Several factors apply for readers when considering such a work as War and Peace, but I'll mention just two that come to mind. First, the sheer size of this book alone is off-putting to most. It is assumed that something that large couldn't possibly be fully engaging the entire time. Large and dull seem coequal, and besides, Tolstoy is a Russian, so I probably won't even understand it even in translation. Secondly, many readers prefer fantasy and escapist literature rather than the linear narrative historical fiction provides. One preference is not superior to the other, yet the purposes conflict. Tolstoy brilliantly captures our differences in the following highlight from War and Peace: "At that meeting he was struck for the first time by the endless variety of men's minds, which prevents a truth from ever presenting itself identically to two persons."
Here are some more notable segments from the book.
"All we can know is that we know nothing. And that is the height of human wisdom." Tolstoy seems to strongly believe this, as over and over again, he reminds us that what we think we know (about history, for example) is based often on faulty information. In the epilogue of the book, he spends a great deal of time asking his reader questions like, "What is power?" and "What forces move nations?" Most entertaining throughout the book is his description of Napoleon, and his inexplicable rise to power.
Probably the most intriguing character in the book is Pierre, and at one point in his life he seeks after God by joining the Freemasons. His mentor describes how to find God by saying, "He is not to be apprehended by reason, but by life." Pierre's conversion takes place here less than one third of the way through War and Peace, and it is here you realize Tolstoy is a genius. Melville's great achievement in Moby Dick is describing the color white, here Tolstoy achieves the same by describing God and man's constant struggle of reconciliation.
Humility is also on display in a later passage when Pierre acknowledges his battle with ego and self-glory. "My God, I cannot get on with him at all. The cause of this is my egotism. I set myself above him and so become much worse than he, for he is lenient to my rudeness while I on the contrary nourish contempt for him. O God, grant that in his presence I may rather see my own vileness, and behave so that he too may benefit." Moments of brilliance like this one in War and Peace will have you doing a quick self-examination of how you treat others.
In another scene, Princess Mary is thoughtful concerning eternal values and the stuff of life. "The longer she lived, the more experience and observation she had of life, the greater was her wonder at the short-sightedness of men who seek enjoyment and happiness here on earth: toiling, suffering, struggling, and harming one another, to obtain the impossible, visionary, sinful happiness. And they all struggled and suffered and tormented one another and injured their souls, their eternal souls, for the attainment of benefits which endure but for an instant. Not only do we know this ourselves, but Christ, the Son of God, came down to earth and told us that this life is but for a moment and is a probation; yet we cling to it and think to find happiness in it. 'How is it that no one realizes this?' thought Princess Mary." Certainly this is a universal commentary on the pursuit of love, the cause of war, or our own self-indulgence.
Do we deceive ourselves? Perhaps not consciously, yet this deception is widely accepted. Consider the following rant by Pierre: "Helene[his wife], who has never cared for anything but her own body and is one of the stupidest women in the world," thought Pierre, "is regarded by people as the acme of intelligence and refinement, and they pay homage to her. Napoleon Bonaparte was despised by all as long as he was great, but now that he has become a wretched comedian the Emperor Francis wants to offer him his daughter in an illegal marriage. The Spaniards, through the Catholic clergy, offer praise to God for their victory over the French on the fourteenth of June, and the French, also through the Catholic clergy, offer praise because on that same fourteenth of June they defeated the Spaniards. My brother Masons swear by the blood that they are ready to sacrifice everything for their neighbor, but they do not give a ruble each to the collections for the poor, and they intrigue, the Astraea Lodge against the Manna Seekers, and fuss about an authentic Scotch carpet and a charter that nobody needs, and the meaning of which the very man who wrote it does not understand. We all profess the Christian law of forgiveness of injuries and love of our neighbors, the law in honor of which we have built in Moscow forty times forty churches---but yesterday a deserter was knouted to death and a minister of that same law of love and forgiveness, a priest, gave the soldier a cross to kiss before his execution."
Tolstoy uncovers how war really works and inquires if leaders in power influence the tides of war, or individuals collectively, inevitably, involuntarily determine the course and outcome. "They were moved by fear or vanity, rejoiced or were indignant, reasoned, imagining that they knew what they were doing and did it of their own free will, but they all were involuntarily tools of history, carrying on a work concealed from them but comprehensible to us."
War and Peace also has more than one love story. These rich portions of the book will anchor your soul to the one you love. The times of absence due to the war allow Tolstoy to explore fully the definition of love even when invaded by doubt. The transforming power of love is evident especially with the female characters, and Tolstoy vividly displays a scene where Princess Mary sees her lover return: "It was as if a light had been kindled in a carved and painted lantern and the intricate, skillful, artistic work on its sides, that previously seemed dark, coarse, and meaningless, was suddenly shown up in unexpected and striking beauty."
Tolstoy's insight into the human condition may be unparalleled. I was moved by his description of the experience of loss, especially of a spouse, amplified by the nearness of death itself: "After the deaths of her son and husband in such rapid succession, she felt herself a being accidentally forgotten in this world and left without aim or object for her existence. She ate, drank, slept, or kept awake, but did not live. Life gave her no new impressions. She wanted nothing from life but tranquility, and that tranquility only death could give her. But until death came she had to go on living, that is to use her vital forces. A peculiarity one sees in very young children and very old people was particularly evident in her. Her life had no external aims--only a need to exercise her various functions and inclinations was apparent. She had to eat, sleep, think, speak, weep, work, give vent to her anger, and so on, merely because she had a stomach, a brain, muscles, nerves, and a liver. She did these things not under any external impulse as people in the full vigor of life do, when behind the purpose for which they strive that of exercising their functions remains unnoticed. She talked only because she physically needed to exercise her tongue and lungs. She cried as a child does, because her nose had to be cleared, and so on. What for people in their full vigor is an aim was for her evidently merely a pretext."
There's so much one can say about War and Peace, but I mostly wanted it to speak for itself. It's a wonderful, moving novel, and uniquely tethers you to the story even upon completion.
