Tremendous narration

War and Peace is what it is. You may find that it's too long or has too many characters or there's too many digressions on the nature of history. If so you won't make it very far. But one thing you don't want to worry about is having it ruined by the narrator. I haven't listened to the other versions but can say confidently that you will not do better than Edoardo Ballerini. He's amazing. This is the first book I've listened to by him and already I'd rank him as one of the best in the business. I won't say the 55 hours flew by because it definitely took a long time to get through but there was never a time that I was tempted to abandon it and listen to something else. Obviously that's mostly about the great story but it's also a tribute to the narration.

15 people found this helpful

A non-fiction fiction epic humanizing history

I finished Leo Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ today after having listened to it over the past month. Tolstoy makes a lot of critiques on how we interpret human history: so many interpretations are nationalistic, have agendas and glorify certain figures as ‘great men’. His solution was to develop a series of interweaving first person accounts in an effort to recreate what it must’ve been like for the soldiers as well as the leaders during a time of great turmoil in Europe. There isn’t any one villain, even Napoleon who is depicted as either a devil or a saint depending on the historian’s view of conquering or liberating Europe is depicted as a human. Everyone in this book is depicted as a human being, and not as a ‘great figure’. Everyone has flaws, has redeeming qualities, and can be pitied. Napoleon and the serfs alike. Because Tolstoy remains impartial for most of the book, save the epilogue, we’re left to make our own histories from the experiences of the characters. But it’s more than just political and military history, in between the chapters depicting the horrors of war there’s an intricate web of relationships, love & loss. I found myself getting pretty bored listening to the courtship and drama which consists of half of the book, but in hindsight it gives appropriate context to why the characters do the things that they do in relation to war and politics, and the point Tolstoy is trying to make in deliberately humanizing ‘great men’. Another ‘antagonist’ in the book, my favorite character Dolokhov, is seen as this drunken violent rebel who is a pretty sore loser, acquires all of his friend’s wealth through taking advantage of his gambling problem, antagonizes a duel with the virtuous albeit naive Pierre, and ties a police officer to a bear and throws them both into a river. Even Dolokhov has strict values, protects the people he loves, and fights ferociously for his country. Looking back at all of the characters, all of the scenes however elaborate, epic, or mundane, draws me to the conclusion that this book is truly a fantastic composite of human experience of men and women pushed to extremes, both personally and politically. At the heart of this story is a raw loving, pitiable, extraordinary humanity that is still relevant 150 years later.

6 people found this helpful

Worth it!

Yes, it’s long, but Ballerini, the reader keeps up the pace. It’s many books in one — history, philosophy, romance, sociology, domestic drama. Why spend your credits on 4 books when you can listen one great one?

6 people found this helpful

Great Story!

Wow what a story, I kind of liked Anna Karenina a little bit better, I like romances. Pierre was such a fascinating character; I will never forget the moment he meets the freemason at the train station, that whole chapter will stick with me till I die. Narration was so-so, had to get used to the American Narration, I love British Narrations and I wish the guy that read Anna Karenina did this one, would have made it more tolerable imo. you get used to it about 33% in. I had to follow along with the book at the beginning, it starts off confusing and a mess, but I put the book down about 15% in; after that it became very enjoyable to just let it slip into the ears. Worth the money and time.

3 people found this helpful

Wonderful!

The performance was spectacular. The reader was able to do accents and pronounce French very well. I loved this story and feel accomplished having finished such a long novel. We’ll worth it.

3 people found this helpful

best novel ever written? fantastic narration!

best novel ever written? fantastic narration! best novel ever written? fantastic narration! i loved it!

2 people found this helpful

Great Narration Brings Classic to Life!

I went with the War and Peace combo platter: I listened to the Amazon Classic version translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude and read the version translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. I much preferred the Pevear/Volokhonsky version. There were times while listening on Audible when I was taken aback by a word or phrase used as it seemed too modern. Maybe it was just me, as I know little of that period in history, but it felt out of place. I had the same reaction to some of the words and phrasing in the Emily Wilson translation of The Odyssey. War and Peace was every bit as epic as advertised, and as I expected it to be. I was worried going in that I would drown in this tome trying to keep track of the MANY characters so I printed out a character guide from the interwebs and it did help me early on, but gradually I was able to sort things out and the excellent narration by Edoardo Ballerini really helped also as he gave each of the main characters a distinct voice. Still, sometimes it did take a bit to recall a character's background as they could fall in to the novel’s background for several hundred pages before becoming part of the plot again. The best parts of the novel in my opinion were the stories focused on the drama surrounding five Russian aristocratic families during the Russian war with the French during the early 19th century. There were so many memorable characters and it was interesting to read how their lives changed over the 15 years the book covers, especially during the war. I didn't know going in that the Russian aristocracy spoke French and were well versed in French culture, so it was surprising how much French was spoken by Russians throughout the novel. As expected, there was plenty of war strategy discussion and period history in the novel which provided background and helped explain the motivations of the characters. I found this all rather interesting, and it brought the time period to life for me. What I didn't like was the historical fiction aspect of the novel, particularly involving Napoleon. Historical fiction is fine in small doses but I'm not keen on listening to speeches from Napoleon which were invented by an author. In a related note, in the Appendix, Tolstoy does address the divergence of his descriptions of historical events to accounts of historians. In the paper book, there are also 42 pages of notes and a 24 page Historical Index. Impressive. The amount of work that went in to this novel is mind boggling! The only other complaint I have is the anti-climactic nature of the second Epilogue. In retrospect, the novel wrapped up nicely in the first Epilogue but at the time I was excited to see that I had 36 pages to go and was looking forward to more "story". Overall, I really enjoyed War and Peace. I found most of it to be fantastic and hard to put down / turn off. What a remarkable, complex novel this is, and I'm so glad I took the time to experience it. I listened to a good share of this on long nightly walks with one of my dogs and during my working-at-home, never-go-anywhere life I really looked forward to bundling up and hitting the road with him every day. 4.5 stars.

1 person found this helpful

Excellent Narration of a Great Novel

This is perhaps my fourth reading of War and Peace and my second audio version. Ballerini is a great narrator, far superior to the other one who is available on Audible. My only complaint is with the odd paragraph or sentence that is edited out. This seems to be the case for nearly all audiobooks; even the "unabridged" versions are abridged. It would be nice if they really were the whole book.

A great work of historical fiction

Tolstoy's War and Peace is a grand work that lays out in great detail the struggles of the Russian people to overcome the Invasion Napoleon's Army. The personal details of the lives and characters of these struggles are descriptive, informative, and insightful.

a classic indeed, great performance

I love the book, the writing is superb character development fantastic, many story arcs ebb and flow with ease and clarity. my main challenge was maintaining patience through some long-winded passages where it felt like Tolstoy wanted to be more of a philosopher than an author. although I did learn a great deal about the historical accuracy of the war.