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War and Peace

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About this listen

Tolstoy's finest literary achievement.

The novel chronicles the history of the French invasion of Russia and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society through the stories of five Russian aristocratic families. The Encyclopædia Britannica states: "It can be argued that no single English novel attains the universality of the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace".

Public Domain (P)2018 Trout Lake Media Classics Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction Russia War Imperialism
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This is my second time through WAP after reading it in real life first. This time around affirmed my view that Tolstoy is great at setting the plot, unpacking battles, and reflecting on the philosophy of history, which I suspect influenced Heidegger. However, Tolstoy's moralising about good and bad family behaviour, the role of women, and the wonders of free masonry are pretty annoying to say the least. I prefer Pasternak's writing of female characters way more and the way he introduces masuline vulnerability. One wonders if Tolstoy ever actually met a woman, when he writes them so horrendously and condecendingly. Natasha Rostova... good grief. But all in all a great book of course and I got through it. It certainly brings home Russian suspicions towards the west. However, if I did make it through the book it was no thanks to the performance. The voice was great as such: deep and reassuring. However, the cadance of the sentences was insane. Unnatural pauses as he fumbled through the prose creates a highly distracting stilited effect. Halting mispronunciations of Russian names and strange mispronunciations of English words. Well, I kind of got used to it after 30 hours and made it to the end. P.s. Denisov (the guy with a speech impediment) is my favourite character by far and sadly under utilized by Tolstoy. Let me finish by quoting him "Ahhh you cwazy Wostovs!!!!"

Great book mauled by a dreadful performance

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One of the longest books ever written delivered so slowly and monotonously I often switched off and had to rewind. Terrible phrasing of sentences with very unnatural breaks and pauses. Thank goodness for the speed up option!
A lot to unpack with the actual novel. A reflection on Russian life and the disparity between men and women of the era. Of course, it was very one-sided and based on Tolstoy’s opinions. I found it very self-indulgent at times.

Dreadful narration

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Worth anyone’s time, the performance, no doubt due to length, is no nonsense and clear. The book itself is deserving of all praise.

Inspiring

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A great way to get through a really big book, especially if you have multiple reasons to have busy hands on mostly mindless projects on a regular basis.

Best way to read this book

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I was really looking forward to this. I spend a lot of time in my car and a great book is the best way to shorten the journey
But the oratory is appalling in this adaptation, I don’t think the author ever supposed the epic could be killed off so swiftly by such a wooden performance
Seriously, save your money -
Scroll past this one!

Worst delivery of an epic story EVER

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