War and Peace

[JacobF]

I started reading this about a week ago, and im up to page 147 now. Frankly, I'm finding it difficult to read. I can see why it is regarded as one of the best works of literature ever written, but there's so many different characters, so many setting changes, that sometimes I just can't understand what's going on or what the significance of any of the conflicts are.

I'm not a seasoned reader by any means. I'm 16, and while i have read my fair share of books this has got to be the most difficult of books I have read. So should I continue reading it and hope it gets a little easier? Or should I read it another time?

I don't hate reading it. I actually enjoy some of the parts. It just feels a little off-putting at times.

[bazarov]

Continue, please;you will enjoy it. Later, plot will be concentrated on max 10 characters and you'll catch it easily. It's a normal problem with War and Peace

Welcome!

[mortalterror]

You are too young for Tolstoy. Wait a few years. There's a time and a place for everything. If you read War and Peace at your age, I don't think you would understand it, no matter how intelligent you are. Tolstoy requires life experience, and sometimes cliffnotes.

[jikan myshkin]

it's some of the most beautiful prose ever written

[kasie]

Try making a list of the characters and their relationship to each other. Even if there is a list at the front of the copy, make your own and use it as a bookmark. Keep going for a few more chapters then if you really can't get into it, put it to one side for a while, maybe even a few years.

I wouldn't go as far as Mortalterror in suggesting you are too young for the book, but you may have bitten off more than you can chew at the moment - don't think you have failed, there's a right and a wrong time for some books: don't abandon it completely, just put it aside for the moment and come back to it in a few months/years with a bit more reading experience under your belt, then I am sure you will be able to cope with it and count it among the great reading events of your life.

[MorpheusSandman]

War and Peace is a bit of a rough start because there's a lot of historical acclimation that a reader must understand to comprehend the full context of the story. Even though I'm only about 2/3 of the way through it, W&P is already one of my favorite books. It touches on seemingly every major aspect of existence at one point or another, all the while maintaining a focus on characters and a narrative that I think is genuinely entertaining. More than any book I've read W&P has so many "moments" that just take your breathe away due to the lucidity of Tolstoy's writing, and what's remarkable is that it can be completely different things at different moments. Tolstoy is a master at manipulating reader perspective to make them understand what they need to understand when they need to understand it - like the way he immerses the reader in the battles before going off on even a small tangent about looking up at the sky.

The above posts may be right though that you're too young to appreciate W&P. I would've never even thought of reading it at 16. I'm 23 now and I can say that I haven't had any problem with it and find it quite engaging, but whether I would've 4 or 5 years ago I can't really say.

[Agatha]

I don't think that you can't fully understead and appreciate War and Peace at 16. I'm the best example that some of you are wrong I read it few months ago, and War and Peace is doubtless one of my favourite books. And I'm not an exception, I know a few other people, who read this book when they're teenager.
For me, the hardest parts of novel were descriptions of battles and all sorts of things connected with warfare. But even the descriptions of battles have some really beautiful moments and aren't just boring war reports. So it's certainly worth to get thorugh, let's say 'less interesting' parts of War and Peace. So really don't give up And maybe if you really can't read this, wait few weeks/months and try again.

[mortalterror]

With all due respect to Agatha, I doubt she understood this book if she read it at age 16 either. She may have enjoyed it, but that is another thing. This book deals at length with mature adult psychology and relationships. The characters in the book grow and change as a result of their experiences in life, experiences a sixteen year old wouldn't have had time to accumulate. Most people don't have the opportunity to see first hand the results of war, family death, adultery, religious conversion, marriage, childbirth, or reversal of fortune in the time frame we're working with. The world they know is malls, video games, family members, five or six friends which for all intents and purposes might as well be mirrors of themselves and the area around their home. But once you are older, and have met more of the personality types present in this book, gone through a few of the situations yourself, I think you are much more prepared to have a grown up appreciation of what Tolstoy accomplished.

The prose is not difficult. It is surprisingly clear and uncomplicated. If all you want is to turn the pages, look at the text, and then brag that you've read it; then go ahead.

[Leabhar]

Life experiences don't matter as much as maturity and intelligence for reading it. You could go through many experiences detailed in War and Peace, and being immature, you wouldn't get much experience out of it. I think an above average intelligence 16 year old has a better chance of understanding it all than a average intelligence 60 year old.

[BlackPuma]

I think you would make a GRAND mistake giving up!

I have just finished this masterpiece my self, and my only advice would be dont do yourself a diservice of stopping. There are many things in this book I have not gone through in life (im 26) but with the attachment I felt to each character I learned from their experiances within the novel. Your never too young to learn! I will leave you with these words from J. dONALD Adams:
"Reading War and Peace for the first time is one of the greatest literary experiances; reading it again and again is to realize the immeasurable gulf that is fixed between a merely good book and a great one.
By a very close approach to common consent War and Peace may be regarded as the greatest novel that has been written, the supreme fictional achievement in the literature of the world.
Here is a novel that is worth whatever time one gives to it. There is more to life between its covers than in any other existent fictional narrative. All the normal human emotions find play in this novel; practically every facet of human experiance is there. Its characters become as real to us as people whom we have known all our lives; we see them develop and change with the years and the development and change is something that proceedes from withing them ; Tolstoy does not tell us that the change takes place-we observes it ourselves. It is a novel of which one can not accuratly state the theme. One can say that it is a broadly inclusive picture of Russian life during Napoleonic period, but that is merely the accident of its setting and time. In its universal valuie it is simply human life, greatly gasped and extraordinarily presented over a period of something less than a generation. No intelligent person can read it without a deep enrichment of experience. And having once read it he is certain to turn to it again, to be amazed once more by its veracity, its tremendous vitality, its epic scope. [1941]"

[Lioness_Heart]

I think that some of the comments about being too young to appreciate it are unfair; it seems very harsh to judge someone's interests and experiences by their age. And while some life experiences may be lacking, surely empathy will allow at least a partial, if not total, appreciation of the themes and events?

I'm (17 and) reading War and Peace at the moment; I was glad when I started that I knew a little about the Russian culture and naming systems; have you read any other Russian literature to help you 'acclimatise'? I'd reccommend some of Checkhov's (sorry if I spelt that wrong) plays - one I found useful and easy to read was Uncle Vanya.

[MorpheusSandman]

There is more to life between its covers than in any other existent fictional narrative.

I adore W&P, but I think that's taking hyperbole a bit too far.

[curlyqlink]

Well, I'm well past 16 (past 26, past 36, etc.) but I have to say I find War and Peace remarkably easy to read. Aside from its length, it could be a beach book-- I'm really finding it that involving, that accessible. It's a straightforward narrative, the prose is lucid, and there really aren't even that many characters-- really about the same number of central characters as in a Jane Austin novel.

It's a book I would even recommend for a casual book group. Seriously, broken up into sections, so people don't have to read the entire tome in one go, and it's a novel that should have wide appeal. It's a war novel for the guys, it's got love interest for women, it has meaty philosophical stuff for spurring discussion. I'm really enjoying this thing!

[Etienne]

I think mortalterror is simply jealous that you're reading War and Peace so early, don't listen to him. It is a true masterpiece, don't give up on it, it was one of my most memorable reads personally, as the story unfolds and you get more and more involved with the different characters, it will become quite a page-turner. Also, after reading it, the whole of Russian literature will become easier, as you will be acquainted with quite a few names and the sound of the names.

[Agatha]

This book deals at length with mature adult psychology and relationships. The characters in the book grow and change as a result of their experiences in life, experiences a sixteen year old wouldn't have had time to accumulate. Most people don't have the opportunity to see first hand the results of war, family death, adultery, religious conversion, marriage, childbirth, or reversal of fortune in the time frame we're working with. The world they know is malls, video games, family members, five or six friends which for all intents and purposes might as well be mirrors of themselves and the area around their home. But once you are older, and have met more of the personality types present in this book, gone through a few of the situations yourself, I think you are much more prepared to have a grown up appreciation of what Tolstoy accomplished.

You wrote that to understand fully and appreciate Tolstoy's accomplishment I should gain more experience. Let's assume that I agree with your outlook. But what about other books which deal at length with adult psychological matters like War and Peace? For example ... Crime and Punishment? To understand better Dostoevsky's masterpiece, to comprehend fully Raskolnikow's dilemma should I kill someone?(hmm where is my axe...). So I really can't agree with your opinion.

Before reading War and Peace I've read Anna Karenina, so I knew what style of writing I can expect(Of course those two novels are completely different but I mean the way in which Tolstoy was writing.) Besides I'm really interested in Napoleonic period which help me to understand a bit of historical background. Plus I love Russian literature(Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Bulgakov). Those are the factors which help me comprehend W&P better. I really don't try to boast myself of reading W&P at age of 16. I'm just wanna prove that it is possible to read this novel being a teenager and understand it. And in my opinion experience has nothing to deal with reading books.