War and Peace — Book Review

What is War but a collision of two powers in quest of more, a quest that often leads into the opposite instead? Death of thousands, the proliferation of property and infrastructure, destruction of the very soil that gives us life, all to a false end. Yet, we have seen countless of these in the past.

What drives men to flock together, gather in hordes to kill fellow human beings? What conspires in the minds of the dictators, generals, and rulers? What, if anything, leads to a war in the first place? This book explores this and more. It is hard to call it a novel because of its huge scope spanning more than 15 years with hundreds of characters.

We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom

The story describes the lives of its characters through the wars that happened between 1805 and 1820 in Russia. It revolves around peace and war sections portraying the characters’ lives in exquisite detail as they live through the wars as spectators, soldiers, strategists, generals, and diplomats.

This is considered to be one of Tolstoy’s masterpieces and with good reason. It has a lot to teach, all through the eyes of beautifully crafted characters. Since this book spans a long period of time, the characters grow with it. So, when reading this book, you have to keep an open mind to accept the growth of the characters and accept that some would turn out to be likeful while others that you liked before doing despicable things. You get to see the human psyche, learn a thing or two about philosophy, and a lot about War, and more importantly, the chaos it often involves.

The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.

That being said, its a very lengthy book. There will be parts that you enjoy. But there will also be parts you don’t as Tolstoy has a tendency to go on in length about some characters, sometimes praising them, and at other times into a long rant against their nature and the nature of the War itself. A book this long requires patience and a will to finish. But there’s a saying that applies really well to this book, “the person who closes the back cover of a book might not be the same one that opened it”.