War and Peace (Penguin Classics)
by Leo Tolstoy, Rosemary Edmonds
List Price:
Our Price: $14.95
You Save: $1.05 (7%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Leo Tolstoy, Rosemary EdmondsEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); Russian (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1982-07-29
ISBN: 0140444173
Number of pages: 147
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Book Reviews of War and Peace (Penguin Classics)
Book Review: What War and Peace taught me
Summary: 5 Stars
I finished reading War and Peace sooner than I had expected. In spite of its size, the book reads rather fast. The characterization is excellent; Tolstoy's strength lies in his ability to create real people with complex emotional and intellectual make up, who love and fear, people with strengths and weaknesses. In War and Peace there are not "perfect" people, everybody has within themselves the roots of human nature that can spread out as goodness or evil. In my search for a hero, it was comforting to me to perceive the shortcomings of those that one could classify as "perfect"; and, surprisingly, one could find goodness in those that could be classified as the wicked-such is the case of Dolhokov, an antagonist character without scrupulous and yet full of genuine love and dedication for his mother and hunchback sister.
Tolstoy's work astounds me with the depth with which he understood human nature. When a character does something, feels this or that, or behaves on a certain way, I often think, "Yes, I've done that!"
A great lesson about love is found in Prince Andrew's meditations on the matter. To experience the feeling of love which is the very essence of the soul and does not require an object. I particularly like his conclusion, "It is possible to love someone dear to you with human love, but an enemy can only be loved by Divine love... When loving with human love one may pass from love to hatred, but Divine love cannot change. No, neither death nor anything else can destroy it. It is the very essence of the soul."
I was very taken by Tolstoy's development of Pierre, who eternally quests for truth, and ultimately finds that most truths are not so hidden and mystical after all. Natasha, so determined to seize the world, so determined to have the world fall in love with her and her with it, only to find happiness and realization in her wife and mother duties. Trying to find a true hero is difficult. I must admit that almost every character, at some point, was for me the book hero. The minute I read about Pierre, I felt the he was the one, the big hero; but I also felt the same way about Prince Andrew, and Natasha, and Nicholas, and Princess Mary, and even Sonya. Eventually, as their characters developed and showed more of their human side, I became disenchanted and my search for a hero, and instead, I learned to accept them with their complexities. I'd like to add, however, that if someone were to ask me whom would I consider my hero perhaps my response will surprise more than one. I would have to say "my hero" is Kutusov. I feel that, somehow, Tolstoy tries very hard to excuse and even exalt him in his book. The fact that this commander-in-chief devoted all powers not to slaying and destroying men but to saving and showing pity on them is reason enough for me to claim him my personal hero.
War and Peace works in many levels: as a romantic novel-following the lives of various characters; it is also a historic account of the Napoleonic wars and of social history at that time; it has chapters filled with the "science" of war. Tolstoy also includes his views and his perspective in philosophy and history. The book also deals with many issues, including leadership. Tolstoy's basic analysis of humanity is that instead of great leaders such as Napoleon and Czar Alexander I being held responsible for the great occurrences of the time, it was instead the result of a million individual decisions from the common people participating. In the beginning of the battle of Borodino, Tolstoy argues that the course of battle is not a matter of command or control but of fate. What Tolstoy attempts to capture is not the simplicity of a war and peace relationship; the complexity lies in our reaction and the decision we come to about our own roles and the stands we take between war and peace. Tolstoy's own ambiguous definition of free will, "In history what is known to us we call the laws of necessity; what is unknown, we call free will", presents another aspect of human nature that is only shaped through consistent existence pattern. The novel itself sets forth such a theory of history, concluding that there is a minimum of free choice; according to Tolstoy, an inexorable historical force rules all. He argues that although Napoleon may be the "expression of that age" as a leader, his intellectual activity is simply produced and created by the movement of people. Tolstoy further argues that Napoleon "genius" comes from sheer chance and his triumph from mere luck.
I do agree with Tolstoy's idea that no great general can win or lose a war by himself. People win the wars by their courage, their sacrifices, and their determination. So, in effect, War and Peace basically describes and somewhat summarizes how we, as people grow and turn into who we are according to the challenges and people we meet in our daily lives.
To end, I'd like to say that I appreciate Tolstoy's effort to not portray the horrors of society of the period - the horrors of serfdom, the immuring of wives, the flogging of grown-up sons, Saltikova, and so on. Tolstoy is a great example of what I already knew was true - that a good work doesn't need the use of foul language, and doesn't need to appeal to vulgarity to make the book interesting or real.
A final note: I realize now that, after reading War and Peace, I have learned in such short time more about Russia, war strategies, the French language, masonry, aristocracy, the 19th century traditions in Russia, Napoleon, Czar Alexander I, Kutuzov, Tolstoy, and many more things, by reading this great book than any class I've ever taken, and had such fun doing so!
Summary of War and Peace (Penguin Classics)
Few would dispute the claim of "War and Peace" to be regarded as the greatest novel in any language. This massive chronicle, to which Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) devoted five whole years shortly after his marriage, portrays Russian family life during and after the Napoleonic war. Tolstoy's faith in life and his piercing insight lend universality to a work which holds the mirror up to nature as truly as those of Shakespeare or Homer.Classics Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Classics Books
Native sonby Richard Wright
Perennial Library; Published: 1987; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.75
Native Son: And How Bigger Was Bornby Richard Wright
Perennial; Published: 1993-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $60.00
Raphael and the Noble Taskby Catherine Salton
Harper; Published: 2000-10-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.86
Price in other shops:
The Great Divorce CDby C. S. Lewis
HarperAudio; Published: 2003-11-25; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.02
Price in other shops:
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Black Coffee (Poirot)by Agatha Christie
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2002-12-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $68.32
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1960s)by Joan Didion
Flamingo; Published: 2001-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.25
Similar Books and other products
Crime and Punishmentby Fyodor Dostoevsky
Vintage; Published: 1993-03-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.10
Price in other shops:
Slaughterhouse-Fiveby Kurt Vonnegut
Dell; Published: 1991-11-03; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.51
Price in other shops:
A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin Classics)by Charles Dickens
Penguin Classics; Published: 2003-05-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.41
Price in other shops:
Anna Karenina (Signet Classics)by Leo Tolstoy
Signet Classics; Published: 2002-11-05; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.45
Price in other shops:
For Whom the Bell Tollsby Ernest Hemingway
Simon & Schuster; Scribner; Published: 1995-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
War and Peace (Oxford World's Classics)by Leo Tolstoy, Louise and Aylmer Maude, Amy Mandelker
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2010-11-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.92
Price in other shops:
Anna Karenina (Oxford World's Classics)by Leo Tolstoy
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2008-07-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
Anna Kareninaby Leo Tolstoy
Penguin Classics; Published: 2004-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.47
Price in other shops:
Crime and Punishment (Signet Classics)by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Penguin Group USA; Signet Classics; Published: 2006-03-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.73
Price in other shops:
Crime and Punishment (Dover Thrift Editions)by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Dover Publications; Dover Publications; Published: 2001-08-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.19
Price in other shops: