War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

I finished this book by listening to it from audible.com, all 30-50 hrs of it, unabridged. It took 3 months, but it was very good and well worth my time. It was hard to keep track of all the characters by just listening at first, but with a little help from my book club buddies, we met once a month, I got it figured out and I just kept going.

It was well worth the time. Tolstoy is a master at portraying so many different characters and making them believeable . I think I know people who are just like some of those characters. Also, his insight into the war of 1812 and the defeat of Napoleon are very interesting. I don't know much about Russian history, but Tolstoy insists that the defeat of the French was an accident. After the fact, he says, the historians and the czar talk about how the Russian retreat into the coldness at the time of winter was on purpose to draw the unprepared French into the freezing Russian weather and that they knew the French would lose that way. In fact the French army lost hundreds of thousands of soldier to the freezing Russian winter and it marked the beginning of the end of Napoleon's empire, but Tolstoy makes the case and a good one at that, that it was by accident and that man has little to do with how events actually take place. God knows what will happen and man fulfills roles, but really has little control over the results on a wide scale. Napoleon who had been a master in conquest made several uncharacteristic mistakes such as not to stay in Moscow after he conquered it where there were plenty of supplies for his armies and then retreating in the middle of winter with no winter clothing for his troops and on top of that, retreating by the route least beneficial to his troops. Had he just stayed in Moscow or even retreated by a different route, his outcome may have been very different.

Pierre was probably the main character of this long novel and his ideas and philosophies and how they change over the course of his life is very interesting. He starts out with nothing and unexpectedly inherits a great fortune and title. He marries a selfish woman and hates himself for being like all the other rich people, but he does have nobler aspirations and by the end of the book, he reaches them His wife dies and he is free to marry for love and has children and acts on his nobler desires in regards to his subjects and fellowman.

The romantic stories were fun to read, and I liked how they all came out. I’m sure most men love the details of the war scenes and the women like the romantic relationships. This book’s got it all. No wonder it has stood the test of time. I feel like I really understand what it was like to be an upper class Russian at the time of Napoleon’s invasion. I have a greater understanding and appreciation for these people. And I highly recommend this book!!