the flow for me.
the edmonds might not have been as accurate, but it was really beautifully written and just a great experience.

[Anonymous No.5132816]

>>5132711
Pretty much this exactly. It's a period piece soap opera in book form; take that as you will.

[Anonymous No.5132845]

>>5132711
>>5132816
>there are people on /lit/ who can't into in-depth studies of the human condition
Guys.

[Anonymous No.5132896]

>>5132845
You wanna make that argument for Tolstoy you cite Anna Karenina, not W&P ya pleb.

[Anonymous No.5132912]

Is Anna Karenina good?

[Anonymous No.5132916]

>>5132912

Do you like NTR?

[Anonymous No.5132921]

>>5132896
>>5132912
>1) Death of Ilyn Ivanonovnovich
>2) Anna Karenenenina
>3) W&P

[Anonymous No.5132942]

>>5132921
>Death of Ilyn Ivanonovnovich
Good until the cop out ending.

[Anonymous No.5133053]

>Russian book
>every character has three names, used interchangeably

They deserved everything that happened to them in the twentieth century

[Anonymous No.5133076]

>>5133053
They aren't used interchangeably, they are used to carefully delineate the social hierarchies