Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Book: War and Peace

War and Peace War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy


My review


rating: 5 of 5 stars
A great book. Then again, I'm a huge Tolstoy fan so I'm not what you would call "impartial."

My favorite passage was the section describing the French troops coming into a deserted Moscow in 1812. The city was empty of all the gentry and nobles but some of the peasants were still there. Tolstoy equated the city to a bee hive without its queen. The left over bees do activities that are somewhat similar to what they had been doing but not exactly and buzz around in drunken, lost circles looking for purpose. The bee keeper comes in then and burns what is left over of the hive (which is what the French did to Moscow by looting and burning it). The passage is powerful and beautiful in its elegency.

The only thing I could have done without was the lengthy second Epilogue. It didn't tell me anything that Tolstoy hadn't already said in less words during the novel. Unneeded in my view.

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