i’m trying to figure out the best way to review this. i don’t want to spoil anything, but i also don’t want anyone to blindly jump into this. 

TLDR: great writing style, vivid characters, but the war/philosophical parts were too tedious. if you like russian classics, give it a shot. if you and classics don’t go together at all, skip it. if you like classics but you don’t feel like reading this behemoth of a book & still want to try tolstoy, read “anna karenina.”

some disclaimers: 1) i read this with two different formats. i read it mostly on my kindle because that was extremely convenient for me personally. on days that i needed to mix things up a bit because of boredom (sorry, guys), i switched to the audiobook narrated by thandiwe newton--which was FANTASTIC. 2) this is not my first russian classic, so don’t insult my intelligence just because i didn’t give this a higher rating. 3) i was determined to finish this, and i knew that if i didn’t finish this in under 2 months, i would dnf and never attempt it ever again. 4) this is not my first book from tolstoy. i read (and loved) “anna karenina” at 18 years old. 5) i don’t like big books. 6) i don’t care for war stories whatsoever. 6) i impulsively started this at night when i couldn’t sleep, thinking that it would help me to actually fall asleep. ironically, it immediately caught my attention and i ended up staying up all night.

there are four major volumes in this book, with a TON of chapters/books. volumes 1 and 2 are by far the best--no one can change my mind. unfortunately, the quality of volumes 3 and 4 go down significantly.

volumes 1 and 2 surprised me so much. they were full of drama and interesting politics. i was so impressed by tolstoy’s abilities to fully flesh out each character. everyone was so dynamic and real. even characters that i didn’t like (helene and anatole) felt extremely real. like actual people in real life, the characters had different expressions of traits/personalities that came to the surface around different characters. for example, prince andrew was an awful & dismissive husband to princess lise, and was a supportive friend to pierre.

the way that tolstoy wrote in general was amazing. you could immediately tell that he was fond of his characters. he made them his own. he was able to convey the very essence of them in such a way that made them real. he breathed life into them. and his fondness toward his characters made ME feel fond toward them, including ones that i despised. even when certain dislikable characters died, i still felt sorry about their deaths. and i felt like that due to tolstoy’s writing styles. i haven’t read a book by any author where i felt sad when a despicable/annoying character died. i was like “yay, good riddance.”

this was a lot funnier than i thought it would be. there was a scene when anatole and pierre let a bear (???) loose in the city, and it made me SCREAM. idk why, but it radiated florida man energy. and there was a character who challenged a man to a duel (even though he never wielded a gun in his LIFE). i was screaming so much.

so obviously, there are a million characters, but most of them aren’t important. volume 1 contained so many people, it was hard to keep track. but then, the number of characters drastically dwindles down in volume 2. so there’s no need to feel intimidated or scared. the most important characters (i think) to remember are: the rostov family, pierre, and the bolkonski family. i know some classics bro is going to chop my head off for that, but i don’t care. that’s the truth.

the best part of this book is “peace,” which is funny because the war part makes up a HUGE chunk of the book. i just think that tolstoy’s writing style shone more in the peace bits. the interpersonal relationships were more interesting and developed. his description of the family dynamics and society life were fantastic. i could imagine myself being there. it made me want to read more of his other books.

i will say, though, that my attention began to wane around volume 3. and i mentally checked out towards the end of volume 4 (like part two of the epilogue). the characters (like natasha, princess mary, nicholas, and pierre) weren’t acting like themselves anymore. i didn’t recognize them. and the fallout of the war was just too detailed and monotonous, that it just lost its meaning.

all in all, i thought it was a good book. but i personally wouldn’t read this again. i enjoyed parts of it, and loathed some parts as well.