Tolstoy’s War and Peace

So, I’m reading “War and Peace.” I know, I know, “…people don’t actually read that book,” you’re thinking, they just strategically drop it in conversation every once and a while, or keep it in the hip pocket in the off chance they need it for a trivia game.

But, I figured if I was going to make my way through the classics, Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” was an inevitable stop in the journey and what better time to knock out the 1000+ pages then now while I’m young and my eye sight is still ok.

It started off quite slow for me, trying to wrap my head around the dozens of characters who each have 3 different names depending on who is addressing them and a culture and time so different than my own.  I keep having to reference the character list in the front of the book to keep the Bolkonskys, Rostovs and Bezuhovs all sorted out.

However, I’m now 400 pages in and it’s starting to flow for me.  I feel like I’ve caught the stride that a reader must find in every book, especially one like this, if he has any chance of making it through with any understanding or appreciation of what just happened.

The timing of this book for me is quite significant because the topics of “war” and “peace” have been taking up most of my brain’s bandwidth for the past year or so.

When men take up arms against each other it sends a ripple throughout all of society.  People must decide whether they’re for, against, or in many cases, not sure.

Reading about the individual thoughts and passions of Russian families and soldiers in the early 1800′s  as they go to war against Napolean’s France helps one realize that while much is different about fighting wars today, on the human level, a surprising amount remains the same.

Tolstoy seems to have a startling grasp of all of this and it is what makes his writing…classic.  This seems to be one of those books that rewards those willing to make the effort.

The following are some passages I’ve enjoyed…

War

“…there was no one between the squadron and the enemy, and between them lay that terrible border-line of uncertainty and dread, like the line dividing the living from the dead.  All the soldiers were conscious of that line, and the question whether they would cross it or not, and how they would cross it, filled them with excitement.”

“Just as in the clock, the result of the complex action of countless different wheels and blocks is only the slow, regular movement of the hand marking the time, so the result of all the complex human movement of those 160,000 Russians and Frenchmen – of all the passions, hopes, regrets, humiliations, sufferings, impulses of pride, of fear, and of enthusiasm of those men – was only the loss of the battle of Austerlitz, the so-called battle of the three Emperors, that is, the slow shifting of the registering hand on the dial of the history of mankind.”

“Every soldier felt cheered at heart by knowing that where he was going, to that unknown spot were going also many, many more of our men.”

Faith

“…while thou art more foolish and artless than a little babe, who, playing with the parts of a cunningly fashioned watch, should rashly say that because he understands not the use of that watch, he does not believe in the maker who fashioned it.”

Flattery

“…and flattered him with that delicate flattery that goes hand in hand with conceit, and consists in a tacit assumption that one’s companion and oneself are the only people capable of understanding all the folly of the rest of the world and the sagacity and profundity of their own ideas.”

More to come….

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Tagged as: Books, faith, Quotes, war, Writing