War and Peace — Fantastic, Solemn, Stimulating.

I finished War and Peace maybe a week ago, and I’ve been letting my feelings marinate about the book. I thought it was great. The depiction of the atrocities of War are striking and the historical storytelling is unlike anything I’ve ever read.

I saw someone (not sure where I read this) point out the parallelism of home life reflecting the battlefield and I thought that was fascinating. The characters are rich and the relationships are absurdly well developed. My favorite character is Prince Andrey in the book (the concluding period of his relationship with Natasha is one of the most moving things I’ve ever read). Pierre is my second favorite. I really don’t like how Nikolay turned out, I think his adult character is supposed to be (at least somewhat) like Levin in Anna Karenina, but he doesn’t have the same charm to me. I feel like Nikolay’s transition to an austere farmer without any of his previous gusto seems forced (like his relationship with princess Marya).

The Epilogue was somewhat of a slog and was my least favorite part of the book. I didn’t really enjoy Tolstoy’s desire to prove that Napoleon was just a pawn of divine providence. The writing is magnificent, but I think this is the big deficiency of the book. It’s a paragon of irony that one of the most influential Russian authors who has undoubtedly inspired and influenced a vast array of people tries to prove that individual’s actions are meaningless.

The war in the book is astounding, it felt like I was on the battlefield with Pierre, Andrey, Denisov (likable character also), and Petya (his death was pretty harsh, he portrayed the young man so well, you could feel the liveliness of his character and desire to prove himself). The juxtaposition between war and peacetime is incredible. After reading the book, I can confidently say it was amazing.

His writing of relationships is so amazing and I think that’s the biggest draw for me. That being said, I enjoyed Anna Karenina more. I think Anna Karenina is just a wildly enjoyable novel. War and Peace is piquant, it’s a solemn novel and it is great, but Anna Karenina was just one of the best stories I’ve ever read — also the characters felt so real, Oblonksy (Stepan) and Levin are just fantastic characters.

Regardless, War and Peace is great. Andrey and Pierre’s friendship was terrific, but in a different way than in Anna Karenina. Their friendship is more serious, lest jesting good-hearted fun, and more of an unlikely friendship between two disparate individuals. Also they both have this inherent struggle to find the purpose of life which is striking. Although, the conclusion they come to where they view everything with mocking contempt I didn’t exactly love or agree with.

My favorite motif in the book is Pierre’s struggle with the essential questions of life. It’s reflective of what many go through I feel. He feels real, which is what I like about most of Tolstoy’s characters, they feel as if you could go and meet them. And I like that none of his characters are perfect, I think this is one of the strengths of Tolstoy, he’s very good at charmingly highlighting character’s deficiencies.

I thought the book was great, the pushing and pulling of the forces of war propel the book to its conclusion, but still to me it’s the relationships and the characters that struck me.

P.S., the writing about war is chilling. Tolstoy’s own experience (he fought in the Crimean war), bleeds through the pages. He really shows the atrocities of war and makes the reader feel it. The underscoring of the fact that these are humans killing other humans is horrifying.