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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

War and Peace?

Trijhaos

12:14 / 11.03.02

So I've got this week off due to spring break. Unfortuantely, due to lack of income I won't be anywhere near the sunny shores of Florida..yet again. So I've decided to catch up on my reading

Every time I look at my shelf my copy of War and Peace leers down at me and says "You're weak, you can't read me..FEAR MY POWER!!!". So is War and Peace worth the time it'll take to read it? I mean when I finish, will I go "Wow...what a wonderful book...I feel enlightened" or will I toss the book at the wall and mutter "What a waste of time. I should have just watched the movie"

Persephone

12:27 / 11.03.02

I didn't read War and Peace for years and years, as a direct result of my dad liking to repeat all through my childhood, "You know, Jimmy Carter read War and Peace when he was nine." Starting when I was, like, seven.

<dons asbestos>

I finally read it in my twenties, and I thought it was... okay. There are longish historical passages interleaved with the human narrative, and these former took some patience... truthfully, I was skimming over 'em towards the end. I'm really a story addict and I did like the story in W&P, just as I liked the story in Moby Dick except for the encyclopedic descriptions of whales.

Others find W&P and Moby to be majestic in all their proportions, and maybe you will too.

I found them (both, actually) worth reading, but I wouldn't say that they moved the earth (or ocean) for me.

alas

16:53 / 11.03.02

i'm a w&p wimp--but I really loved Anna Karenina. I just couldn't deal with another battle scene being described, so I wimped out of W&P about 1/3 through.

The other Russian novel I've never finished, and this one really is one I want to read, is Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamozov. Anyone else?

Baz Auckland

08:32 / 12.03.02

I read Karamazov over the course of 3 or 4 months..(read it!) How? I'll probably apply this method to W&P when I try and tackle it:

It helps to stop 1/3 or 1/2 or 2/3 of the way through, read something light and entertaining, then after a week or two of books like that, go back to the Great Russian Epic in question.

sleazenation

08:32 / 12.03.02

so, the seven volumes of Proust's "rememberence of things past" anyone?

The Return Of Rothkoid

10:09 / 12.03.02

Ha.

But I'm expecting the same level of mental contortion to occur when I start reading Powys' A Glastonbury Romance which I'm actually quite keen to start...

Cavatina

11:46 / 12.03.02

Trijhaos, I first read Tolstoy when I was about nineteen, and enjoyed Anna Karenina much more than War and Peace. However that may be because at the time I'd become very interested in 19th century novels about adultery - the way the female protagonists always died, were always punished for their transgression, and the degree to which they and their societies were depicted as culpable. So I read AK, Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Theodor Fontane's Effi Briestin quick succession - I can't remember in which order, but of those it was Effi that I found the most moving. I've not been tempted to reread War and Peace, though I've had cause to look over AK again on several occasions.

Rothkoid, I'd be interested to compare notes some time about A Glastonbury Romance.

Persephone

11:59 / 12.03.02

Anna Karenina *is* super juicy. If you ask my mom about it, she'll crunch up her face and cry, "Aieu! Vronsky!" Which is funny in its own right.

Cav, I *still* have not gotten started on the adultery series that you rec'd months ago, you just reminded me...

Rothkoid, what's Glastonbury? Sounds v. interesting...

[Edited to say, I adored the first two parts of Swann's Way & sort of fell by the wayside in the third, if I am remembering correctly. Have been meaning to give it all another go.]

[ 12-03-2002: Message edited by: Persephone ]

Trijhaos

12:05 / 12.03.02

Hmmm....It seems if I want a good dose of Russian literature I'd be better off reading Anna Karenina than War and Peace.

The Return Of Rothkoid

12:20 / 12.03.02

Persephone: Penguin's information site says this: quote:
John Cowper Powys's A Glastonbury Romance is a novel of epic scope that centres on the small town of Glastonbury in the 1930s when the book was first published. It explores the influence of the ancient legends - in particular that of the Holy Grail - on the local people such as Geard, the mayor whose intention it is to put on a passion play. Redolent of mysticism and romance, grand in scale and execution, A Glastonbury Romance is a profound study of place and personality. I'm sure my copy's a Picador, though. The transitional aspect of it sounds interesting - though I know there's that reading of Ulysses to go yet...

Persephone

21:50 / 12.03.02

Don't forget Valley of the Dolls...! Glastonbury sounds very tasty, I shall put it on my Myopic list.

You know, Trijhaos, *that* would be an ultimate Spring Break combo... Anna Karenina interleaved with Valley of the Dolls. Or you could employ Vslley to help you through the thick parts of W&P, as Barry Auckland suggests. Jackie Susann and Tolstoy, two great tastes that taste good together...

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