War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

War and Peace

By- Leo Tolstoy

Stars-☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Rating- M

War and Peace is a very long and complicated book. With over 500 characters, I was not surprised when I discovered that it had taken me over a month to read. Despite it's reputation for being dull, I found it quite enjoyable. Despite the fact that I was not reading the original Russian, the language was still incredibly hard to decipher. I can't imagine what it must be like in Russian! Of course it was a difficult read, and of course there were incredibly drawn out, boring scenes, but in the end, War and Peace turned out to be an incredible and engaging book about love, politics, morals, and the concept of history. In this book there are many different families that interact to play out a passionate, romantic plot. Some of the men of these families leave for the war, where they explore more of Russian society and the ethics and morals of war. And finally Tolstoy speaks to us with his brief but eloquent passages about history, and cause and effect. He uses the book much like evidence for an essay, and his passages scattered across the book are quite interesting, and give the novel a new flavor. But, though most of the book is amazing, certain parts of it can get rather monotonous. War and Peace is comprised of several smaller "books," each about a hundred pages long. While most of these books are very interesting, there are always some that can seem more like a trudge through the mud than a pleasant read. Nonetheless reading this parts are worth it, because they always lead to a better chapter. I rated this Mature not because of the content but because this book is very difficult to read, and not for the young or faint of heart.