War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Few novels have had the long term cultural impact of this book. You can read Peanuts comic strips that tell of Charlie Brown having to read War and Peace over Christmas vacation and of course not getting it done. In the English culture something that is long, perhaps too long, is referred to as being like War and Peace.

So noting that my Kindle allows me free access to many of the classics last fall I started War and Peace.

I always read several books at once and so in doing so this was a book that took me more than three months to finish.

I did finish it tonight. I love Hemingway and he remains my favorite author. This book, however, is a treasure an absolute masterpiece.

I must confess that I did find the Second Epilogue something I did not read verbatim as it was long and lengthy and more of epistle on War, Power and the interpretation of History.

The book itself is full of characters that you come to know and slowly over the course of time. The book is a comment of War, a story of Napoleon and the Tsar but also of the families and large cast of characters.

The Rostov's and Bolkonski's are the main characters and along with Pierre are the characters that we most follow but the book takes us across the entire landscape of Russian life of the time.

I must confess earlier in reading The Great Upheaval and the sections as relate to Catherine the Great, and of course my fascination with the movie Doctor Zhivago as one of my three favorite movies of all time I think that the Russian story could easily be one of the most interesting histories to explore.

War and Peace solidifies that opinion and I look forward to exploring more.

The book is long. It takes a bit to get going. But once into the book the biggest feeling at the end is one of regret that it is not longer.

A masterpiece.