Book Review: War & Peace by, Leo Tolstoy

Рет қаралды 2,680

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 71

@KellyannMitchell Жыл бұрын

I read War and Peace last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. These mammoth classics tend to be tedious at times but I chuck it down to people who used words more, long ago, than we do now. Lengthy speeches were like a thing. Repetition was a necessity to emphasize their points. Our generation says ‘say what you have to say in 20 seconds or less”😂 🤣 I totally agree with your review and definitely agree that it is worth the read. I'm reading Les Miserables this month and I'm enjoying it so far. ❤️

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

Haha yea and these books were serialized, so readers wanted to feel like the next update was substantial! But yea … Tolstoy talks too much 😂 Oooh glad to know you’re liking Les Mis!

@martasoltys9091 Жыл бұрын

Yeah, people forget Hemingway actually invented the way we write now. He was the first to write "short" books; cast away adjectives. It wasn't a thing.

@JackStrange Жыл бұрын

Just came across your channel. Subscribed. This book has been on my shelf for so long. I’m a little apprehensive to start it, but your review made me feel a little better 😅

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

Thank you, Jack!! And I’m glad! This book is just thick 🤣

@cs0p Жыл бұрын

IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

@JamesI88 Жыл бұрын

Funnily enough, the sewer chapter in les misersbles was very interesting to me, however, Hugo goes on numerious tsngents throughout the book, some of which are ok and pertain to the story in some way, while others not as much. That being said, the actual story without those bits was an easy 5/5 for me. Moby dick had an amazing start and end for me, but the middle dragged, especislly the chapters that read like a textbook on whales.

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

Good to know!!! In my line of work, I might find the sewer bits not too bad haha. Oh no, not a textbook on whales 🤣. I lived in a old whaling town for a little bit growing up, so maaaaaybe I’ll feel a bit…. Nostalgic? 🤣

@kurtfox4944 Жыл бұрын

@@alanaestelle2076 "sewer bits" --- that begs for a larger answer ;-)

@kurtfox4944 Жыл бұрын

I'd like to see a video where someone stacks up all their series on a table (eg. Outlander, Harry Potter, LOTR/Tolkien, Game of Thrones, Robin Hobb, Narnia, hell, even Lemony Snicket and Magic Treehouse with over 30 books) and then put a chunky classic next to it. Chunky classics are smaller. If it's good, you'll not want it to end. Just read it.

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

They are smaller but … still. 🤣 seeing series separated out, to me, still feels less daunting 🤣

@jennyyeh4730 Жыл бұрын

Ugh besides the first few chapters the majority of Moby Dick to me was akin to the epilogue of Tolstoy … I couldn’t stand it !!

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

Oh man 🙈🙈🙈 now I’m scared 🤣

@kurtfox4944 Жыл бұрын

that's putting it mildly. Now imagine the Epilogue 100 x as long... that's how Moby is

@Tolstoy111 Жыл бұрын

The whaling chapters in "Moby Dick" are metaphors and are filled with jokes. It's a fantastic novel. Filled with wonder.

@lydiahunger7036 Ай бұрын

Don´t be too harsh about the lenght, because the authors at the time got paid in pages. That said I don´t like Pierre and Natasha and thats why I don´t like the book :)

@alanaestelle2076 Ай бұрын

LOL I don't usually mind long books and I think that if I was getting paid by the length ... I'd do it too😂

@novelideea Жыл бұрын

Great Review! I completely agree about the repetition of philosophical questions/ideas! I felt it could have been so much shorter. “Beat a dead horse” is the PERFECT description!

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

Loool I think Tolstoy likes to hear himself write 🤣

@airliemariaheung8215 Жыл бұрын

If you're not gonna have a lot of book hauls, if you would like and have time, would you like to read my debuting novel (Trust Me Baby) a contemporary women's fiction about a Cantonese Canadian woman with mental illness--for free and review it? It's about how she forges a path in her career, her romantic life and also make amends with her family. Leme know if when you have time. Have a good day.

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

Congrats on your novel! At this time my reading list is pretty set, so I’d hate to commit and not be able to read it.

@Thecatladybooknook_PennyD Жыл бұрын

💗 I still want to read W&P at some point

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

Do it!! 🙌🏼

@ChristyLuisDostoevskyinSpace Жыл бұрын

I'm so impressed that you got through it all! I think I have less patience for repetitiveness atm, but at some point I'll probably come back around and enjoy fat, repetitive classics again 😂

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

I don’t blame you 🤣 Tolstoy likes to hear himself write 🤣

@ChristyLuisDostoevskyinSpace Жыл бұрын

@@alanaestelle2076 bahahahahahahaha

@Sophias_booktube Жыл бұрын

I cant make up my mind wethere to get that edition or the hard back edition it says it has 1440 pages does that mean it has 1440 pages of reading instead of pages?, does it have all the books in one and chapters in one book? because I don`t want to buy seprete single book to make up the one book.

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

It’s one book…

@manuelmoraleda9684 7 ай бұрын

I think Tolstoy in this War and Peace, is asking each reader - Where do you fit among these characters ?

@jananavales Жыл бұрын

YESSS!! FINALLY WAR AND PEACE

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

WHOOOOOO! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

@williamfragaszy6016 7 ай бұрын

I loved War and Peace - I couldn’t put it down. Almost all of the characters have flaws, which I appreciated a lot. Five stars for one of the best and most epic novels of the Western World.

@alanaestelle2076 7 ай бұрын

It’s a great novel, very human!

@TangibleReads Жыл бұрын

Bless your heart for reading this.

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

LOL thanks! 😂

@GeneMTBros Жыл бұрын

Would I enjoy Alexander Dumas "The Three Musketeers," more than "War and Peace," by Leo Tolstoy?

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

Don’t know - haven’t read Musketeers yet.

@kurtfox4944 Жыл бұрын

"The Three Musketeers" is all action, but "The Count of Monte Cristo" is better. "War and Peace" is more history X social commentary X historical fiction is novel form (it is unique; still not a typical novel).

@jamesduggan7200 Жыл бұрын

well, without trying to organize a dance of angels on the head of a pin (assuming people still remember what a pin is), morality is not subjective. Morality is the choice to do right, particularly when there is a clear distinction between choices with one being right and another being wrong. Deciding on what is right, that is often subjective. If you have a choice between telling the truth and lying, to lie is immoral - unless you want to argue the subjective goodness of lying. So assume you take perverse pleasure in lying, then you act immorally. Anyway, thx for the review, and I do agree with a lot of what you concluded.

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

Yes - and in today’s culture … whew 😂. though I find the subjective debates about morality to be fascinating, especially across different cultures. Wait do people not know what pins are anymore?! 😩

@jamesduggan7200 Жыл бұрын

@@alanaestelle2076 there was a time when crosswords would use pin cushions - etuis - to fill gaps but possibly there are many in this who neither have ever seen one nor could ever imagine a use for one.

@cs0p Жыл бұрын

"You know I can't resist a stud...ok." HAHAH the stud comments always catch me off guard and make me laugh

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

looool I can’t help myself! I will ALWAYS shout out the studs 🤣👌🏼

@mattkean1128 Жыл бұрын

I read it over winter one year and it was really special. Moment upon moments I can still remember. And yes, I'll ignore the epilogue if I reread someday.

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

I feel like Russian classics are best in the winter haha. Oh yea, I’ll be skipping it next time too 😂

@omaressam3676 Жыл бұрын

The Shell: Memoirs of a Hidden Observer by Mostafa Khalifa (buy it, read it) dont mention.

@elizabethaliteraryprincess Жыл бұрын

The thump when you dropped it! 😂 A great review, as always. I'll pick up War and Peace someday, maybe when I'm done with my degree. I did enjoy Anna Karenina, so I'm sure I'll like this too. It's just finding the time.

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

LOL! This book is HEAVY 😂 Yea it’s definitely a book to read when you have both the time and the calories to burn🤣

@martasoltys9091 Жыл бұрын

What book has been a 5 star read?

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

There have been a few - my favorites videos are all 5 stars

@yahaira_f Жыл бұрын

Watching this after seeing your haul on IG 👀

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

Lol!! That was a small haul with what I’m formerly capable of 🤣

@martasoltys9091 Жыл бұрын

14:22. I totally agree. I took a course on how we romanticize history. I had an old man walk by me in 2012 as I was sitting at a coffee shop with my computer. He contorted his face and said, "You can't live without that thing." I was so shocked I simply said, I'm working. I find a lot of people demonize technology as if life before was so much better. My uncle had to walk 6 miles to work and back. How is that better? He had a farm, woke up at 3a.m. to milk his cows, got about 5 hours of sleep each night. It's just an example, but my professor said this idea that things "used to be so much better" is used in media a lot and exploit people's unhappiness. My favourite example is women being walked down the isle by their fathers. It's considered a beautiful tradition, but in reality it's a tradition of women being property; handed from father to husband. Anyway, great review. That's a might big book. Maybe next summer I'll read it. I was always a fan of Crime and Punishment. I think you should save up and consider getting a Ph.D in Comparative Literature. I think you'd make such a great professor and I get the feeling, you'd enjoy it. If you want of course :-)

@kurtfox4944 Жыл бұрын

But traditions and meanings change over time. To me, the father walking the daughter down the aisle has evolve to symbolize the acceptance of the groom into the bride's family and the protection and care and love the father shows for his daughter is now being handed over to the groom. It is a symbol of trust of the brides' family in the groom. A ring symbolizes a circle - no beginning or end. The diamond is the hardest and strength of their love... but the (blood) diamond nowadays it symbolizes dangerous mining conditions for terrible pay and corporations greed over the safety and compensation of the miners, sometimes even children. Gotta have that diamond ring for the tradition? The cutting of the cake USED TO symbolize the care and trust of a spouse. Taking care and feeding your spouse in good times and bad. Smashing the cake in your spouse's face (to me) stomps on symbolic trust that that tradition is supposed to symbolize; essentially saying that there is no trust in your relationship. Times change. Traditions change. Funny that this book includes Napoleon who is quoted (paraphrased) as saying that history is written by the winners.

@basthejokester Жыл бұрын

Curious if you like to read experimental books? What I mean by experimental if not clear is like House of Leaves or Gravity's Rainbow and other books your prob familiar with

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

I read whatever books pique my interest at the time and if it happens to be experimental, it’s usually coincidence.

@kevinrosero9723 Жыл бұрын

I read WP a couple of years ago in the Briggs translation, which is great. I found it right away to be a soap opera, like you said, a sophisticated one, and fun. And I loved everything to do with the comet, because I'm just like that. I actually read the epilogue many years ago, without even peeking at the story of the characters in the rest of the novel, because I was interested in Tolstoy's ideas about history. So when I read the whole book this time, I knew what was coming and it didn't bother me. No question, coming across that stuff during a first read of the novel can be tedious. He does repeat himself when it comes to his theory of history. Agree with you it's worth the read, and congratulations on finishing it!

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

Haha yes a sophisticated soap opera 😂 Oh yes, as a first time reader, it was brutal. But when I read this again sometime, at least I won’t be surprised haha. And thank you!

@mrodriguez377 Жыл бұрын

Can’t wait to watch, I’m almost 600 pages into it and have been really enjoying slow reading it since Jan 1st.

@alanaestelle2076 Жыл бұрын

Whoooo! Enjoy!

@mrodriguez377 Жыл бұрын

Update: I finished last night and loved loved loved the story and the characters and the philosophy but I definitely skipped the second part of the epilogue because it honestly was ruining it for me lol