Book Review: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (Book One)

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (Book 1)

Synopsis (From GoodReads)

Tolstoy's epic masterpiece intertwines the lives of private and public individuals during the time of the Napoleonic wars and the French invasion of Russia. The fortunes of the Rostovs and Bolkonskys, of Pierre, Natasha, and Andrei, are intimately connected with the national history that is played out in parallel with their lives. Balls and soirees alternate with councils of war and the machinations of statesmen and generals, scenes of violent battles with everyday human passions in a work whose extraordinary imaginative power has never been surpassed.

Rating

4/5 stars

Review

This book review will be written in multiple parts as I wanted to keep up with a weekly book review but War and Peace is 1,844 pages long and not going to be read in a week but since the book itself is broken up into multiple books, I figured I would post a review of each mini-book. 

War and Peace offers a glimpse into a society I know little about and book 1 seems to be building to something. There are a lot of characters introduced in book 1, so it is a little difficult to keep everything straight. Thankfully, Tolstoy offers a family guide in the beginning of the book. He also discusses the cunning of people to get what they wanted in the nineteenth century Russian society. I was surprised at how cunning the women were, even though I shouldn't be. 

I don't really have a favorite character but I was impressed with the character of the Princess Mary. She is interesting with her blind devotion to her father and strong faith in religion. It's not anything you see in any other character. I'm also interested in the character of Pierre. He doesn't seem to fit in to Russian aristocracy but he's forced to play a role. It will be interesting to see how he adapts in the following books. 

On to book 2...

Happy Reading!