I finished War and Peace last night. Started it based on a cool idea I saw on Reddit towards the beginning of the year where you read one chapter a day for the year (there are approximately 365 chapters I guess). I realized pretty quickly that this method didn’t really work for me as I need to engage for longer stretches of time to really get into a book, so I wouldn’t touch it for a month then pick it up and read large chunks, until finally over the past few weeks I motored through the last 400 or so pages.
(Spoilers for a 150 year old book I suppose?)
I’m not even really sure what that was. Started off as what appeared to be a historical novel but by the end it had dipped into something far more. Tolstoy is able to capture the human spiritual experience better than any author I’ve read in the past, all who are specifically writing on the topic, as he just casually drops into it in the middle of a chapter on a military engagement or a dinner party. It’s really quite astounding. I’m generally not all that interested in war games and the description of actual battles, but he does a really good job of rising above the drudgery by interspersing philosophy, theology, and metaphysics in these chapters.
He has a really interesting take towards the latter half and especially the second epilogue on history and historians attributing the will of one or a few men (i.e., Napoleon) to that of millions (the French). Like what really causes them to murder and invade Russia? Is it because Napoleon said to or is it something smaller that history is unable to capture? If you’re really into military strategy and the influence of generals this riff really goes after how much they matter in the grand scheme. I’m not sure I agree with all of it but it’s a cool take as he really hammers out some thought experiments.
Anyway, it was outstanding and something I’d recommend anyone read, if only for bits like this:
i’ve read war and peace during middle school and re-read when i was doing consulting work and was traveling a lot and had nothing to do. the book is allright imo. there are lot better books out there that are more captivating. re reading it did make me like it a bit more, there is a mini series adaptation.
in any case, my favorite character was andrei bolkonsky. he seems like an honorable guy whose traits i valued when i was younger. i also like anatole for his party mode mentality, and dolokhov cuz he’s a psycho that constatnly tries to come up in life. apparently the most succesful person in the book is boris who came from a meager background and rose up. big fan of helene too for suckering pierre.
i hate the dumbasses of the book. particularly pierre cuz this dumass actually thought he was enlightened and nicolai rostov cuz he was so easy to con and a disgrace to his family. natasha is also annoying as fuck. i feel really bad for her bff sonya who essentially became her old maid. sad!
pierre is a lucky bastard who inherited a shit ton of wealth and almost squandered it. if it wasnt for boris’s mom, he wouldnt have shit and woulda gotten conned by the kuragin clan. he almost threw away his entire life thinking he was special and was conned by many. He got lucky with natasha cuz he was a nice guy and natasha was damaged goods. natasha is a dumb hot chick who was easily suckered by anatole through seduction just cuz she didnt get what she wanted immediately. she fell in love easily to every rising star until her heart was broken up to so many pieces that she just went for the loser fat nice guy. if she was just loyal from the start, andrei bolskonsky would not have gotten depressed and gotten himself killed, this is a sad tragic ending to an honorable hard working bsd with a lotta potential and ambition.
actually i learned a lot from this book. essentially to not be depressed. not to do stupid things like gamble or be sucked in by relgious people. and most importantly never trust the hoes. i am a big fan of how histroical figures popped in every now and then with some insight on how they thought. it’s a nice way to see perspective on how napoleon was kicking ass and then was humbled hwen he foguht the russian bear.
The entire point of Pierre’s arc is that he searched for meaning and happiness in such avenues as money and fame and continually came up empty. It wasn’t until his experience with a lowly serf in captivity that he finally was able to see that everything he had been searching for was already there, a power greater than himself within himself, and certainly had nothing to do with wealth.
“actually i learned a lot from this book. essentially to not be depressed.”
From my experience you alone can’t will yourself into being happy.
either be really successful in life naturally, or significantly lower your expectations.
also that serf stroy is when he was in prison? i dont recall the scene. what was so important about it? i thought that his life became a-ok once he bagged natasha who is clearly out of his league.
