War & Peace always seems to be referred to as this `boring, biggest book ever done' but asking around the office today i have discovered no one has actually read it...

any1 had the pleasure?...or misfortune? or the TIME!


im guessin its about a war....then things turn out ok haha...:confused:

I read it once in Shampas hairdressers whilst waiting for my turn for a hair cut.

If anyone else has ever been to Shampas (now closed for several years) you'll know what I mean.

Read it all?!?!?

How long were you waiting? :P :hihi:

nope, never :clap:

whats it actually about neways? :confused:

I got through about 10 pages before realising I have the reading staminar of a flea and went and did something else.

Its about the napoleonic wars isnt it? Or am I thinking of something else?

its well worth persevering with. Tolstoy is a master of language and also manages to combine very sharp insights into human nature and also the socio-political situation of his time. The novel has a very broad sweep, but also shifts focus effortlessly to shed light on particular personalities and sitiations. His descriptions of the characters, both of their physical appearance and also of their innrer thoughts and feelings, are wonderful. What might put people off though apart from the length, is his syntax and use of long sentences and circumlocutory phrasiology. He is not alone among 19th century novelists to exhibit this tendency. Dickens is another case in point. But in the 19th century there were fewer entertainment options and so people had more time to ponder and savour over long works of fiction. If you think reading Tolstoy in English translation is hard going, you want to try reading him in Russian. Whereas i find some other Russian novelists (e.g. Dostoevsky) fairly easy to read in Russian, Tolstoy has defeated me: his sentence constructions in War and Peace are too complexx for anyone without a very good command of the Russian language to cope with.

PS, if you can't cope with the book, try getting hold of the old BBC series, starring a very young Anthony Hopkins in the main part.

Originally posted by LordChaverly
its well worth persevering with. Tolstoy is a master of language and also manages to combine very sharp insights into human nature and also the socio-political situation of his time. The novel has a very broad sweep, but also shifts focus effortlessly to shed light on particular personalities and sitiations. His descriptions of the characters, both of their physical appearance and also of their innrer thoughts and feelings, are wonderful. What might put people off though apart from the length, is his syntax and use of long sentences and circumlocutory phrasiology. He is not alone among 19th century novelists to exhibit this tendency. Dickens is another case in point. But in the 19th century there were fewer entertainment options and so people had more time to ponder and savour over long works of fiction. If you think reading Tolstoy in English translation is hard going, you want to try reading him in Russian. Whereas i find some other Russian novelists (e.g. Dostoevsky) fairly easy to read in Russian, Tolstoy has defeated me: his sentence constructions in War and Peace are too complexx for anyone without a very good command of the Russian language to cope with.

PS, if you can't cope with the book, try getting hold of the old BBC series, starring a very young Anthony Hopkins in the main part.

What he said :P

Seriously, I read it as a young teenager, and it is a fabulous book, if a trifle long-winded in places. I found the Russian names with their patronymics fascinating, and it probably stimulated my interest in Russian history, which I went on to study at university.

The BBC series of "War and Peace" is one of my favourite-ever programmes - I loved it and keep wishing it would be repeated on one of the sky channels, but no joy so far. Anthony Hopkins was pretty scary even then in the role of Pierre - I remember not liking him at all, although he's supposed to be the main character!

StarSparkle :)

i cudunt even get thru lord chavely's post!!!

:) haha..

i'll stick to garfield strips and the daily star shall i?

Originally posted by MTheo
i cudunt even get thru lord chavely's post!!!

:) haha..

i'll stick to garfield strips and the daily star shall i?

They're probably a lot more interesting, to be honest MTheo!

StarSparkle :P

PS I love Garfield :love:

It's not a bad read, when you consider the opposition. I once went for a month's Interailling trip with half of Sam Richardson's epistolatory afflatus Clarissa. Literally broke the thing in half and took the last portion. Failed to finish it in a month of interminable train rides. Unfortunately had to sit an exam on the awful thing when returned with suntan and hangover to university. Dreadful.

War and Peace is a bit like Zola's Germinal in its intensity and grinding depressingness. Think The Full Monty, four thousand times longer and without much of a happy ending. But it's still not as terrible as Clarissa.

i've never read it, but i know of a lass at work who used to take it on holiday with her.

She used to get it out whenever her boyfriend, now husband, got the horn, and read it while he 'got on with it' as she pleasantly put it!! Poor lad ...i think she finished it too!

sounds like a few people swallowed a dictionary :confused:

never read it but thats probably 'cos all the hype about it being longwinded put me off. Thing is I love reading, tho' by the sounds of some of the others posts, my reading material would appear very basic :lol:

Not read it yet, and haven't seen the tv series (I don't possess a tv out of personal choice).

I have seen the film though. It's epic! Saw it in Nottingham in the 60s or 70s. The film was split in two, and shown in parts over a fortnight. I think it lasted somewhere between 7 - 9 hours. Can't remember the plot now, but recall watching endless battle scenes.

Originally posted by 1_HotGal
i've never read it, but i know of a lass at work who used to take it on holiday with her.

She used to get it out whenever her boyfriend, now husband, got the horn, and read it while he 'got on with it' as she pleasantly put it!! Poor lad ...i think she finished it too!


Surprises me he choose to marry her....nowt worse than a boring f***!!!!!