War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

[agile swallow]

general thoughts about book 4-middle of book 6:

||Most novels succeed by crafting one memorable character - War and Peace somehow manages to chisel out several not only with depth, but also full of twists and turns.
Pierre, dispirited after a forced and unhappy marriage to Ellen, was roped into freemasonry, a cult-like organization with secret rituals and befuddled ideals. The general aspirations for "doing good" and "triumphing over evils" of the freemasons appealed to Pierre, guiding his lost and wandering soul. However, Pierre failed to make any meaningful impact and often returned to his old ways, partying and living up his bachelor life. Despite somewhat lacking a backbone, Pierre was genuine and pleasant to be around with, even softening the harsh old Prince Bolkonsky.
In contrast, Prince Andrey has sunk into nihilism. Since the death of his wife and his disillusionment with war glory, Andrey wanted nature to take its course and "avoid illness and remorse". He could not imagine happiness for himself or others, and was bewildered at a perfectly happy Natasha. Slowly, however, a passionate Pierre and a dreamy Natasha awoke his lively spirits and Andrey seemed to revive a bit, like the old oak tree he had looked upon as an allegory for himself. His subsequent acquaintance with Speransky, coldly rational yet soft in physical features, will again provide curious character development for Andrey.||

||Then we have the happy-go-lucky Nikolay Rostov, who was the closest (among his nobility friends) to the actual fighting on the battlefield. In the previous chapters, I didn't really care for Nikolay, but in these past few books, it was heartbreaking to see Nikolay transform from a jolly (albeit coddled) boy to a weary soldier, so starved with his troops that they had to eat toxic root plants in the ground, reduced to live in a mud house in the middle of the winter, and witnessed dire sights at an army hospital. The reconciliation between the Russian and French emperors further complicated Nikolay's inner moral compass - what had his brothers in the army been fighting for? For fear of entering a sort of nihilism like Andrey, Nikolay chose to double down on his faith in the Tsar and resolved to never question orders handed down to a soldier like himself.
While Nikolay continued on as a humble soldier, Boris, meanwhile, has entered the upper echelons of the military. Like mother like son, Boris has successfully played the game of politics, forming quite the contrast to the still bumbling Pierre. I sort of respect Boris for standing up for himself, but I'm also wary that he will end up like another Prince Vassily, a cunningly oily man.
It's quite shocking how much these male characters have grown and changed. The female cast, however, stayed behind the scenes for most of the time, like Natasha, Sonya, and Ellen, except for the tragic death of Lise and the pious Marya. I hope to read more about them and that Tolstoy had not forgotten about these lively girls.||

[pulsar ruin]

[agile swallow]

lmao i had so many thoughts its kinda a wall of text

[deep ginkgo]

That was a very impressive sum up tho!

[agile swallow]

ya i think you are right on! ||the oak tree seems both a symbol for Andrew's revival from depression and Russia's reforms. I'm not sure I get all the intricacies of the reform, but something to do with meritocracy (proposed by Speransky) over nobility.||

ya curious that ||the russians were fighting the french, and now they are trying to copy the french...? ?||

ya ||she's super sus, I feel she's an extension of her dad, can't be trusted!!!||

[deep ginkgo]

And we are so clearly on the same page

[agile swallow]

i'm so glad you are ahead of me and i get to read your thoughts haha, makes reading this tome much more enjoyable lol

[deep ginkgo]

I’m glad. I feel so clueless sometimes and I just sorta “stream of consciousness” them out

[agile swallow]

I kinda do the same tbh but you add great points in terms of historical context!

[agile swallow]

Book 6 ch 8 ||Osip is such an interesting character. The principles he mentioned to Pierre i.e. "a man can know himself only by comparison, perfection can only be obtained by conflict, love of death" propose a kind of contrast/interaction-based way of thinking||

[agile swallow]

Book 6 ch 10 ||what is this dream journal of Pierre's? ||

Book 6 ch 11 ||um Berg really said to Count Rostov that if he didn't get money (dowry) from Vera, he won't marry her??? bruh Berg is not a good egg||

[deep ginkgo]

Omg right?

[agile swallow]

Book 6 ch 18 ||natasha's pure happiness has made andrey realize how fake everyone else is... especially Speransky, who (in my mind) feels like a vampire for some reason ||

[agile swallow]

Book 6 ch 21 ||I guess Andrey/Natasha ship is in full steam now... I do want Andrey to be happy, but Natasha still seems rather childish to me? I guess Andrey maybe is looking for that lightness in youths at this particular life stage. I'm also experiencing secondhand embarrassment at this soiree that Berg/Vera hosted, like they were trying so hard to imitate other people but instead made everyone awkward||

||maybe Boris wants to keep a certain facade at Petersburg, where more of the higher social classes were milling aobut? I'm kinda concerned with how Boris is turning out||

[deep ginkgo]

||Maybe? He’s just so suspicious! I feel like there’s a social distinction between the 2 cities, so it’s curious to me||

[agile swallow]

i wondered about that too!! ||at first i thought sit down to boston was a saying, then i realized boston is probably a card game. ya, I can't keep up with who's warring with whom at this point||

[deep ginkgo]

You’re going to outpace me soon! lol I didn’t get to read this much last week. I’m hoping to make it to 66% by the end of March 😬

[candid mica]

i didn't read have other brs due this week unfortunately

it's going to be so fun trying to find my place in the 60 hour audiobook

[agile swallow]

We got this!!!! I remember when I was young I asked someone which is the longest book in the world and they said war and peace lmao. Finishing this will please my younger self

[candid mica]

there's always the complete works of aristotle if you want to please yourself even more (5000 pages) but yeah, we’re all going down together

[agile swallow]

Ya I mean compilations are another beast like Proust’s 7 tomes of In Search of Lost Time…. Maybe one day I shall tackle that

[candid mica]

im with you on that

the purpose of life is to conquer unreasonably long tombs

[agile swallow]

Book 6 ch 23 ||"I have loved you from the first minute I saw you" ANDREY YOU DID NOT .... i didn't know you are such a romantic andrey!!?!?!?! how is Tolstoy suddenly writing a romance novel, man is too talented he can write anything||

[agile swallow]

Book 6 finished! ||i really wonder how Princess Marya got so religious... neither the old Prince nor Andrey seemed that inclined towards God. Could it be that Marya is treated so badly by her father that she unconsciously looked to God for solace? Andrey treats his sister with kindness but is kinda indifferent to (or repelled by) her religious views and acceptance of God's folks||

Book 7 ch 1 ||LMAO tolstoy really said the military is the only place where people can do nothing yet feel accomplished. i wonder if he doesn't like the military at all and is just kinda backhandedly extolling them||

[deep ginkgo]

This is a really good question! I need to think about that. ||Initial thought is that it’s gender expected?||

[agile swallow]

reflections for book 6: ||Love and happiness - are they fleeting, like Princess Marya believed, or can they be eternal, like the endless sky? For Natasha and Andrey, happiness seemed selfish, blinding them to others' miseries. So, does infinite love only exist in the realm of religion? But even the pious Marya could not escape the triviality of love towards her family, however finite it was.||

[candid mica]

finished book 5 10 more to go

[agile swallow]

Book 7 ch 2 ||from how Nikolay handled the family finance troubles, I feel he's still like a petulant child. I'd thought he'd grown since his days in the army, but maybe not in his financial acuity..? which he seems to take after his dad lol||

[candid mica]

||yeah, can’t say i disagree. i was wondering which one one these views (andrew or pierre) was tolstoy’s own thoughts though. i think lemon is right in saying it’s pierre’s ||

||boris is the one sane character in this whole book i feel bad for denisov too, seeing rostov must’ve reminded him of what he’s lost by doing nothing||

[agile swallow]

BOok 7 ch 5 ||how fascinating this hunt is! I didn't realize that they don't use guns and had to knife kill the wolf, though in this case, they tied up the poor wolf alive 😦 ||

[candid mica]

until book 6, chapter 14
||im pretty sure boris is attracted to natasha but it doesn’t go the other way around, which is confusing because natasha is willing to marry him but boris is not family drama right there. i still don’t get what’s up with pierre, he needs to be okay soon ||

[candid mica]

||right?? i thought he wanted to marry her at all costs and now this vera is really getting the worst of life. ||

[candid mica]

||he needs therapy ||

[static estuary]

Book 4 Chapter 7 and before || These few chapters are some of my favourite in the book. The parody of Voltaire’s quote that if Bagration did not exist, we would need to invent him establishes the need for society to have a safety figure, someone to trust but who can also maintain authority over everyone in order to function. ||

|| The duel between Pierre and Dolokhov captures human nature so well the expectations we have for people can easily go awry in seconds bc we really can’t predict the actions of each character. Pierre is nervous about the duel but stands firm, after shooting he becomes apologetic and then shifts to willingly opening himself up to the possibility of death, ecstatic when he wins the duel. Dolokhov shifts from this contemptuous man to an affectionate son and brother. ||

|| I think when Pierre decides to stay in his father’s room after the duel, it’s because just like his father died in that room, apart of himself died after the duel. Another character shift Tolstoy used that I find interesting is Helene, who went from an elegant woman that appealed to Pierre and now openly despises and mocks him. ||

Oh I forgot || aside from witnessing his family currently grieve Prince Andrew, it was extremely heartbreaking to find out that barely anyone spoke of him at Rostov’s banquet. Especially knowing the dreams he had to come out a hero, to be glorified in the eyes of everyone, only to be barely acknowledged after death ||

Omg I forgot that || he’d been worried like that, now it makes it even more heartbreaking ||

what?! || Given Helene seems wrapped up in making money I don’t see that yet, but if it does then dang . Wait Pierre gave away all his estate? I thought it was just a large part of it, but I don’t think he really enjoyed or cared for that much wealth especially seeing how he became submissive to people taking advantage of him ||

[agile swallow]

Ya ||pierre and money don’t mix, and I also think he’s happier without his wealth. At least people can stop being fake around him||

[deep ginkgo]

||I’m just guessing. I 100% think she’s having affairs, and it’s so trope-y to not let those characters remain alive by the end in 19th century literature. She’s such a gold digger, with the manipulative help of her dad and Anna P. Pierre gave over so much to her, leaving just a bit for himself, so she totally got what she wanted from him||

[deep ginkgo]

I really like what you said about Pierre here and the ||duel||

[static estuary]

Book 4 Completed || I honestly just wanna talk about chapter 9 bc wow. but some brief notes before I start that ||

|| I think a huge part of the second half covers trust. How Rostov can easily give his trust to Dolohkov, convinced that they're good friends, only for it to come back to bite him in the end. Perhaps an analogy to Rostov serving under his idol emperor, risking his life. There's even a moment when Dolokhov lets him win ten rubles in the end after still making him owe 43,000, which is kinda like when an emperor briefly acknowledges you with a nod before proceeding to the next person. ||

|| I liked the transition from Lise's death in ch.9, how her pale face seemed to ask 'what have I done to deserve this,' onto Rostov, who questioned the same thing when he grew indebted to Dolokhov through gambling. ||

|| not much to say on Denisov and Natasha's relationship, kinda expected it after all the other proposals were tossed around ||

Book 4 Chapter 9 || Themes of "God is merciful" and childlikeness are repeated through this chapter while Lise is giving birth. In the prior chapter it is revealed that Prince Andrew is actually alive, however after the birth of his child, Lise is the one who loses her life to labour. I read that its interesting how Andrew's unconfirmed death was prolonged through the chapters while Lise's death is quick and short, just like how she was valued in the house. Superstitious and ominous elements are naturally incorporated that don't create an overwhelmingly mystical vibe, which I enjoy. ||

|| The description of Lise's face "'I love you all, and have done no harm to anyone; and what have you done to me?'" is hauntingly beautiful. I think it brings doubt to religion, given that she believes that she has done no wrong and therefore does not need forgiveness of any sort. ||

I really wanna minorly reference Shakespeare's Macbeth || bc there's a line in Act 4 scene 2 where Lady Macduff also felt the same way in doing no wrong in her lifetime. She comes to the conclusion that on earth, evil is rewarded and doing good is foolish and somehow I just find that relatable to Lise ||

Yes! || Rostov family situation is getting more and more sus, and it seems like only the Count knows it ||

|| the rite of passage , ok tbh im so used to Romeo and Juliet right now that I didn't even think she was too young , probably need to work on that ||

[deep ginkgo]

||Yes, I thought Lise’s death was super poignant too, and how she’s just gone, which actually would be realistic. She lost her own battle in her personal war, as so many mothers did ||

[agile swallow]

I like your analysis of ||Lise’s death! iirc this is the first time someone in the main cast died right? Descriptions of her face definitely is very memorable. I wonder if it’s triggering a sense of guilt in Andrew||

[static estuary]

Ohh your right! || I think at her funeral Andrew might’ve mentioned he felt guilty? Maybe bc he didn’t appreciate her enough or may bc he didn’t love her ||

[agile swallow]

||im actually curious, like do you think Andrew ever loved Lise? I know it’s a bit extreme but i just feel like he never cared for her and was quite eager to leave her even though she was pregnant ||

[static estuary]

That’s a good question || it’s hard to say, I think he’s extremely condescending to her but he has some affection to her (but I can’t tell if it’s bc she’s carrying his child or bc she’s childish?). I’m just gonna guess that he felt some type of love for her in the beginning but it faded quickly overtime bc he looked at marriage like a task on a to-do-list. Might’ve never gotten married if it wasn’t the norm. Hbu?||

[agile swallow]

||ya i can see that, or at least that's what i hoped for when they first got married. I guess i'm just thinking about this retrospectively given what happens next... but i don't wanna spoil anything! I do believe Lise's death affected Andrew a lot though||

[agile swallow]

omg fr ||these hunting sections feel like they've dragged on forever and i kept putting the book down... i may be in a rut ||

[agile swallow]

Book 7 ch 9 ||what’s a buffoon? (Nastasya Ivanovna)||

[agile swallow]

Book 7 ch 10 ||who are the mummers?? ||

[deep ginkgo]

||a buffoon would have been a clown with a traveling group of performers||

[deep ginkgo]

|| mummers would be actors for staging a play||

||they would travel around looking for estates where they could all perform as entertainers and get paid (in food or money probably)||

[agile swallow]

ohhhh thanks for the explanations

[deep ginkgo]

Ofc! ||Now a “buffoon” is just another name for an idiot or a fool||

[agile swallow]

ya i was a bit confused ||cuz the buffoon also was at the hunt and was ridiculed by one of the huntsman iirc? so I didn't know if it was just a goofy servant or like a jester in a court kind of role||

[deep ginkgo]

||I think it was more formal like a jester||

[agile swallow]

Book 7 ch 1-6ish ||ya so I felt really bored in these hunting chapters and can't really say why. maybe all the detailed movements of all the dogs and how the party is chasing just... felt ... not interesting. i'm looking at the reddit thread and phew at least everyone else is also high key bored||

[agile swallow]

i found out today that chapter 6 of book 1 is the longest chapter in the book, so hurray! most of us has read the longest chapter in this very long book 😄

[static estuary]

how many pages was it??

[agile swallow]

9 pages in my edition!

[static estuary]

wait how many pages is book 5 chapter 2 for you?

[agile swallow]

4 pages!

[static estuary]

...maybe its bc im reading digitally and a different version bc book 5 chapter 2 is one of the biggest chapters I've read compared to book 1 chapter 6 😭

[agile swallow]

FYI i've been reading these medium articles on each chapter and they've been very helpful: https://brianedenton.medium.com/a-year-of-war-and-peace-cc66540d9619#.ov3jy02ry

[static estuary]

Book 5 Chapter 11 and before || I feel like Boris, Pierre, and Prince Andrew all act as some sort of character foil for each other especially Pierre with the other two men because they contrast in their approaches and beliefs. Boris thinking that you need to make aquintances with people to climb up the social ladder, Pierre wanting to be alone. Pierre believing that he has to live for the sake of others, Prince Andrew believes you should live for the sake of yourself. I also think its ironic that Anna Pavlovna said that Europe will never be a true ally to Russia, just like how the aristocratic society she hosts will never be an ally to Pierre. ||

|| Bilibin's letter was so long yet funny. I can't believe Russia lied about a victory over France just because one guy wanted to get a promotion over another senior official I wonder how damaging that's gonna be, especially given that we can already sense from Bilibin and the old Prince Bolkonski's letter that famine is on the rise.||

|| Is it just me or did they never explain how Prince Andrew escaped the French after he was captured and injured?? I'm interested in how Lise's death still haunts him too, her face familiarized into an angel monument. I was so worried for the baby when he was sick but i'm glad it was just Prince Andrew's anxiety and he ended up recovering. ||

yes! || I feel like all we hear is that they want donations, but we never see where the money's going. Also the fact Pierre noticed many familiar faces from his partying days at his oath ceremony (?) is sus. its like no matter where he goes, society keeps hold of him ||

|| I thought the duel already came back to bite him since his reputation is tarnished but I can definitely see it coming back. True! ||

[agile swallow]

||I think an injured Andrew was picked by Napoleon to become a prisoner of war, and at some point was given to the local villages to heal. I assume he then came back home when he was somewhat healed?||

[candid mica]

i haven’t been writing my thoughts because my mind just goes poof while listening to this

[static estuary]

Ohhh || my geography is completely off, I thought they were at the French border and it was a French village still confused why Napoleon was so chill with him even after he gave Andrew compliments ||

[pulsar ruin]

Sometimes I debate DNFing this But like I enjoy the story

It's also the first ever classic I've picked up to read

[agile swallow]

You can do it!!! It’s long but very rewarding

[deep ginkgo]

I need to spend some major time with this book next week to get back on track

[ornate shore]

I read a book and dipped

Not for lack of interest though, I did find it quite interesting ( a lot, LOT more than Anna Karenina) but I’ve been swamped with a lot of stuff lately and this book requires attention so I’m going to have to read it when I can focus better

[candid mica]

book 7, chapter 7
||natasha and nicholas (if that’s how you spell the names) are so sweet only siblings i’ve seen who haven’t tried to rip each other’s hair out yet i wonder why it keeps getting mentioned that natasha shows no sign of missing andrew; is tolstoy trying to imply that she doesn’t love him, or is willing to wait without fretting?||

why is this book my daily tea time

[candid mica]

omgg same i thought it was just me ||since tolstoy may have been trying to add action here but i had no interest whatsoever and tbh didn’t understand much lol||

||i know, im so confused, who’s chasing who at one point i thought everyone was chasing nicholas ||

book 7, chapter 8
||juli i would be up for some drama and tension between sonya, juli and nicholas ngl||

[fickle egret]

I finished book 3. ||from chapter 12 or so I was engulfed in the story and didn’t annotate as much. It’s interesting to see the parallels and differences between prince Andrey and count Rostov. Both on the field with immense passions but for different reasons. Also kind of ironic both faced their icons but couldn’t mutter a single word to each other.||

At this pace though, not sure if I’ll finish on time but I’m trying my hardest

[agile swallow]

yesss that's what i thought about book 3 too!!

[agile swallow]

ya i've been kinda stalled in this book since i'm trying to read all these extra annotations (which i find super interesting) but it also takes time away from actually reading W&P lmao

W&P is consuming my life!!

[candid mica]

finished book 7

this was a pretty short book, and not a lot happened (that i can recall, though that just may be due to the incapacity of my brain to hold information for longer than 2 seconds). ||nicholas and sonya might get engaged, im so happy they're finally together! the scene outside the barn was just so freaking sweet they deserve this after all the things they've had to face. all it took for nicholas to admit he likes sonya for for her to dress up as a guy anyways they're going to meet andrew again, which might prove to be awkward.||

[chilly surge]

I had to deliver this and I was and am just no motivation so I had to dnf it

[agile swallow]

so i looked back on this... ||a doctor on Napoleon's team is sure that Andrew is about to die, so they released him to a local village, which I believe is somewhere near Austerlitz (Austrian)||

[agile swallow]

even if the br ends, i think this forum/thread would be a great place to continue our discussions on war and peace!! I, for certain, would be interested in what other readers think

[static estuary]

dang || I wish Tolstoy elaborated more on this part. How he returned to health, the treatment he experienced in the village, etc instead of being like "he's alive! anyways..." ||

I just saw the Anna Karenina br got posted i think i went through the 7 stages of grief in 5 minutes bc i wanna read it toooo but i wont until i finish this

[candid mica]

the pain is real

not me scrolling for 5 minutes trying to find anybody else’s thoughts on book 8 my brain can't think on its own

[candid mica]

book 8, until chapter 9
||what is this weird love octagon going on rn anatole likes natasha but she likes andrew but pierre just keeps butting in everywhere? and why is tolstoy so intent on making every appearance of anatole so dramatic i specifically remember the word swagger being used. the tension for andrew keeps building up, is that guy ever going to show up the to-be-sisters-in-law hate each other, so that's going great. there's honestly so much rivalry in this family.||

[rancid vessel]

i really need to start this soon im gonna do it after #1152119664554549288so in like a week or two

[candid mica]

this book is getting so good

book 8, until chapter 12
||so anatole and natasha huh im starting to like anatole, if only because pierre is just there getting more “stout” (what is up with that???). i can imagine anatole and dolokhov being the bad boys of society, but dolokhov is secretly playing anatole and anatole is playing natasha. i knew the year apart would lead to something. ||

[fickle egret]

||I'm thinking the same thing. His attutide has been so different all of the sudden||

yeah ||the duel felt so strange to me. It's like Dolokhov was calling his bluff thinking he may not have to shoot because he didn't expect Pierre to be like this. Idk it all feels weird to me||

Book 4 up to ch 7 ||I don't really like seeing what has become of Pierre but it was expected, he's become bitter at everyone and can't think straight. That being said, it does not help that everyone in his environment is so fucking toxic, omg. Anyway. I don't have many thoughts besides "wow everybody's personality changed so drastically after the battle. The only thing that didn't surprise me is Marya holding out hope her brother still lives while her father has already given up hope.||

[agile swallow]

You are leading our pack choco!!

[agile swallow]

For realllll I’m like I really wanna join but I shall be responsible and finish this

[fickle egret]

i forgot one thing to mention but while i was highlighting i noticed in book 4 ch 2 ||that apparently straight up mayo is a dish now? like how much? is there anything on it? i don't know but im dying over here ||

book 4 ch 9 ||although i don't particularly like Prince Andrey, it seems the journey has humbled him somewhat and that makes him redeemable. Kinda sad that now his wife is dead ||

up to book 4 ch 14 ||it feels kinda wrong to have Denisov and Natasha seen as a cute couple (if only for dancing but still , and Dolokhov and Sonya I also feel like Dolokhov basically scamming his friend Rostov out of money because Sonya denied him is kinda a red flag, while right before they were getting along so well. At least, you can't tell me there was some fudging of cards involved.||

||I think it's more like, "we are cousins and our parents don't approve of our relationship so let's lets just pretend this is allright and ignore the romantic feelings between us"||

oh yeah, ||i think you may be right, I haven't throught about societal and military rank as being a factor in their dynamic. Maybe Rostov's a bit of a pushover though? he can't say no to quitting gambling and takes on Dolokhov's personality so fast. but i think you make a good point||

[fickle egret]

i did some wikipedia googling on this comment about book 4 chapter 2 ||apparently, at the time of this chapter taking place, Mayonnaise was invented within the french cuisine although it may also have come from spain. It has it's origins in other forms of sauces but this is the first time the word Mayonnaise has been introduced. But even back then it was considered a sauce, not a dish maybe this is Old Count Rostov's way of trying to impress his guests by knowing "trendy foods" ||

[agile swallow]

woooow amazing! i'd... never eat mayo on its own

[static estuary]

I don’t think I’ve ever had mayo what’s it used for?

[agile swallow]

usually as a spread (like mustard) in a sandwhich, but also in salads like potato salads. i think it's an emulsion of eggs and oil, usually pretty rich and creamy

[static estuary]

Ohh maybe I might’ve then but I never notice it

[candid mica]

https://tenor.com/view/captain-holt-oh-no-brooklyn-nine-nine-brooklyn99-andre-braugher-gif-13907230

[fickle egret]

I finished book 4 last night. This one was a quick read ||maybe because of the amount of drama that happened in it I don't think the end really revealed any more information about the Rostov's other than Nikolay got lucky his dad was is a good mood to cover the expenses. I don't know what the impact will be of joining the military late though, not sure. Also I kept wondering why people still keep Anna M in their lives, she's just a gossiptrain waiting to hurt everyone around her for her own gain. I also don't like Pierre as much now but I feel he was set up by people like Anna M, Prince Vasily and thus also his own wife. Maybe this is what they wanted all along. Because Dolokhov said "toast to the wives and their lovers"... why not say husbands? this feels so intentional.|| curious to book 5

[candid mica]

book 8, until chapter 15
||what. the. heck not sonya being the only one with the braincells here natasha my love think this through, i highly doubt you are in love with him. don’t just fall in love with anyone who shows you affection. i don’t like anatole anymore, ever since i found out he was playing her. he couldn’t even write a love letter by himself. i feel bad for boris but at the same time i think he needs to learn that society isn’t everything (although for him it may seem that way), he should marry for love. princess mary already knows that natasha will not marry andrew, from the letter, so some drama is bound to happen. when sonya found the letter i got so excited ||

book 8 is making me question everything i know

[candid mica]

book 8, until chapter 19
||pierre’s reaction to the news was so violent compared to what i had originally thought well atleast he’s been useful in telling natasha the truth about anatole being married.|| so close to finishing this book

[static estuary]

Omg || I wonder what financial strain/impact it has on the Rostov family in the future given they seemed to already be in a bit of caution. Also yes! Anna M seems out for personal gain everywhere she goes, but maybe it’s the older wisdom she gives off that convinces the Rostov’s that she’s with them for their best interests ||

Y’all book 10 and 11 are 30-40 chapters each brb gonna go cry in a corner

I’m not even close to there but gonna cry anyways

[candid mica]

book 8 complete
||PIERRE AND NATASHA I KNEW IT the fact that they’re both so happy with each other’s company, and the comet striking was so perfect omg. this book had a perfect ending. im so freaking excited for the next one, i need to see how andrew would react once he finds out his best friend fell in love with his ex-fiancé. i think natasha’s reputation will take a blow so im not really sure how she would manage marrying (if she even does that) pierre, and what’s to come of his wife well he’s back to being my fav character ||

just 7 more books to go (and 2 epilogues)

[static estuary]

Book 5 Completed 😬 (Ch. 12 - 22) || I found the scene with Prince Andrew and Pierre on the ferry raft touching. Prince Andrew is reminded of a feeling he had when he was on the verge of death at Austerlitz, staring up at the sky. Although it's kinda ironic how Pierre is cross when Prince Andrew debates his beliefs, yet Pierre kinda does the same thing to the old Pilgrim woman before he apologizes for being rude ||

|| I think this book of W&P definitely gives Rostov some character growth as he witnesses the scenes of the hospital when visiting Denisov. We see how he faces an internal battle when he begins questioning his beloved Emperor Alexander for being so friendly with Napoleon. He even questions why Denisov must submit and be punished for his altruistic acts of feeding his starving men while a random soldier Lazarev gets rewarded after being casually selected for an award. He kinda makes the conclusion (while drunk) that he's just a pawn and will follow orders even until death. He also makes this brief analogy between his Emperor and God, believing that he shouldn't question things for the sake of idolatry ||

[agile swallow]

We are in it together

[candid mica]

book 9, until the beginning of chapter 2
||these seemed to me philosophical and political ramblings based on the opinions of tolstoy, and for a moment i was convinced that the entirety of book 9 was based on vague discussions about destiny and fate. thankfully not. this was nice though. we are now getting an insight on napolean too i just want to know what happens to the whole andrew situation. each book feels like a new season of a show||

[deep ginkgo]

Ok. I’m diving back into this now. Gonna see how far I can get before I burn out

[rancid vessel]

okay so i spend the night thinking and i dont think i will read this book in this br
i would likely be able to finish it in the timeframe but i feel like this a book that deserves more than being binge read in a month
but if there ever is another br on it i will be sure to read it then

[fickle egret]

If things go well. I might be able to finish or end up close to finishing next week. I've got a lot of reading time next week due to lots of riding around, very needed decompress and a 12 hour reading day

[candid mica]

book 9, until chapter 6
||tolstoy is really hating on napoleon describing him as “fat”, but make it different each time. i could really sense him trying to make us hate napoleon. unless that wasn't the case, in which cause it’s just me going mad so ignore this. ||

[agile swallow]

all of your progresses are super inspiring!!!!

[candid mica]

time for you to catch up

[fickle egret]

Book 5 ch 2 ||this guy is sus ||

Book 5 ch 5 ||Fuck yeah, tell him Pierrie. Vasily has no right to show up like this||

[static estuary]

Book 6 Chapter 13 and before || new ideas are rising in Russia and a threat to the aristocracy seems to cause division even within its own class. The little detail that Speransky is not fluent in French definitely confirms he wasn't raised in the upper class as well, but he practices the language in order to get close to it. It's actually interesting how Emperor Alexander seems to support and enjoy Speransky? I would've thought he'd feel threatened given the Emperor is at the top, but ig we'll see ||

|| I love listening in on family and relationship drama within the Rostov household. Also, I'm really over it with Pierre I felt bad for him, saw him grow, and yet he still easily returns to Helene after all that?? nah bro ✌️ ||

[static estuary]

Right! || Apart of me was like are you really in love with her?? but at the same time ig it was normal for the period and he kept maintaining that it was for the sake of their future together ||

True!! || now i'm curious why Boris visied in Petersburg and not Moscow. Ig I just assumed it was cause he needed time to develop individually and maybe he felt a sense of self-achievement that he could show off to the Rostov's after so much time. Maybe he also pitied them a bit given they were treated less in Petersburg ||

[static estuary]

|| the day Vasily gets punched in the face is the day i'll be happy ||

[sweet cairn]

|| the day Vasily
gets punched in the face is the
day i'll be happy ||

- War and Pea(s)

[static estuary]

noooooo (but also true)

[fickle egret]

I love how this haiku is also a rhyme too bad it's somewhat spoilery otherwise I would've starred it

[agile swallow]

Yall are hilarious

[static estuary]

ohh || honestly Boris and Natasha's relationship is the definition of "its complicated" ||

[agile swallow]

Situationship for real

[fickle egret]

Book 5 up to ch 12 ||I don't have many feelings about this part, although Freemasonry feels very cultish. Also Pierre trying to do right but not knowing what's really happening there and then trying to convert Andrey is kinda weird. I guess this whole part is a bit weird. oh and Boris and Helene ||

[candid mica]

oh honey, you've got it coming

[static estuary]

Book 6 Completed || So Prince Andrew and Natasha eh?? I remember when Denisov's proposal to Natasha seemed too much given the age gap....well....Tolstoy really said lemme give you an even BIGGER age gap with a man who already has a kid I wonder what Nikolai Rostov thinks given him and Prince Andrew didn't get off on the greatest terms at the Battle of Schongrabern not only this relationship but now an old Prince Bolkonski (Andrew's father) is saying he wants to MARRY his daughter's friend, ya ok....WHAT!? Anyways...this whole thing is kinda making me wanna read Pride and Prejudice too ||

[static estuary]

ok I also wanted to say from Book 6 ||what is up with Tolstoy writing so much detail into Speransky's hands we get it, the man likes hands is it some sort of power thing? Like Prince Andrew can't help staring at Speransky's hands because they hold so much power without being covered in blood since he's not necessarily in the army and all he does is introduce new laws?? ||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 8 ch 1-3 || Moscow time! Pierre is really wallowing in it. But ugh. Wth, Mary’s dad? Don’t you know not to trust Bourienne yet? Sheesh. He’s just losing it all over the place. Ooh, Boris is in Moscow too? Sneaky. Seems like things are getting rocky again with the French. And they’re starting to notice how they revere French ways instead of “good old fashioned Russian” ones too. Interesting, Tolstoy||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 8 ch 4-5 || no. Boris is not the right match for Mary! And I’m skeptical that this Andrew/Natasha marriage is ever gonna happen. Boris is a lousy poet lmao. Ah!! Anna Mikhaylovna is up to her old manipulative ways. Oof. Poor Julie, but she’s kinda going into this with her eyes open. I think she knows he’s just after her fortune||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 8 ch 6-9 || I kinda wish I was Marya Dmitrievna. And the Rostov - Bolkonski battle begins. Ahhh! Dolokhov is at the opera!! No!! I think the readers of this who couldn’t afford extravagance like an opera might have loved this or really resented the opulence of it all. Anatole is a playboy. But why is Natasha being so flirty? Hmmm. I had a feeling he would be her downfall||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 8 ch 10-11 ||hmmm Natasha is definitely over her head with Anatole’s tricks. But yeah I’ve been there with that lust feeling when you’re officially with someone but feel attracted to another. What?!? He’s married?!! Oof. This is not gonna be good. Dolokhov is such a conniver||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 8 ch 12-14 || I think the point of this Sunday description is to show that not all of Moscow is frivolous? Helene is such a bad influence on … everyone really. Yep. There it is. Natasha is doomed.i have a very bad feeling about this||

[agile swallow]

Zoom zoom

[deep ginkgo]

They’re short chapters, it’s not that impressive

But the drama intensifies lol

[candid mica]

fr book 8 is all drama

[candid mica]

book 9, until chapter 16
||tolstoy just described placebos i think natasha is going through some good old-fashioned depression and heartache. im glad she's better now, because for a second i thought there was a chance she might die what's to come of her and pierre? i really hope they end up happy. natasha might take a while to recover mentally from this all.||

book 9, chapter 17
||she finally got better! im still so curious about what's to come for her and pierre, it can't just be left at friendship. pierre is so sweet, he deserves this ||

[candid mica]

book 9, until chapter 21
||what is this animal-like ferocity with how the citizens react to catch mere biscuits from the emperor i see we’re focusing on petya now, he even got hurt ||

[candid mica]

book 9 finished will write my thoughts in a few minutes

[candid mica]

||the first few chapters deal with the politics proceeding at that time; more specifically, how the war started. the first chapter is entirely tolstoy’s views on the causes of war and how history views it, and from what i can understand, is trying to convey that war is not provoked by a singular event in history, but multiple, infinite acts by every individual (the more powerful and higher up the societal hierarchy an individual is, the more his actions are dictated and not his own may be referring to how individuals are forced to act according to their superiority and class)

the conflict between princess mary and the old prince has gotten worse. andrew coming home seemed to make matters only worse. i still don't comprehend what's to happen to their household. prince andrew himself has gone through a lot of changes, particularly his marriage being called off with natasha and the effect this had on him consequently. he seems to get back to his old way of thinking, back before he met natasha. this i think is clearly shown when he attends the war council and philophasizes about how one should act in war as a leader.

nicholas is shown to us with his usual nonattendance regarding his family i admired his hesitation to kill his foe, and his denial of being worthy of the award and praise that followed. both nicholas and andrew have matured, in the sense that their moral compasses are now exact and resolute.

speaking of resolute, natasha swallowed poison i still don't know if i entirely like her. im glad she is repenting, and even more so by the fact that pierre displayed his charm towards her. i feel so terrible for him, not being able to say his love for her, and deciding to never visit her again.

we get petya’s appearance too, i am hoping to see more of him later. he almost got trampled to death pretty noble.||

i swear it wasn't that long in my head

[deep ginkgo]

Book 8 ch 15-18 || oh, good luck Sonya, but I don’t think it’s going to work. Anatole, you cad! I wonder if Dolokhov is helping Anatole in his deceit because of his resentment toward Natasha’s brother over Sonya? Ooh!!! Marya Dmitrievna to the rescue!!||

[deep ginkgo]

It’s such a soap opera isn’t it?

[candid mica]

that's exactly what it is

[deep ginkgo]

My goal is to catch up to you before I go back to work on Tuesday

[candid mica]

i would appreciate someone else’s thoughts very much rn

[deep ginkgo]

Book 8 ch 19-22 || glad she knows about Anatole’s deception. Never thought she was right for Andrew either for that matter. Pierre getting so protective makes me think he harbors too much feeling for her too. If not for Helene…? Thought that was going to be another duel for hot-tempered Pierre. Omg! She poisoned herself?!? And she broke off the engagement by writing to Mary? Wild. Aw yep there it is- Pierre’s heart on his sleeve||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 9 ch 1-3||ok we’ve taken a hard u-turn into political theory lol Napoleon is on the move again. Boris and Helene again… hm. Ofc he’s a big shot now. Lots of war talk. It’s interesting that such polite letters could engender war and calamity ||

[ornate shore]

I’m planning to get back to this and read a Book a day. Too ambitious??
I hope not. I did find this a lot better than Anna Karenina and perhaps I can if I read this as my main book

[agile swallow]

Do ittt

[deep ginkgo]

Book 9 ch 4-5 || ngl all this military stuff is just making me zone out. Tbf, I’m very distractible atm and that is not helping ||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 9 ch 6-7 || all of these antics by Napoleon are kinda funny. He was seriously syphilitic by then, so clearly rather wild of behavior. Makes me wonder if Tolstoy had personal accounts from ppl at these events. Seems a bit odd tho too that he’s fictionalizing some if this when before we saw the irl characters only through the eyes of the various MCs ||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 9 ch 8-10|| yay, back to MCs! I’m curious that Mademoiselle Bourienne is still around, since she’s once again an “enemy”; I’m still sooo curious about her backstory! Omg! I totally forgot about Andrew’s son! So much more political posturing with military ppl. Ohh Andrew’s going to meet with the Emperor. Ngl I’m kinda confused, but pushing through. Are they still at war with Austria now that they’re back at war with France?||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 9 ch 11-16 || barely retained any of this, cuz my stress levels are still really high. Natasha seems to be having a lot of heartbreak tho for someone who nearly was socially destroyed by a dud she knew for like 2 days. Glad Sonya is helping her through||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 9 ch 17-18 || I want to feel concern for Natadha, but I’m kinda just annoyed with her rn. I know it was a thing in 19th century literature to have women characters who “compromised” their virtue to suicide. Readers were not allowed to see them survive that “immoral” choice. So I guess since she just almost let herself be swept away, she gets to survive. All this “I want to grow good” business is so difficult with a modern perspective. Meh.||

But (spoilers for Anna Karenina) || at least she doesn’t have to fling herself under a freaking train||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 9 ch 19-20 || wth is going on with Pierre? Seriously dude. This is helping no one. Also, this whole Pierre/Natasha thing is … odd too. Not sure if they would be a good pairing or not. They both grew up kinda humble, but he seems way too philosophical for her||

[candid mica]

right? it all is happening so soon that none of it makes any sense

[static estuary]

there's only a month left of this br and I'm not even halfway yet

[candid mica]

do it the choco way and read it all in one week

[static estuary]

Ok my final thoughts on all of W&P: I liked that It had war and it had peace /jk (but also true )

[candid mica]

it also had some bits with war and peace

[static estuary]

Woah woah where are the spoiler tags?!

[candid mica]

in the end, the war eats the peas

peace*

[static estuary]

Hmmmm

[candid mica]

silly me making silly mistakes

[deep ginkgo]

Book 9 ch 21-23|| Oof - young teens going off to war is not awesome imo, but I know that it’s common throughout history. I hope Petya can stay safe, but I feel like he might be a “red-shirt guy”. These military conversations that take place in multiple languages must have been complicated. No wonder everything is rather chaotic. So, the aristocracy just decided to draft tons of young men as soldiers, convinced the merchants to finance the whole thing, then went home and took off their uniforms and went on with their lives? what?
Since this was originally serialized in publication, I’m wondering if the romantic drama of book 8 made readers ask for more “manly” chapters. Lol || On to Book 10!!

oof. 39 chapters in Book 10

[agile swallow]

Ooooof

[candid mica]

the real war begins

[deep ginkgo]

yep, les go bois

[candid mica]

that’s such a tolstoy thing to say

[candid mica]

book 10, until chapter 14
||princess mary and nicholas? wow, couldn’t have seen that coming what about the whole sweet, romantic affair with sonya? his parents would certainly approve of a rich heiress such as mary though. what i don’t understand is how people in this book betray their lover they’ve known a long time to fall in love with someone they’ve known for a matter of hours do they not have a sense of loyalty or borders, and just fall in love with the first person who’s nice with them||

[fickle egret]

i finished book 5. but im kinda wrapping my thoughs around it still. but ||why are so many very young people in high positions in the military or trying to? like rostov and boris are just such good examples of barely adults trying to get higher ranks||

[pulsar ruin]

So do I keep trudging through or do I dnf

[agile swallow]

Trudging thru!!! Life is pain anyways

[deep ginkgo]

Book 10 ch 1-3 || Interesting that Tolstoy is speaking directly to his contemporary readers in evaluating the military efforts of 1812. (also he spoilers… Napoleon loses. lol) Ah, so the French language is falling out of favor in Moscow. Wonder about Petersburg. I can relate to Mary’s being clueless about the war. I feel like I never have any idea at all what is happening with our military overseas, and I don’t really trust our officials to tell us the truth about any of it tbh. Hmmm. Mary and Andrew’s dad is writing his will. I wonder what that will mean for both of them. I feel like he’s going to die soon||

[deep ginkgo]

It think it was a || "commissioned officer" kind of thing? buying positions for greater safety?|| But I could be wrong

[fickle egret]

oh so like ||vasily vouching for boris and paying for it? and the old count rostov for nikolay... that makes sense yeah||

thank you lemon 😄

[deep ginkgo]

ofc; we'll get through this together! lol

idk if any of us will finish by the deadline tho lmao

[agile swallow]

im hoping that you and choco will... at least

im so busy with work its hard to read this unless its the weekend

we can beg for another extension lmaooo but maybe its no longer possible

[ornate shore]

Watch me
(lowkey putting myself up for the challenge by being overly confident that I will )

[agile swallow]

yes hanzy you can do it!!!!

[static estuary]

making myself feel better by being reminded that the W&P audiobook is only about 60 hours If I just throw sleep away I can finish in less than 3 days

[agile swallow]

yesss just play it while you sleep, who knows, you might know everything about W&P by the time you wake up

[static estuary]

According to the worldwide web the longest time a person has stayed awake is 11 days 24 minutes so he had the chance to read W&P like 4 times

[agile swallow]

i want to know the world record for someone staying awake while reading W&P nonstop

[candid mica]

well whatever it is, im gonna beat it

[candid mica]

yeahhh im still 5 books and 2 epilogues behind

[cunning tree]

no promises but that did make y'all finally read it

[fickle egret]

true im still gonna try though, but i feel like sometimes the text is very easy to follow along and on other times I have no clue what's going on and have to reread a bunch

i saw from a tolstoy enthusiast blog that they can read the book in a week or two

[agile swallow]

Laelia is our motivation

Ya I’m gonna get back on this this weekend and hope for the best

[pulsar ruin]

Erm

So.

I just DNF’d this FOR NOW

I will come back to it. Eventually

[deep ginkgo]

Yeah, I’m trying, hopefully will make more progress tomorrow, but it’s not likely to be finished by May 4

[deep ginkgo]

Book 10 ch 4-6 || oh, so the fighting could come near the Bolkonsky estate? Eek. It’s nice to see the soldiers playing in the pond like kids. Seems like the military leadership is struggling tho. I know that Moscow continues to be overshadowed by St Petersburg until the Russian Revolution, but I’ll bet some of the seeds of dissension are beginning to grow already, whether Tolstoy knew it or not. Vasily and Anna Pavlovna are still up to their snobby ways. Kinda want to see both of them take a social hit at some point||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 10 ch 7-8 || Welp, looks like Nicholas is going to be in the thick of it again with the battlefront. I can’t even imagine how scary it must be to know that an army was approaching your home. Mary must be really nervous with her sick dad and young nephew. Father/daughter relationships are often pretty special, and I think it must be really heartbreaking for Mary to see her father frail and failing as he is; especially since he’s been her protector and now she’ll be at the whim of her brother when he’s even around. And now he’s dead. I hope Mary lands well||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 10 ch 9-12 ||Interesting that the Russians are destroying property, but the French are not harming the remaining inhabitants of the territory they claim. I’m just as confused as Mary is about the running of the estate and what is going on. I think wanting to feed the peasants is a good idea, and Idk why the steward dude is so upset about it and wants to be discharged. Welp, if they won’t follow her to safety, Idk what else she can do about it. I think she’s going to have quite the breakdown shortly however with grief over her father and stress of the impending army||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 10 ch 13-16 || Eek. Nicholas is about to sack Mary’s estate? Or is he about to be her hero? Ohh.. Nicholas and Mary is an interesting proposition to consider. How will Andrew feel about this after Natasha’s snubbing him? Ok, I kinda love that Andrew is planning things with Denisov. I hope they do sneaky things against Napoleon. I still don’t know if the Russians are still fighting the Germans and the Austrians! Smh Andrew seems to be growing some Russian pride maybe? Even tho he’s still speaking and reading French? idek.||

[fickle egret]

Up to Book 6 ch 13 ||I'm liking the character growth that prince Andrei has gone through, processing his grief and depression and being a more stoic person overall will do him wonders. Too bad he is abandoning his son for a military life again, surely that won't bit him in the ass later in life 🙃. I feel very confliced about Pierres' character development. On the one hand, you can see he's trying his best to do noble virtues, but he seems too naive on how things work and society to get things done well. But him journalling is a good idea I think for his own peace. Him reuniting with Helene also feels like a set up for something to happen in the future, especially how close Helene is getting with Boris. And Boris and Natasha's promise gone was expected but at the same time, it only now becomes an issue for the old count and countess due to their financial troubles. ||

[fickle egret]

up to Book 6 ch 22 ||ngl Prince Andrey and Natasha kinda makes me cringe he could be her dad if im not mistaking the ages here. Also kinda feel bad for Pierre ||

[fickle egret]

Book 6 ch 23 - 24 ||the immediate shift in their dynamic when he asked for her hand makes me think this one year break is probably the best idea the old prince Bolkonsky. Maybe their separation will see what they truly feel for each other instead of these meetings on soirees and balls||

End of book 6 ||I keep saying i feel bad for people but I also don't like how the old prince bolkonsky is now treating marya. Sure her sneaking in people into the house is maybe not nice, but he's turned more hostile. this whole book makes me feel sad for many characters I suppose||

Book 7 ch 1 ||I also wonder if Rostov harbors some ill feelings from his previous interactions with Prince Andrey, but him wanting to see him to say to marry Natasha immediately no matter the old prince bolkonsky's consent, makes me feel he is still just as prideful as ever and not really thinking things through enough||

[fickle egret]

I was so busy reading book 7 that i forgot to write down my thoughts. But I finished book 7 just now ||I'm a little confused by the financial situation of the rostovs. They have to sell their Moscow house at the end of the book, but they still have butlers and maids working for them and go on hunting trips and stuff. Also involving Nikolay into this saying he has to marry julie or else is kinda fucked up. But on the other hand, WHYYY MARRY YOUR COUSIN? probably different times, different cultures, but man. I really don't understand the chemistry between Nikolay and Sonya. Overall I kinda rushed through this book because I wanted to get it to get juicy and it really didn't really so maybe book 8 won't dissapoint||

[deep ginkgo]

I think it’s a situation of ||them still possessing their inherited possessions, but having low income to maintain them, especially with Nicholas gambling so heavily… and badly. So they don’t have the finances to continue the aristocratic lifestyle unless he marries someone with a large fortune. I think he keep going to the “country” because it’s cheaper there, and they can hunt for their own food. Maybe? But yeah, Nicholas and Sonya is cringe now, but wouldn’t have been then||

[fickle egret]

up to book 8 ch 14 ||Anatole and Natasha god, what a player he is. And also I don't really like how Natasha switches her love so easily but prince andrey did say she was free to pursue even though their secret has now gone around the entire community already. Besides him being probably a very bad influence on her, at least he's not as old as prince Andrey 🙃 I wonder if he will know eventually||

[fickle egret]

I feel like ||Boris also isn't really a good match for julie tbh he's more concerned with changing his personality for her and her status and money. If only she knew||

[fickle egret]

I mean. ||I don't really understand how divorces work in this time, but you can't tell me boris and helene for a long time were just friends while helene was still married to pierre. I feel like maybe there is some culture of rather separating than divorcing?||

[deep ginkgo]

||Oh I think Boris and Helene are longtime casual lovers for sure. I keep expecting her to turn up pregnant with his kid, and she foists the baby off on Pierre for propriety’s sake||

[agile swallow]

wow i took a long hiatus, i've now dusted off the cover of my W&P and ready to dig back into it!!

[deep ginkgo]

Book 10 ch 17-20 ||Ah, even more of them are veering away from using French. Interesting. So there is something to the whole Nicholas/Mary thing. Hmmmm. Also Pierre you protest too much. You so have it bad for Natasha, and you know it. Also, it seems like he might be finding purpose in life within all this chaos? Battle of Borodino sounds rather fraught||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 10 ch 21-23 || I’m sure that Tolstoy’s original readers enjoyed the nationalistic pride of these chapters along with Pierre about the army etc, but they’re not doing much for me. But I’m surprised that they just let a civilian wander around, even if he is part of the aristocracy. Interesting that he chose to show us all of this from Pierre’s perspective tho instead of Nicholas or Andrew or some other character in the actual military. I wonder where Dolokhov is in all of this? Oh! There he is! LOL Wow! Dolokhov and Pierre seem to have recovered from their duel, unless Dolokhov is up to something again. Oof. Bennigson probably should not be making his own decisions||

[agile swallow]

Book 7 ||Nikolay sure is in to those moustaches on the girls... I'm reading on Reddit that there could be some queer subtext for NIkolay hmmmmm||

Book 7 ||The Rostovs were in deep financial trouble - the Count blamed himself for squandering, the Countess wanted to pawn Nikolay off to Julie, and Nikolay helplessly fell in love with Sonya (who's penniless... and a cousin). Ominous futures for the Rostovs aside, the scene in which Nikolay and Sonya kissed was quite (literally) dazzling:

The sky was all blackness and dreariness, the earth all brightness.
I just adore how Tolstoy uses elements of nature to highlight plot elements. In this case, instead of describing the sky as lofty (how Andre saw it), it became drab against the scintillating human emotions.||

[agile swallow]

Book 8 ch 1 ||why do I feel Pierre is so relatable here?! Just sink into a book when the real life gets ya. Yes Pierre, I do that too!||

[agile swallow]

Book 8 ch 2 ||hmmmm complicated feelings about the old prince. just whyyy is he so cruel towards Princess Marya?? Yet he's also so feeble it's hard not to pity him||

[agile swallow]

Book 8 ch 4 ||"To please the Moscow girls nowadays one has to be melancholy." i didn't know girls back then also like sadbois||

[royal rain]

Pierre!!! He is awesome

Overdue played this cruel April Fool joke on me.. I thought they read the book https://overduepodcast.com/episodes/2024/4/1/ep-640-war-and-peace-by-leo-tolstoy

[deep ginkgo]

Book 10 ch 24-27 || Oh Andrew is being a bit whiny and much more cynical in his outlook about the glory of war. Idk why but it still feels weird when Napoleon is acting as a character. I’ve read plenty of historical fiction when irl figures are fictionalized, but it feels strange that Tolstoy was doing it||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 10 ch 28-29 || It’s hilarious to me that success and the subsequent future of Europe was debated over the state of Napoleon’s possible cold. I’m sure that the Russian readers of this were quite proud of their ability to withstand and defeat the Legend that was Napoleon||

[agile swallow]

Book 8 ch 7 hot take: ||I'm... not a fan of Natasha - she seems impetuous and kinda egoistic (maybe just confident?). But everyone loves her (in the book and also readers of W&P). I don't get it?||

[candid mica]

i agree ||she seems to want all eyes on her||

[deep ginkgo]

||I’m not a fan of hers either tbh. She’s very selfish in many ways||

[agile swallow]

Book 8 ch 8 continuing my rant: ||

"They are talking about us, about me and himself!" thought Natasha.
idk why I'm so ticked off lol. Leave Boris alone, not everything is about you Natasha Maybe I'm anti-Natasha now that she's treated Princess Marya so coldly ||

[agile swallow]

Book 8 ch 9 ||ok Tolstoy we get it, Ellen is very naked at the opera. Also something is fishy between Anatole and Natasha...||

[agile swallow]

Book 8 ch 11 ||um how did Anatole get forced to be married to a random Polish girl??!?||

[deep ginkgo]

||because her father found out he’d had sex with her is my assumption. Classic “shotgun wedding”||

[pale field]

<@&1227865971553996822> for anyone who finishes this br

[agile swallow]

YOOOO

[candid mica]

WE GOT THIS W&P GANG if anyone deserves that role it's us we suffered so much

[candid mica]

||his father wasn't joking when he said his children were something||

[agile swallow]

ya ||anatole and dolohov are both chaotic evil||

[agile swallow]

Book 8 ch 14 ||🙄 Natasha out here proclaiming love for everyone smh. I am again ticked off by how she just fell right into Anatole's flirty trap. But I guess I was also once young and prone to the good looking badbois, so ... I should sympathize with Natasha||

[fickle egret]

yeah ||I think she ties getting attention from someone to love, maybe because in high society life she barely gets any from her parents ||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 10 ch 30-33 || I still think getting the battle from Pierre’s non-military perspective is an interesting authorial choice, and probably a good one because then he can be as clueless about military/warfare as the general reader would be and he can have things explained to him (and us) in logical ways. It’s all confusion and chaos in this battle.||

[fickle egret]

I finished book 8 ||Bruh if it wasn't for others to intervene also this whole kidnapping had sex trafficing vibes with how less anatole could care. Natasha then taking arsenic was a little too over the top for me. The only thing that I got from this book is that Pierre might hate women even more because of this and Sonya is MVP||

also at the start of book 9 my audiobook narrator switched to a different one and i really don't like his voice. Not sure if I can keep it up like that

[deep ginkgo]

Weird

[deep ginkgo]

Book 10 ch 34-36 || Everyone already knows that Napoleon is going to lose, but Tolstoy does pretty well at building a bit of suspense. I’m expecting one of the main characters to die or be wounded soon. Seems like it’s about that time. Guessing either Andrew or Nicholas. I think Boris, Pierre and Dolokhov will be ok, but I’m not sure why lol welp there it is. I think Andrew will be ok tho, and will maybe experience a “change of heart” in his outlook||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 10 ch 37-39 || Ha! Anatole! Oof, Andrew should not be so kind to him imo, but that’s just part of the theme of compassion and forgiveness I suppose. Well, it seems like the war is about to be over? Once Napoleon is officially defeated? || On to book 11!! and its 34 chapters

[fickle egret]

Book 9 ch 1 ||I feel like I’m reading an essay right now in the middle of a very juicy drama it’s a choice||

[candid mica]

i relate, ||i swear tolstoy got the urge to randomly write essays in the middle of chapters ||

[fickle egret]

oh sorry, that wasn't meant to be a reply

Book 9 ch 3 ||Ofc Boris can't resist some temptation to get with Helene, but then getting distracted by even more potential for power classic Boris move||

[fickle egret]

book 9 ch 8 ||The Bolkonsky's family dynamics are getting kinda sad, with there being two camps and stuff. ||

[fickle egret]

i have many thoughts about several chapters but I have to put my book down at book 9 chapter 19 to say ||Pierre out here really looking for any signs he might be the devil or the chosen one by using the number system on himself makes me facepalm so much. MY GUY you're reaching conclusions you really shouldn't worry yourself with||

[fickle egret]

up to book 9 chapter 21 ||Petya snatching biscuits away from an old lady because the Tsar has touched it is a little rude for a 15 year old , and I suppose he got his wish. Pierre and Natasha separating might be for the best because with him still married it's not a good idea to get together... not like helene probably cares because of boris but oh well. Bolkonsky going into the field instead of a higher ranking job just to meet anatole is a new kind of petty that i thought he had shed. Guess his ego might've been so bruised by Natasha's refusal that he feels the need to duel him, no matter the consequenses of denying such a job||

[fickle egret]

end of book 9 ||I mean, Pierre is probably better off sending that money to the army than to spend it on drinking but idk how I feel about the end. It's kind of a complicated situation, war itself. But given Pierre also inserts himself as some sort of chosen one to save Russia previously I feel like this has some mixed motives as well. This whole book is giving me mixed feelings about many of the characters, perhaps that's what war does to people||

[fickle egret]

book 10 ch 4 ||It's kind of lucky that prince andrey and alpatych met up here, otherwise maybe prince andrey's warning would come very late, if he even had the time to send out a warning in the first place. What an impactful chapter||

[agile swallow]

Book 8 ch 15 ||yesss Sonya go off! Tell Natasha how this how Anatole business is sus as hell! Can't believe Dolohov is in on this too. He's too chaotic||

[royal rain]

Anatole - such a jerk!

[fickle egret]

book 10 ch 8 ||Although it's kinda sad to see old prince bolkonsks' death here, I'm even more sad that Princess Marya is now basically on her own with some staff. I don't fault her for the mixed feelings she had about him dying because he was being a real jerk to her but that's still her father. I hope she really truely can shine on her own though, even without Prince Andrey.||

[agile swallow]

book 8 - done!
||So, Moscow is the next "battleground", in which Pierre, Natasha, Sonya, and Boris all reconvened, and Prince Andrey only entered the scene in the last minute. This part is pure soap opera - a money match between Boris and Julie, enmities between the Bolkonskys and Natasha, and an almost abduction of Natasha by tricksters Anatole and Dolokhov. While Andrey has fallen off the comet of love, Pierre has surged in his romantic feelings for Natasha.||

book 9 ch 1 I actually miss Tolstoy waxing philosophy and his views on human history this is some good stuff

[agile swallow]

Book 9 ch 1: the writing in this chapter is so, do y'all agree that ||we are just slaves of history (basically Tolstoy's view of fatalism), or that hindsight 20-20 makes us think things couldn't have happened any other way?||

[agile swallow]

Book 9 ch 3 ||wow Boris is so good at social climbing I’m amazed||

[royal rain]

It's the best of times (Peace) and the worst of times (War) ! - Dickens

[deep ginkgo]

Book 11 ch 1-5 ||More war talk and I’m not sure what is significant to take from it, but I do know that these battles in Russia stopped Napoleon’s complete takeover of Europe, so what is to happen is important. I still wonder if he got the details of these military council meetings from his ancestor. I am missing having our actual MCs show up in these chapters tho. They really drag on for me||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 11 ch 6-7 || Hmm. I don’t for a second believe that Helene has “found religion”, she's just found a way to divorce Pierre, which is all for the better unless she fleeces him of his property and fortunes. I wonder if any Russian nobles were observant of Catholicism (vs. Russian Orthodoxy) given their near worship of the French as a culture prior to the war. She’s being expectedly sneaky about it, but I do actually think that Pierre will be amenable, even if he does lose all of his financial assets in the process||

[cunning tree]

@everyone
Sorry I didn't check in as much lately!! Life got a bit too busy but I hope you all are somewhat enjoying the book.

I have extended the BR until <t:1719705600:D> so I hope this is enough time for you all to finish the book and get your well deserved points as well as the role <@&1227865971553996822> (in case you missed this part)

1️⃣ Which part(s) did you enjoy the most so far?
2️⃣ Which part(s) did you enjoy the least?

I will also catch up with you all soon and share all my notes
Happy reading!!

[fickle egret]

omg bless, thank you laelia

1; I'm currently in book 10, but I think book 8 was my favorite part thus far ||The tension in terms of high society was ramping up and the drama was so fun to read about the engagement between Natasha and Andrey and then Anatole coming in. It's like watching something like a carcrash. I also liked earlier parts where people were on the battlefield but that isn't really one part or one thing||
2: I'm kinda between book 1 and book 9. Book 1 just because it was hard to get into for me, but book 9 ||with the left turn where Tolstoy suddenly dropped an essay really threw me out of the loop so much that I was kinda lost and had to get back into the vibe||

[ornate shore]

OMG LAE! Thank youuuuu 💜

I’ve been on a hiatus from this one for waaaay too long. I’ll get back today for sure

[rancid vessel]

I will join this since it got extended
I will start it when I finish #1203103774856577084 today

[candid mica]

an extension?? we can definitely do this

[static estuary]

a new role?! Do other big book br’s have this too? I never knew

[cunning tree]

it's a war and peace special

[deep ginkgo]

Book 11 ch 8-11|| Pierre is so not an officer, what is he up to lol Oof, I guess both Anatole and Andrew are dead? Unless Pierre is being misinformed. I really thought that Andrew was going to survive for some reason. Pierre is getting the gossip that he doesn’t need, but not the relevant tea about Helene. Oh Pierre is just skipping off when things get tricky? He can handle the military battlefield, but not his own domestic one.||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 11 ch 12-14 ||Poor Countess Rostova, nothing is going well for her world. Money troubles, sons in the army, daughter tries to poison herself after nearly being “ruined”, city about to be sacked by the French. No wonder she’s a mess. Seems to be going ok for her kids tho, so she needs to just let it all ride… but maybe get out of Moscow fr. I’m not fleeing from an approaching army, but I wish I had servants to help pack up my life and move. Andrew!!! I knew he wasn’t dead!||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 11 ch 15-17 || Hmm. How is Natasha going to react when she discovers that Andrew is there as a wounded soldier in this packing/fleeing chaos? Sonya seems to be helpful; I hope that her endstory is good even if she doesn’t make a love match with Nicholas. Oof, and now Pierre is there too? Why is he so flustered to see Natasha? Is it because he thinks Andew is dead but doesn’t want to tell her, or is he dreaming about possibilities in the absence of Helene? ||

[fickle egret]

I feel like ||some of the youngsters see any sort of attention as love and so they jump through different things. Same as Marya and Rostov now, there was no romantic intent between their actions but now they are head over heels how about just a simple compliment lmao. ||

[fickle egret]

||I was super confused about this as well. Maybe it is a thing of loyalty or honor to it this way and not listen to the woman while head of the house is out on the battlefield. ||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 11 ch 18-20 || I think unfortunate things might happen to Pierre in this retreat. We shall see. Nice that Napoleon doesn’t plan to raze the city. I imagine the empty Moscow like Spring 2020 lockdown||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 11 ch 21-24 || I wonder if this Rostov nephew would have received such a boon if the count had actually been there. I hope the housekeeper doesn’t get in trouble. This evacuation is chaos and somewhat funny to me, but I wonder if it was meant to be ||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 11 ch 25-29 || what a mob, so occupied Moscow did burn, and I guess the architecture we know now was post 1812? And now Pierre is going to become an assassin? Wth? But now they think he’s French… what a mess. This whole interchange between Pierre and Ramballe is pretty funny. Pierre and his undeclared love for Natasha just takes over everything lol||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 11 ch 30-34 || oh I knew Natasha would want to go see andrew! Oof no! I don’t want them to get back together! Wow! Pierre is straight up a hero, but gets caught by the French and is a prisoner of war now? Yikes!!||

On to book 12!

[ornate shore]

I’ve finished Book 2 & Book 3 in two days so I’m feeling positive about reading this a book a day
I’m finding it a lot more interesting than Anna Karenina and it’s definitely not a lullaby that puts me to sleep
I’ve been recording some of my thoughts as I read but I’m mostly listening and enjoying the audiobook so won’t have many annotations with quotes to post but will share what I’ve recorded so far when I’ve some more time

Going to take another tiny break from this to read & finish #1211942923873157130 (had messed up the BR dates in my head again )

[deep ginkgo]

Book 12 ch 1-2 || Wait… why are there 2 Russian Empresses??? Aha! I knew Helene would end up with an unwanted pregnancy eventually! Surprised at how calmly the abortion is being discussed tho. Not at all surprised that she died. Unfaithful wives were not allowed to survive in 19th cent literature, (as I’ve said before), because it set a bad example for all those miserable women readers. But hey, not Pierre is no longer her prisoner, even if he is that of the French army lol So now Vasili has lost his philandering son Anatole and his promiscuous daughter Helene, wonder how Hippolyte will fair? I wonder if this neglect to defend Moscow, but carry on socially in Petersburg caused more social distress between the Russian classes||

Book 12 ch 3-4 || There’s such a difference between personal history and public history, even where they intersect. I’m not surprised that personal experiences would vary from what is chronicled by the historians. I swear Nicholas is so clueless about everything! Don’t flirt with other men’s wives at parties dude; he’s gonna end up in a duel yet. Sheesh. Oh, Princess Mary is there too; I wonder if Mlle Bourienne is still with her now that her dad is dead. I can’t believe that after all these pages Nicholas is still pining after Sonya. OOH! Flirty Mary! After her dad, and Andrew’s precarious state, I hope he doesn’t die on her too||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 12 ch 5-8 || Mary might be “spiritual”, but it’s Sonya that’s the saint imo. I knew she didn’t mean it. The countess is so manipulative against her. I don’t see why a set of brother/sister can’t marry another brother/sister unless the potential cousins would be permitted marriage, which I suppose could be a thing at that time in that place||

Book 12 ch 9-12 || Poor Pierre. I knew this curiosity around the battlefields would end up getting him in trouble. I hope they don’t execute him for saving a little girl from a fire. Wth. I feel like Pierre’s going to get a big philosophical monologue soon. I think this firing squad scene would be rather shocking to the contemporary readers. Pierre lives a charmed life, istg. Or I guess Platon will get the monologue lol||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 12 ch 13-16 ||OOh the meeting of Sonya and Mary! Sparks will fly lol Interesting that Andrew has survived to this point in spite of gangrene, sepsis etc. and that Natasha has been able nurse him through some of it. Mary and Natasha might have to get along with each other too, despite their differences. Oh that caretaking of the terminally ill was pretty well done. I’m glad that Natasha didn’t decide to marry him in the end, and I guess now Mary is the ward of her nephew? RIP Andrew tho; you were not my favorite, and you were a jerk to your first wife, but you still were just a product of your time||

On to book 13… but not until next week

[cunning tree]

I agree with this being more interesting than Anna Karenina

[sweet cairn]

I agree with this
being more interesting than
Anna Karenina

- Laelia ☁

[cunning tree]

LMAO

it took me so long to realise but my book has different books and chapters i was wondering why i didn't have book 12 etc but it's like Book One - Part One - chapter 1 for me 😭

this is going to be so confusing

[cunning tree]

B1 P1 ch16
||the german accent is not really german and also so difficult to read bc i don't really get what it's supposed to say ngl||

[cunning tree]

one hundred pages a day done just 10 more days to go LOL

[sweet cairn]

one hundred pages
a day done just 10 more days
to go LOL

- Laelia ☁

[ornate shore]

OMG saaaaame! I was so confused initially cuz people here were talking of so many books while mine has only 4 books with parts and chapters

Luckily I found another edition that corresponds to the others

[deep ginkgo]

I think it depends on the translation. Character names are translated differently too. Discussing this has been complicated due to the inconsistency of editions

[agile swallow]

Ya i think the volumes and parts, you just need to count from the beginning to figure out the book # lol

[ornate shore]

it is difficult
Counting from the beginning with a book this HUGE

[sweet cairn]

it is difficult
Counting from the beginning
with a book this HUGE

- hanzyyyy

[ornate shore]

I think I have the same edition as you guys now or idk, I’ve been reading your comments and thoughts and they correspond well.

Mine’s translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude and I have an audiobook of the same

[deep ginkgo]

Yes, that’s the one I have too

[ornate shore]

You’re a GEM for sharing all these! Honestly was so confused but all these links you’ve shared and the little family tree of the ||Rostovs||, I found them quite helpful!

But why don’t translators just use ‘duke & duchess’ instead of calling everyone prince/princess? It gets so confusing. Having read Anna Karenina, I really did think all the Prince/Princesses mentioned there to be extended royalty or something

(lmk if this needs to be spoilered… I didn’t cuz I don’t think it spoils anything)

[candid mica]

time to war and peace my way out of this book im giving myself till the end of april to finish

[deep ginkgo]

my goal is mid-May at this point

[candid mica]

until book 10, chapter 27
||pierre and dolokhov finally made up, they’re both my cinnamon buns. andrew has no right to be cold at pierre, he obviously want you as a friend and you can’t just go around being toxic man i get that tolstoy is trying to convey how the whole war was a misconception but repeating that every chapter is getting boring||

[candid mica]

||i was also convinced dolokhov was planning something; and yes, bennigson made a big mistake with moving ||

[candid mica]

||andrew going through emo phase i mean a girl did dump him
napoleon appearing as a character is so weird, he is such an important figure in history that it’s hard to imagine him in this book||

[candid mica]

until book 10, chapter 37
||please i thought it was pierre who’s leg was amputated i was ready to sue tolstoy’s grave but the tea…anatole
and i found it so funny that in a previous chapter pierre didn’t even know he was in the middle of a WAR MY BOY||

[candid mica]

||istg in every book andrew levels up in real time this might be like his fifth change of heart or something ||

[candid mica]

finished book 10
||this book was mainly about how the battle of borodino affected those who were in it, mainly pierre, andrew and (still unbelievable) napoleon. i don't know what's to come of andrew, but i don't think he’ll die? you can't just kill him off when he's about to reach level 5 of character development. anatole’s leg getting amputated is i admittedly don't care about the war-related aspects of this book, not understanding much either, so this was mostly me fangirling about pierre. again. forever. i did appreciate building up the suspense to the war.||

each book is like a new season into the show

book 11, chapter 1
||i get how tolstoy wants to convey that history is not the cause of one event, but the consequeces of multiple events, but did the chapter have to be that long?||

[candid mica]

book 11, chapter 14
||OOOH andrew and natasha might meet again ||

[candid mica]

book 11, chapter 20
||i didn’t start reading this book just to hear tolstoy ramble about bees for half the chapter ||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 13 ch 1-4 || lol Napoleon is trying to Parley, but the Russian dude is having none of it. Once more we get more military posturing and maneuvering around. Where are the MCs??? Sigh.||
Book 13 ch 5-7 ||Wait, is “Count Orlov-Denisov” related to the Denisov with the stutter? Things are looking up for the Russians||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 13 ch 8-10 || Ok, Napoleon is clearly not living up to his former military genius here, and making some odd choices; Occupied Moscow is a mess||

Book 13 ch 11-13 || Finally back to the MCs. I totally forgot that Pierre was a Prisoner of War, but he seems to be doing ok? Pierre never did take to being a titled aristocrat, so I’m not surprised that he didn’t want to transfer to the “officers’ shed”. The absence of suffering sounds pretty good to me. I think quite a lot of people are going to start dying tho||

Book 13 ch 14-19 || I wonder if all of this military heroism was common knowledge of the time. It seems very patriotic in tone and makes me think that these men were underrecognized for their decisions and actions. The war is obviously in its final stages||

On to Book 14!

[candid mica]

i have rescheduled my personal deadline for this book and moved it to april 7th

if im not done by then, or atleast on the last book, the world is doomed and all hope is lost

[vague remnant]

I'm too late for this.. Think I can finish it in 5 days? I can't start before the 1st of May

Forget it.. Too big.. I'll start at my own pace sometime later

[cunning tree]

why 5 days LOL

the BR ends on 30th June now

[vague remnant]

Really.. Right didn't see the last announcement

Then I will start thank you so much for this great news

[candid mica]

until book 11, chapter 28
||LOLL PIERRE GOT MISTAKEN FOR A FRENCHMEN this is exactly the kind of thing that would happen to him LOL he’s so naive my sweet little boy. except that he plans to kill napoleon pierre ma dude you are not a soldier, nor a messenger from above, just chill bro ||

[candid mica]

book 11, chapter 33
||pierre trying to deal with that child is hilarious ||

[candid mica]

finished book 11, that was ||intense||

my final thoughts on book 11
||this book started off right where the battle of borodino ended, if im remembering correctly, but has severely changed courses throughout the book. i think after the main political moment of napoleon arriving as moscow and finding it empty, tolstoy wanted to shift the focus to our fellow love triangle (more like a love octagon at this point ) — andrew, natasha and pierre. pierre’s journey this book has been, for lack of a grander word, AMAZING. how the hell did a guy as dense as pierre end up in a burning house saving a child he compared to an animal? that is what i like to call some character development. i get how natasha and Andrew might be sweet but pierre’s so pure it hurts to see him hurt he saved a child from a burning building, was ready to save more people. if he isn’t the best damned character in this book, no one else is kinda got bored of andrew level king up every other book like boy stay in one phase anyways, what to come of pierre?! WHAT?! ||

this is mostly me rambling though

[candid mica]

||pierre is the real hero of this war frfr he was willing to save others. and yeah, andrew and natasha are kinda like that one couple who are on and off constantly ||

[candid mica]

book 12, chapter 7
||i keep thinking nicholas should not be with sonya but her letters are so sweet she deserves someone better than someone involved in a love octagon. princess mary and nicholas will marry now im guessing why do i still feel like this is not the end of it? we still have 3 more books, maybe 5 more love interests will be introduced soon ||

[candid mica]

||i was so freaking shocked that tolstoy actually killed someone. for some reason this always struck me as a mostly light hearted book because i could never take it too seriously but he just killed them off like that about the two emperors, i think people are allowed to have many wives in some regions, and russia may have been one of them?||

[candid mica]

book 12, chapter 15
||this was so sad the way mary and natasha finally united and only because andrew was dying. his son would grow up with that knowledge on his mind andrew, i’ll miss you buddy||

[candid mica]

finished book 12
||the ending was…heartbreaking. we were let down slowly, from how dazed andrew was and incoherent for his last few days. it’s hard to believe that he’s dead now. how will pierre react that his best friend died? the only one who initially accepted him into society? i remember andrew telling pierre that marriage was a mistake, and look at andrew now. willing to wait a whole year to marry a woman, being separated from her, and finally meeting her again, only to die. this changed my perceptions towards the book in whole, it all takes on a gray quality now. can’t believe little nicholas is 7 years old already, it has been 7+ years until we’ve known the characters then…wow.||

one book a day

[deep ginkgo]

Book 14 ch 1-4 || all of this math and military science to explain why the Russians won against the odds. But what it all comes down to in the end is young men dying on both sides every time. I was wondering where Denisov had disappeared to! And Dolokhov is there too! And PETYA?? wow.||

[visual fractal]

After having reread the first several chapters and thinking about them, I suddenly feel an urge to continue reading it I definitely need to squeeze out time for this and it better be worth it (also my physical copy doesn't look as intimidating as the e version, hurrah )

[candid mica]

finished book 13
i realised i forgot to give my thoughts while reading this book and i think it’s partially due to the fact that after books 10 and 11 i’ve gotten used to longer books ||also, nothing worthwhile happened, i think. pierre hit puberty, got probably strong and muscular (not to mention mental peace). im glad he’s happy now, the life of sophistication and parties never suited him. the armies and politics are going hot right now. i wonder what is up with napoleon, i think he waited so long to conquer moscow and had so many expectations but when the time finally came, he was put into too much pressure. there were also several comparisons of an army, like the earlier one to clocks. ||

im not gonna let myself think about how close i am to finish

[sweet cairn]

im not gonna let
myself think about how close
i am to finish

- chocorb

[candid mica]

book 14, chapter 6
||i already love tikhon, he is an amazing being of a person. we also get more into petya’s life, was wondering about him||

[candid mica]

book 14, chapter 9
||if this wasn’t set in the past i’d almost ship them. petya seems to hold a lot of respect for dolokhov||

[candid mica]

book 14, chapter 11
||PETYA DIED? bro that was such an unexpected twist, it was so sad i started to like petya and his enthusiasm tolstoy really be killing off all the characters in these last few books, wonder who will die in the end. pierre is free now too, but he would’ve liked petya i reckon ||

[agile swallow]

I’ll be traveling next week I’m hoping to get back on this wagon

[sweet cairn]

I’ll be traveling
next week I’m hoping to get
back on this wagon

- jpuzzle

[agile swallow]

famous last words

[candid mica]

or will you

[candid mica]

book 14, chapter 13
||the whole storytelling scene was wholesome, especially how pierre perceived it. the story itself was…intense.||

[candid mica]

book 14, chapter 17
||why is this comparison of the game to the armies so funny LOL i can just imagine the armies playing tag and dodging each other ||

book 14, chapter 18
||what does tolstoy have against historians and napoleon every book he keeps making passive-aggressive remarks against how napoleon is just stupid i would like someone from the french side to reply to this book by writing another one ||

y’all im on book 15

book 15, chapter 1
||natasha is already so sad over andrew’s death, she can’t deal with petya’s too. it would ruin her. ||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 14 ch 5-10 || omg, they better not execute this French drummer boy. I hope Petya’s story is not too sad. I love that they gave the drummer boy a nickname. I do not trust Dolokhov around Petya after all of his shenanigans with Nicholas, but he seems to have some pretty solid spy skills to infiltrate the French camp so easily. Ok, an orchestra of bayonet sharpening is chilling ngl ||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 14 ch 11-14 || aw… I had a feeling that Petya wasn’t going to make it. I think this will affect Denisov more than Dolokhov, but maybe he’ll wreak vengeance down on the French? Interesting that they found Pierre. Also interesting is Petya is the nickname for the Russian version of Peter and Pierre is the French version of Peter. Idk if that means anything or not, but it stood out to me. Is Pierre saying that being a prisoner of war is better than being a prisoner of an unhappy marriage? Also, I wonder if Dolokhov realized it was Pierre given their history. Ok, now we’re flashbacking through Pierre’s POV? ||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 14 ch 15-19 ||ooof. Tolstoy is not playing about Napoleon and his legacy. Grand indeed. What does Victory mean anyway when really so many people have died for no reason at all. I can’t imagine living somewhere that is invaded by another country. It must be utterly terrifying, but also a bit unifying, in a way? Even though the Russian Revolution is just another 100 years away||

On to book 15!

[candid mica]

book 15, until chapter 5
||i did realise people were undermining kutozov but now tolstoy has declared so himself. i think the soldiers were too violent and intent on revenge, while kutozov was more calm and reserved, choosing strategies for the betterment of the army. im just wondering where all our main characters are, this is the last book, you can’t not show them ||

[candid mica]

book 15, chapter 11
||why is tolstoy killing off everyone in the last few books i swear there have been more deaths in the past 3 books then there have been in the rest combined. i do think we need a new general for the modern times though, after the war.||

book 15, chapter 12
||i like how after every character tried to find peace and calm, it was pierre who decided to believe and gain happiness. he’s the main character without even knowing it frfr||

[candid mica]

book 15, chapter 15
||awww pierre is flustered tbh i would’ve liked to see him grow old and happy and then meet some random lady and fall in love with her (or not), rather than meeting natasha again. i forgot to mention this in an earlier chapter (or maybe book 14) but the way tolstoy described natasha and mary’s friendship irked me he kept saying how they were “more than friends” how only women can be and kept saying tender things and it just doesn’t sit right with me. anyways, i really don’t want pierre to get with natasha, he deserves better than his best friend’s ex-fiancé ||

book 15, chapter 16
||i need pierre and young nicholas bonding together, that would make me so happy he seems so sad upon hearing the details, i wish somebody would comfort him ||

book 15, chapter 17
||again with tolstoy saying how clever women are annoying during storytelling i still don’t like natasha and pierre’s ship very much, although i do love some good girl gossip mary and natasha had about him he has truly improved, and im very glad for him. natasha doesn’t seem so full of herself now, more of her fun side showing without the need for seeking attention, so hopefully she redeems herself in the upcoming chapters and epilogues||

[candid mica]

finished book 15
i think i already wrote most of my thoughts on individual chapters, but here is what i think of book 15 in general.
||like i mentioned in my previous messages regarding this book, i don’t particularly like the relationship being romantic between pierre and natasha. i think this may be due to the fact that they rarely engaged in conversation with one another before book 15, and i have yet to detect chemistry between them. it just seems too much of a last resort for me to enjoy it. and maybe because i still don’t like natasha very much princess mary tried to intervene, don’t know what she was aiming at and don’t even know if she succeeded in achieving that aim but she’s kinda the wingwoman i suppose i hope she is happy too, she lost so much. tolstoy really killed a lot of people in the last 3-4 books. ||
well, on with the two epilogues that are just as long as the books

[fickle egret]

good luck, you can do it! i heard the epilogues are where tolstoy really rambles on and on, but you are so close now

[candid mica]

ain’t no way im gonna quit now

epilogue 1, chapter 1
first of all, why do even the epilogues have chapters i do admit i understood literally nothing of what was said in this chapter, so i should try pay more attention

[candid mica]

epilogue 1, chapter 4
||what is up with tolstoy and bees ||

[ornate shore]

omg choco!!! You're almost throughhhh

[candid mica]

it’s all about to end so soon

[deep ginkgo]

Book 15 ch 1-3 || Natasha having all these regretful memories of Andrew… The Rostov family is having some rough times. In a way it’s really good for Natasha to have her mother’s grief over Petya’s death to focus on for now, but her own grief is going to have to come out somehow. I feel like Natasha’s and Mary’s friendship could be more, if this was written nowadays||

[candid mica]

||that’s what i thought! the way he was describing them with all the affection really had me thinking ||

[candid mica]

epilogue 1, chapter 8
||this made me kind of sad, because this chapter felt like an end. sonya never got a lover, im sad for her. she had so much love inside her.||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 15 ch 4-9 || You never know how history will remember you… Poor Kutuzov (whom I had never even heard of before reading this book) Wth is this business that Tolstoy is having the enlisted men say about the French corpses not smelling tho? Is that just Russian superstition? There are some poetic moments about the stars here too. How glorious the night sky must have looked back then with no ambient human light to interfere||

[deep ginkgo]

Book 15 ch 10-11 || Not sure whether to be proud of Kutuzov or to pity him. I’m not thinking that he literally died upon having no more war to wage, but it was a figurative death of his career||

[candid mica]

epilogue 1, until chapter 11
||what is up with natasha i knew pierre deserved better, now she’s just an angry bird. she should try to enjoy her life rather than worrying all the time and hurting herself and others. i get trying to have a family but if you’re going to be annoying all the night you might as well just dump them all pierre deserves better, but like him with children is so cute and nicholas with his daughter too||

[candid mica]

epilogue 1, chapter 12
||I KNEW PIERRE AND YOUNG NICHOLAS WOULD GET ON! it’s so cute how he worships pierre and pierre is so thoughtful by buying presents. i do feel bad for natasha’s mother, she has no more purpose in life.||

[candid mica]

epilogue 1, until chapter 14
||why is this so depressing for young nicholas pierre doesn’t give him attention and everyone ignores him. i just want pierre and him to have fun and learn together why is the epilogue creating more problems instead of resolving them||

epilogue 1, chapter 16
||this just proves that nobody is loving young nicholas enough and that he’s constantly left out, he’s like a mini pierre ||

[candid mica]

finished epilogue one
||the last chapter broke my heart young nicholas you are loved!! it’s so sad because he thinks he is not good enough, and misses his father he really deserves more attention, he’s so sweet and caring. he is officially my favorite character. this epilogue really hit the spot though, with how the main characters all grew up and had children and their own routine. the end is so close. i wonder if the second epilogue is about the children all grown up, or perhaps boris? we never saw much of him after a certain book. i don’t think he would have a happy life, since his main goal was gaining money and status and he already achieved that pretty early on. nevertheless, i need to see a happy end for young nicholas or i will be very upset ||

i’ll most likely finish this book today

[cunning tree]

you got this choco!! you'll be the first to get the conquerer role lol

[sweet cairn]

you got this choco!!
you'll be the first to get the
conquerer role lol

- Laelia ☁

[cunning tree]

also i just went past a coffee shop called 'Tolstoy' today -- i need to take this book and drink some coffee and read it there lol

[candid mica]

have fun at tolstoy’s

[candid mica]

epilogue 2 should be illegal

[candid mica]

epilogue 2, until chapter 8
||this is what all the ramblings in the beginning of those books led up to these chapters have been so incomprehensible, not because the ideas are beyond my mind, but because he repeats every idea so often that they have become the basis of this book. if I hear that we never had free will from him again I will explode some of this ideas are quite thought-provoking but must you repeat them EVERY 5 MINUTES? the one i liked most was the concept of power. why do soldiers go to battle on the command of one man?|| anyways, 30 or so minutes left in this mess of an epilogue, then im free from this book forever.

[candid mica]

i finished the book

all my thoughts went numb after that last epilogue but i’ll collect them tomorrow

i finally finished

[cunning tree]

Congrats!!

ENJOY YOUR <@&1227865971553996822> ROLE!!

[candid mica]

YAYYY!! it took MONTHS but it was worth it HAHA

[cunning tree]

let me know if you want to have the icon next to your name LOL

i can move it up for you

so you can brag haha

[candid mica]

yes please

i get bragging rights

[cunning tree]

GORGEOUS HAHA

[candid mica]

OMGGGG I LOVE IT SO MUCH

thankuuuu

[agile swallow]

Congrats!!!!!!

[candid mica]

thankuuuu waiting for you guys to finish too!!

[static estuary]

Bahahaha not the icon congrats Choco!

[rancid vessel]

Starting this now im hoping to finish it by the end of the month but let's see how that's gonna go

[vague remnant]

Congrats Choco!

[ornate shore]

Congrats CHOCO!! You did it!!

[candid mica]

thankuuuu guys i probably would’ve dnf’ed this a long time ago if y’all weren’t reading this with me

[deep ginkgo]

Book 15 ch 12-18 ||Pierre is going to have some more soul-searching moments. He’s had quite the character arc… from middle-class student and bastard, to nobility and manipulated into an unhappy marriage, to Freemason and philosopher to militia leader and prisoner of war and now to who knows what… But finally he’s going to be able to make a love connection with Natasha maybe? I wonder if Natasha will marry Pierre but they’ll have Mary stay with them all living together raising young Prince Nicholas? Welp, looks like Mary will just be playing matchmaker||

Book 15 ch 19-20 || Wth does he mean “recalled this time from the afterlife”? From heaven? Sheesh. I guess it’s good that he’s learned to be less critical of people maybe? Instead of looking for good qualities, finding them after getting to know people? idk I’m not sure how I feel about the whole Nicholas/Mary situation. I still want Sonya to be cared for and get rewarded for basically being such a solid person throughout the whole thing||

On to the Epilogues!

[deep ginkgo]

Huzzah!!

[deep ginkgo]

Epilogue 1 ch 1-4 || Oof. History Hindsight. This would have been written in 1867, but I feel like the Industrial Revolution has yet to reach Imperial Russia. Why are we just recapping the war and Napoleon’s defeat? Is it to justify it? I guess it’s interesting how much the history of France impacted the history of Europe from the Revolution of 1789 onwards into the 19th century. The section about the importance/purpose of the bee was poetic tho||

[deep ginkgo]

Epilogue 1 ch 5-7 || Yay they got married! Boo, the estate is a mess! Neither are surprising to me lol Will Nicholas marry Sonya for Love or Mary for Money. Time will tell… I mean I know that his gambling ways as a youth were part of the problem, but now he’s stuck with coddling his mom, which must feel like he’s a bit trapped. Wow, I did not expect Mademoiselle Bourienne to make it to the end of this book! Wow, Nicholas marries Mary but keeps Sonya in the household? Awkward. And now he’s a farmer? I feel like this is Tolstoy’s big message - live simply out in the country and you can be happy?||

[deep ginkgo]

Epilogue 1 ch 8-9 || Not surprised that Nicholas is struggling a bit. I still can’t believe that Sonya is still there! I hope she finds a way out. The families are growing fast tho! Natasha & Pierre have kids, Nicholas & Mary have kids… I wonder where Andrew’s son ended up. Nicholas you’re such a schmuck in so many ways, just tell your wife that she’s pretty and ofc you love her. Sheesh.||

Epilogue 1 ch 10-11 || Oh Natasha, I get it! I have little time for caring about my appearance anymore either. I don’t wear an ounce of makeup and barely do much with my hair. Much of my clothing is black or grey, so I don’t even have to think much about matching LOL. Ugh all this marriage equals nutrition business is giving me a stomachache. Maybe I’d rather be Sonya after all than either Mary or Natasha lol. Wait. Who the heck is Prince Theodore???? A new character at this point in the novel? Reallllllly? I low-key wanna ship Sonya with Denisov||

[deep ginkgo]

I should be able to finish this up next week!

[vague remnant]

Starting this today, but the ebook version says it's 3000+ pages and I'm daunted I've never read anything that big. hope I can finish it

[deep ginkgo]

It’s daunting but not truly difficult language wise. I suggest keeping a character chart tho, cuz there are a lot of them

[vague remnant]

Book 1 Ch. 8 ||honestly, I feel Prince Andrew's pov about marriage. You have great ambitions, then marry, suddenly your life revolves around marriage and you halt in seeking your ambitions. This hits quite hard. If that's a pov from about 200 years ago... I wonder if it is even possible to have great ambitions after marriage and really succeed in attaining them. Cuz I feel the same way as him.... ||

What's your opinions on that? Pls tell me it's not impossible

[static estuary]

|| I don’t think it’s impossible sometimes marriage makes you think that you have new responsibilities and priorities that revolve around your partner, but I think the ideal partner (especially in the present) should only encourage and motivate you to achieve the best version of yourself including your ambitions ||

[vague remnant]

Book 1 Ch. 10 ||So Pierre and Prince Vasili are essentially brothers-in-law.. Interesting. ||

[vague remnant]

Totally agree ||though that sort of "encouraging" partner is becoming harder and scarce to find these days ||

[vague remnant]

Book 1 Ch. 11-12 ||Countess Rostov looks like she's obliged to serve her guests. Probably she's tired from the childbearing. But her reaction when they finally left. Oh God she really seemed she hated them to the brim||

[deep ginkgo]

No , ||Vasili is Pierre’s father in law||

[deep ginkgo]

Epilogue 1 ch 12-16 || I’m glad that the kids all have each other and that Denisov is still so friendly with them. I wonder if they’ll ever be free of the political aftermath of the wars? And little Prince Nicholas is starting to hope to become more like his dad? Nicholas Rostov on the other hand is seemingly more discontent? LOL Nicholas is “collecting a library” and made it a rule to not buy a new book until he’s read the ones he has - how little the times change! I feel like young Nicholas is putting a lot of pressure on himself tho. I’m not entirely sure that either of these marriages are completely happy||

[deep ginkgo]

Actually @vague remnant ||I think it's too soon in the book for you to know that, so it's a major spoiler.... Sorry sorry sorry!!!!!||

[deep ginkgo]

Epilogue 2 || This historian in me is loving this epilogue so far. But it’s quite the thing that we’re reading this “modern history” analysis of the earlier events from yet another 150+ years distant and all the warfare of the 20th century. I love how history is interconnected. How one event can be seemingly unimportant and yet it sparks something else down the line. If Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson had failed in persuading the French to support the American efforts, would they have succeeded? If the American Revolution had been unsuccessful, would the French have revolted? If Louis XVI had financed his support better in 1776, would Russia ever be fighting Napoleon in 1812? And so on… This epilogue is just one giant essay on examining history, power and mankind’s influence on global events. It also speaks a bit to the impact of the freewill of the individual on the greater scheme of things. But it’s interesting to think about how the intellectuals of Russia would have been reading this only a few decades before Red October plunged Russia into a Civil War. one way or another, what a dry way to end this whole thing. sheesh. ||

FINISHED!!

[agile swallow]

Congrats !!!!!

[deep ginkgo]

Never have I ever taken over 3 months to read 1 single book

[cunning tree]

congratsss!

[deep ginkgo]

OMG THE ROLE LOL

[static estuary]

Every time I see the role all I hear is ”SLAYYYYY”

[vague remnant]

I don't mind spoilers at all, really! ||They just said Vasili was trying to obtain heritage from Bezukhov through his wife, and Bezukhov is Pierre's dad so that's how I thought they were brothers-in-law||

Congrats!! Leemondrop

[candid mica]

CONGRATULATIONS you survived epilogue 2 much more sanely than me lol, ||i guess i don’t know much about history to be interested in its analyzing ||

[vague remnant]

Book 1 Ch. 15-17 ||Anna Mikhaylovna is a type of fancy beggar! She couldn't manage to get money out of the count but got it from her friend. What a shame! Boris seems irritated by his mother's acts. I can understand him. No one would like to see their parents humiliating themselves, even for the sake of their own children. Count Rostov dearly loves his wife, apparently. He didn't even ask her what the money for. And gave her in excess. He's such a sweet husband. ||

[ornate shore]

Congrats Lemondrop!!!! That’s the second conqueror so far!

[deep ginkgo]

||nah don’t compare yourself to me, I’ve lived and read a lot more history than you. I’m old enough to be your grandma lol - Tbh I’m incredibly impressed that you chose to read this in the first place||

[vague remnant]

Book 1 Ch. 23 - 24 ||Pierre looks so overwhelmed he doesn't know what's going on or what's he supposed to do. Poor Pierre. Such events are hard enough yet those people, particularly Anna Mikhaylovna and Vasili, are up to whatever they can to be from the heirs. Oh why can't you leave the old dying man in peace? I agree with the eldest princess, Catherine. I can't stand Anna's behavior at all. Vile as she described her. ||

[vague remnant]

Book 1 end ||I like the story so far. The details are so evident I can feel myself living with them. I see the halls, the lights, the ball dresses. I feel like a monarch viewing them from the corner of the room. It's splendid! I'm eager to see what Pierre will do now he became the new Count Bezukhuv. Surrounded by so many cunning brains against him. Andrew too, going to war. I hope he doesn't die, for the sake of his yet unborn child at least. ||

[agile swallow]

Book 9 ch 7 (yes I’m finally back to reading ) ||everytime Napoleon sniffs a snuff box I’m just imagining him doing a line of coke also if war is about to break out, why didn’t the Tsar meet with Napoleon directly instead of through an envoy like Balashov (commendable as he is, he just can’t retort with Napoleon)||

Book 9 ch 8 ||Natasha really did a number on Prince Andrey huh. He is just so emotionally numb ||

[candid mica]

||wait i thought it was coke ||

[agile swallow]

Wait maybe you are right

[candid mica]

i thought ||snuff boxes were just tiny boxes filled with drugs ||

i never really bothered searched it up

[deep ginkgo]

||I don't think so?||

[agile swallow]

Book 9 ch 9 ||I didn’t know there’s so much fuss over the Tsar being the head of the army. So much so that there are up to 9 factions of opinions? Honestly not really keeping track of each faction, but chaos reigns. ||

[agile swallow]

Book 9 ch 11 ||um why is a German guy (Pfuhl) deciding the main battle strategy for the Russians ..??||

[vague remnant]

Book 2 Ch. 12 ||Andrew has the fantasy of the youth, imagining himself a hero and getting all the praise and such, yet when struck by reality his hopes fall to the ground. So youth of him. ||

[vague remnant]

Book 2 Ch. 14 ||RIP Bagration's four thousand men |||

[vague remnant]

Book 2 Ch. 16 ||I never thought soldiers take it that easy and laugh and joke while their enemy is right opposite them. They even shared the enemy with laughter! I always thought soldiers have to be serious about their enemies. Especially Russian. Or perhaps I'm mistaken? ||

[agile swallow]

Book 9 ch 16 ||what does Tolstoy have against doctors lmaooo he really just went on a rant on how useless doctors are ||

[vague remnant]

Book 2 Ch. 20 ||Tushin is a mad man. Did he cry for leaving the battlefield? Or his two dearly cannons they left behind? Man it's like breaking up with a hot woman whom he's been dating. Truly a madman||

[agile swallow]

Book 9 ch 18 || Natasha seems to be going through a religious awakening, not so different from Pierre. Is the endgame Pierre + Natasha???||

||um i almost dozed off reading this priest’s sermon. Tolstoy why you do this??||

Book 9 ch 19 || I dunno why but i find it incredible and funny that the Masons really arrived at Napoleon = 666 by reading the Bible ||

||why is Pierre doing obscure math on his name, trying to sum up to 666, feels like taking a Buzzfeed quiz to divine the future ||

[agile swallow]

Finished book 9!! Why does book 10 have like 35 chapters

[cunning tree]

Book One — Part 2— Chapter 19:
||Rostov not believing that they are coming for him and wanting to kill him because he’s their enemy because everybody (he knows) loves him 😭 ||

Book One — Part 2— Chapter 21:
||Rostov is really not doing well as a soldier… Thinking about how he was strong, happy and loved back at home and now the French are his enemy and actually want to kill him.||

Book One — Part 3— Chapter 2:
||That was rather quick 😳 I hope this marriage won’t be a disaster 🤞🏼 ||

Book One — Part 3— Chapter 4:
||This part 😭:

As always happens when women lead lonely lives for any length of time without male society, on Anatole’s appearance all the three women of Prince Bolkonsky’s household felt that their life had not been real till then. Their powers of reasoning, feeling, and observing, immediately increased tenfold, and their life, which seemed to have been passed in darkness, was suddenly lit up by a new brightness full of significance.
||

Finished Book One — ||looks like not only do the Russians have to fight the French but also deal with internal problems within their own people/troops. ||

Book Two — Part 1 — Chapter 7:
||Huh, who would’ve guessed.. their marriage was not that good after all.. But good for her since Pierre did give her full power to control all his estates in Great Russia, the larger part of his property.. Hopefully he won’t regret this later but I hope she’s not so bad and lives a good life. ||

Book Two — Part 1 — Chapter 9:
||Not sure how I feel about this part describing her facial expression and saying, ‘I love you all, and have done no harm to anyone; and what have you done to me?’ and later again, ‘Ah, what have you done to me, and why?’ ||

Book Two — Part 2 — Chapter 10
||Poor Pierre and the serfs (?)… He seems very naïve in this instance, thinking he did something good but instead it is worse for the people… ||

Book Two — Part 3 — Chapter 17
||Love Natasha ngl thinking that ‘all the people at the ball are good, kind and splendid people, loving one another; none of them capable of injuring another—and so they ought all to be happy.’||

Book Two — Part 3 — Chapter 19
||Prince Andrei too though: ‘Pierre was right when he said we must believe in the possibility of happiness in order to be happy, and now I do believe in it. Let the dead bury their dead, but while there is life we must live and be happy’. ||

Book Two — Part 3 — Chapter 24
||I almost forgot that Prince Andrei has a son and lost his wife to childbirth… I guess this is not a problem for people, him marrying Natasha, except that he is a ‘stranger’. ||

Book Two — Part 4 — Chapter 8
||I like Natasha! The way she gets so happy about things and says so too: ‘I know that I shall never again be as happy and tranquil as I am now’. It’s almost childlike and naïve and innocent but I like that about her a lot. I like being happy ||

Book Two — Part 5 — Chapter 16
||Oh dear… I don’t like Anatole.. poor Prince Andrei… I hope Natasha actually doesn’t love Anatole and realises that because poor Prince Andrei.. she was happy to wait for him and then changes her mind as soon as someone pays attention to her :(( ||

Book Two — Part 5 — Chapter 22
||I don’t blame Prince Andrei for not forgiving Natasha… but this is so sad :(( they used to be so happy :(( ||

[cunning tree]

Book Three — Part 3 — Chapter 33
||The last part :( now that the fighting is in Moscow and seeing it in flames and Andrei wounded, definitely changed things: ‘the unsettled question of life and death, which hung not only over Bolkonsky but over all Russia, shut out all other considerations.’ They used to talk and worry about marriage so much and now they don’t even think about it. ||

Book Four — Part 1 — Chapter 4
||I guess if you’re far away from it, you can keep hosting those parties and live your life while people are suffering… in a way that always happen because unless you are affected you can keep living your life.. in this book I think it’s more a commentary on high society and all those important people vs. peasants/serfs that work hard and are affected by it. Especially for the ones that are fighting in the war too or part of it — Nicolai and Andrei and Pierre are somewhat more privileged because of who they are. ||

Book Four — Part 1 — Chapter 15
||:(( poor Nikolushka||

Book Four — Part 1 — Chapter 16
||I didn’t expect Andrei to die :((||

Book Four — Part 2 — Chapter 12
||

The absence of suffering, the satisfaction of one’s needs, and consequent freedom in the choice of one’s occupation, that is, of one’s way of life, now seemed to Pierre to be indubitably man’s highest happiness. Here and now for the first time he fully appreciated the enjoyment of eating when he wanted to eat, drinking when he wanted to drink, sleeping when he wanted to sleep, of warmth when he was cold, of talking to a fellow-man when he wished to talk and to hear a human voice.

This part though… even though he’s in prison and all||

just 200 pages to go

i believe this is all up to book fourteen for you all

[cunning tree]

Book Four — Part 3 — Chapter 11
||oh no, Petya was so excited and happy that he finally can take part that he didn’t listen to Denisov and then was killed.. But Pierre was rescued 🧐||

Book Four — Part 4 — Chapter 18
||That was quick, though I don’t really blame them. Knowing how bad things can get, you tend to want to hold onto the good things. Glad that Natasha and Pierre are getting better though.||

Epilogue — Part 1
||At least they are happily (?) married now and there’s no back and forth — I love this person, wait no I love this person — anymore. Though I didn’t expect Nikolai and Mary to marry each other but I also understand why and I’m just glad it sort of works?||

Epilogue — Part 2
||I didn’t like this at all… I prefer reading about characters 😭I’m not sure I even agree with what the narrator has said over and over again about history and circumstances and so on.||

i finished

[candid mica]

that was so quick CONGRATULATIONS!!

[cunning tree]

I no longer wanted to suffer

[candid mica]

LOL

[cunning tree]

the paperback is so heavy it could be used as a weapon too for self-defence obv for legal reasons

[candid mica]

the book takes its name very literally

[agile swallow]

congrats!!!!!

[agile swallow]

this!!!! lmao

[cunning tree]

thank you

[cunning tree]

omg right??! ||I got whiplash from all this back and forth||

[vague remnant]

Book 3 Ch. 2 ||Vasili! What a cunning plan to trap Pierre into marrying his daughter! Very cunning, indeed, and he's been claiming to not to give attention about cunning and planning? Hah! This proves completely otherwise. ||

[ornate shore]

OMG LAE!!! Congratsss!

[cunning tree]

thank you 💛

[static estuary]

slayyy!! Congrats Lae!!!!!!

[vague remnant]

Congrats 🎉

[cunning tree]

thank you!!

[ornate shore]

I’m going to have to pull a Lae one of these days and get through the book in a day too

[cunning tree]

do it, you got this

my brain was spinning and smoking at the end of all this so beware LOL

[royal rain]

I wonder if anyone would be up for reading some of Tolstoy's short stories after this... (they are better?)

[vague remnant]

Book 4 Ch. 6 ||why Pierre gave Hélène the power to manage his property? It's as clear as daylight she just wants his money and power, not relationship. Is he a fool? Day after day he proves he's unworthy of his position as the Count||

Book 4 Ch. 9 ||what a plot twist ! Making us readers believe that Andrew is dead, then the delivery, finally the one who dies is the little princess. The complete opposite of the expected. Looks like their son has to be brought up with one parent missing after all. But between Andrew and Lise, I didn't see that coming. ||

[vague remnant]

Book 5 Ch. 8 ||Finally some updates about the war. I really grew weary with all the women affairs and Pierre's rituals in joining the Masons. It's fun how the roles of Andrew and his father switched though. ||

[agile swallow]

I might be down if you have specific suggestions! Or we can read his super short book The Death of Ivan Ilyich

[vague remnant]

I wouldn't mind reading more, but I'm full with BRs I won't be free until August 😅

Great news! 30% done! Almost third of the book

[vague remnant]

Book 5 Ch. 6 ||how caring from Denisov to risk his position for the sake of his regiment! How bwave and manly of him (imitating him 😅) he really deserves the best. Hope his fate won't be that harsh ||

[royal rain]

That's a good one. I just found my copy today! (in a storage box)

[sweet cairn]

That's a good one. I
just found my copy today!
(in a storage box)

- _silverspike

[rancid vessel]

book 1 chapter 1 ||imagine just going i like you children except one of them ||

[rancid vessel]

book 1 chapter 10 ||poor bear gets more and more abused ||

[rancid vessel]

book 1 chapter 12 ||"I know I shall always be my daughters' first confidante, and that if Nicholas, with his impulsive nature, does get into mischief (a boy can't help it), he will all the same never be like those Petersburg young men." ||
||not the toxic "boys will be boys" ||

same chpter ||"Oh no, not at all too young!" replied the count. "Why, our mothers used to be married at twelve or thirteen." ||

[vague remnant]

Book 6 Ch. 10 ||I'm glad Pierre returned to his wife but, being under the same roof yet acting like not married is never a solution. It would be easier for both if separated or divorced. This unmarried married couples is never a solution but will lead to even greater problems||

[rancid vessel]

i just found out that at some point the paperback and e-book is diferrent 2 chapters so now i accidentally skipped them guess from now on i will just use the paperback version

[rancid vessel]

volume 1 part 1 chapter 17 (book 1) ||The whole time the count and Marya Dmitriyevna was dancing i was just imaging the scene from frozen where he(cant remember the name) was like dancing like animals and such in front of Elsa||

[vague remnant]

Book 6 Ch. 15 ||I guess this is the first ball everybody has gathered ever right? Can't wait to see how old and new acquaintance will behave to each other. ||

[vague remnant]

Same

[vague remnant]

Book 6 Ch. 16 ||Aim high, Natasha! If you can't find a partner to dance with go to the emperor! ||
||OK, or go to Prince Andrew, equally acceptable ||

[vague remnant]

Finished book 6 ||just wanna express my respect for the relationships during that time. There wasn't the now-prevailing concept of boyfriend/girlfriend and dating. It was just the balls, a man sees and likes a woman, sit with her in her family's house with their permission, asking for her hand, then marrying her. It is far more respectful and elegant in my pov. Not like the randomness and vulgarity we see today ||

[rancid vessel]

Volume 1 Part 1 chapter 24 ||did...did he just tell his pregnant daughter in law to lose weight?||

[rancid vessel]

Finished book 1

[vague remnant]

Till book 8 ||The Rostovs really seem in trouble. And Nicolas instead of helping his father he goes hunting and entertaining himself! How shameful of him. And he will be the next Rostov head after his father? I'm really sorry the Rostovs would probably end on his unreliable hands. ||

[vague remnant]

Book 8 Ch. 18 ||I love Marya Dmitrievna! This woman just rescued our ignorant little Natasha. Natasha is a fool. Out of all the people in the world why choose the lavish Anatole? He's not worthy of her. She's just having one of the fits that commonly come to adolescent girls. Hormones! ||

[rancid vessel]

Volume 1 part 2 chapter 19 ||LMAO him being all high and mighty and then panicking and throwing his gun at the enemy||

[rancid vessel]

Finished book 2

[rancid vessel]

Somewhere in the start og book 3 ||Why does Pierre feel obliged to marry Helena and also why is he so opposed to the idea||

[agile swallow]

Pierre is like a leaf in the wind - it blows he goes

[rancid vessel]

finished book 3

[vague remnant]

Book 9 till Ch. 8 ||The Russian are busy with balls, parties, entertainment, and making love. Meanwhile Napoléon: ||

[vague remnant]

According to the dictionary, ||snuff boxes back then used to keep tobacco. They didn't have fancy cigarettes like ours back then ||

[vague remnant]

Book 9 Ch. 15 ||why Rostov dealing with war as if it's just hunting a wolf? I do acknowledge that hunting has given him insight, but it's war not some recreational act. Wake up! ||

[vague remnant]

I skipped it, couldn't bear it any longer

[vague remnant]

Book 9 Ch. 21 ||The young Petya following the same path as his older brother! So cute! Although in a more delinquent style. Hot blood really run through all the Rostovs||

[vague remnant]

Starting the huge book 10 of 39 Chapters.... God help me past it

[sweet cairn]

Starting the huge book
10 of 39 Chapters....
God help me past it

- inoha_akimi

[rancid vessel]

Volume 2 part 1 chapter 9 ||Well that was dramatic didnt imagine she would die in childbirth right as Andrey unexpectedly came home from the war||

[candid mica]

||it was! i was so surprised because things took such a dark turn ||

[rancid vessel]

Volume 2 part 2 chapter 3 ||is Pierre gonna join a cult ||

[vague remnant]

Book 10 Ch. 8 ||I'm just sorry that when Andrew last saw his father, they were on bad terms. Too bad he couldn't see him before his death||

[rancid vessel]

vol 2 part 2 chapter13 ||im confused is ivanushka a woman or a man?||

[rancid vessel]

book 5 chapter 21 ||the small/undersized Narpoleon ||

[rancid vessel]

finished book 6 ||wow the insta love was intense||

[static estuary]

https://tenor.com/view/spongebob-worship-worshipping-now-bowing-gif-12297363

[rancid vessel]

Finished book 7

[royal rain]

Yes! yes he is

[rancid vessel]

finished book 8

[rancid vessel]

finished book 9 i fell asleep

[rancid vessel]

finished book 10

[vague remnant]

You can do it! I'm still stuck in the middle of book 10

[rancid vessel]

finished book 11 i will very much need to read the sparknotes because im so lost after having to rush this book

[rancid vessel]

finished book 12

[rancid vessel]

finished book 13

book 14 chapter 2 ||i didnt sign up for math ||

[rancid vessel]

finished book 14 so close to the finish line

[ornate shore]

You can do it Amanda!!!

[rancid vessel]

finished book 15 now its only the epilogues left

[rancid vessel]

epilogue 1 ||it was as if Tolstoy went lets put a ted talk in here and the by chapter 5 he went well then lets get on with the story||

[candid mica]

omg that was so quick

[rancid vessel]

finished the first epilogue why does a book need 2 epilogues with several fucking chapters

[rancid vessel]

i was stupid and read like 35% then i realized the deadline was in 24 hours so i had to finish quickly
i dont reccomend it

start epilogue 2 ||another fucking ted talki need sleep Tolstoy not a lesson ||

[candid mica]

but the deadline isn’t until another month?

i respect the dedication, this is a big accomplishment

[rancid vessel]

its the readathon deadline

if it was the br deadline i would just have taken a couple more days

[candid mica]

ohhh damn all of this for the readathon

[candid mica]

did you just finish this in less than a week??

[rancid vessel]

i still have 30 minutes left but it will be 10 days
though i read like 60% in a day

[rancid vessel]

epilogue 2 ||my brain is officially turning of iys just constant blabbering going into my brain how can this count as an epilohue it should be like a note or something this is such a sucky way to end the book i dont want to hear a speech of something im not even sure on because my brain dosent even understad what this guy is blabbering about||

[candid mica]

you finished!!

[rancid vessel]

i finished i am free

[candid mica]

how does it feel to be lighter

[rancid vessel]

tired

i fell asleep an embarrassing amount of times today while reading the book

[candid mica]

the second epilogue should be a lullaby by now

[rancid vessel]

it single-handedly cured my insomnia/hj

[pale field]

LETS FREAKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[agile swallow]

yayyy congrats amanda!!!

[candid mica]

wait till you reach the epilogues

[fickle egret]

I finally managed to finish book 10. Kinda hit a slump halfway.
||I get Pierre's desperation to feel something i suppose, some adrenaline rushing or smth, seeing where he spends his money at. but bro, why are you in the middle of the battlefield with like your civil outfit and stuff. do you wanna get hit by a cannonball? also andrey meeting anatole in pain while he is in pain also is kinda humbling, but man these people are so easily convinced to let go of their grievances. Like... you were so salty about him stealing your girl and now that he's missing a leg and you feel an emotional connection to his pain that makes every scumbag thing he did okay? . I liked this book, even though there was a lot to digest and i kinda had a slump in the middle. The battle scenes are well written though and i didn't get annoyed by tolstoy's voice all that much in this chapter. I found the analysis on napoleon's moves very interesting.||

[fickle egret]

Book 11 ch 9 ||a very anticlimactic way to confirm that Andrey and Anatole died the last chapter with andrey at the medic i really thought there was some hope becuase he was holding on and he was going all emotional ||

I'm forcing myself to finish it, by telling myself I have my bookbuying ban untill i finish war and peace

[fickle egret]

Book 11 ch 14 ||HE'S ALIVE and natasha is here?! ohh this gon be some good juicy drama ||

[fickle egret]

Book 11 ch 22 ||I'm wondering who this "cousin" is. Could it be Nikolay, too embarrased to say he's the son? ||

[fickle egret]

Book 11 ch 27 ||oh god, here we go again, with Pierre thinking he is the chosen one this man is going to get himself killed by his own weird dreams||

Book 11 ch 28 ||i feel like the tune of mission impossible is now slowly being added while Pierre is infiltrating the french master spy pierre bezukov, going to singlehandedly kill napoleon by helping this random french dude||

[royal rain]

eh Pierre isn't that cool 😆

[fickle egret]

I just finished book 11 and I’m on track to finish it on time.
Book 11 went kinda fast ||Pierre doing dumb shit is kinda entertaining and made me continue to read the book. Even though we all know it will go very wrong, it’s like a car crash you can’t look away from. The love triangle between Natasha, andrey and Pierre is also interesting and makes me wanna continue reading how it ends but I gotta go sleep ||

[fickle egret]

Book 12 up to ch 8 ||Poor Sonya, always pressured to sacrifice herself for the family, only because the family took her in. Not that I support her marrying Nikolay, but my god, hasn't this young woman sacrificed enough? The countess is just too hard on her. I also feel like Nikolay feeling love with marya is kinda flawed, because he loves her in her saddness... okay but what if she is not sad anymore. what then. At this point im hooked to binch the book but i have to wait untill after work to finish it because i just finished my lunchbreak ||

[fickle egret]

End of book 12 ||Pierre being spared was a surprise to me, especially after the accusation of him being a Russian spy… which I mean… he still kinda is the last chapters where Marya met Andrey and him dying made me cry a lot. It was so beautifully written I kinda forgot Andrey sometimes was being a dick. Then again, maybe like Andrey loved Anatole, I too felt love for Andrey while he was in pain and dying. ||

[fickle egret]

Book 13 up to ch 8 ||I got massive whiplash from the historical analysis chapters again, but I found them very interesting. Quite strange that Napoleon just stayed in Moscow while knowing there is still a remnant of an army out there. Russia is so big omg. And the chaos of plannign an unexpected attack even from the attackers side is quite interesting, it makes sense that the columns aren't perfectly in place on the field. But all im thinking while reading is "I WANNA GO BACK TO THE HOT GOSSIP"||

[fickle egret]

Book 13 ch 10 ||The amount of analogies about napoleon's actions were clever, but wow, so much happened that went wrong. The russians really wouldn't be swayed by napoleon that easily I guess but the fact that he also had no grip on his own soldiers is kinda baffling||

[cunning tree]

@everyone There are 15 days left in this BR!! Be sure to read and discuss the book until <t:1719705600:D> to get the points and our special role!!

Started: acid, mimosa, Hanzy
Started and discussed: jpuzzle, manouk, Maeve, War and Peas, Avialia, undergroundpotato, Akimi
Finished and discussed: choco, lemondrop, Laelia, Amanda

Let me know if I missed someone!! Happy reading for those that are still reading this -- you can do this!!
and congrats for those that have finished so far

[visual fractal]

I'll finish this once I'm done with my exams

[ornate shore]

I've started too!
3 books in and then took a long-ish hiatus to pull a Lae and finish the rest in a day one of these days

[fickle egret]

I'm on track to finish it. Going to binge a lot tomorrow again

[deep ginkgo]

I believe in you all!!

[vagrant salmon]

I'm not through yet (it is a fight), but I'll finish it some day

[ornate shore]

Going back home today which entails another longish road trip and I’m considering reading and getting this done finally

[fickle egret]

finished Book 13 ||book 13 was interesting. Especially just the army logistics at the end were an interesting read. Makes sense Napoleon's army is going back because they are being outcast by russians and the army is at chaos. But the last chapters were kinda a doozy. I feel like there's a storm coming. Also i feel like the book doesn't really explain well why Kutuzov doesn't want to attack yet, it's all metaphor talk about how kutuzov knows, but what does he know like i get how he wants to maintain an army but like all these metaphors kinda melt into each other and i can't tell whats happening really||

[ornate shore]

Finished book 9!! Still a couple more hours to go until I’m home

||It’s such a fun journey and a contrast from Anna Karenina. I like how familiar I feel with all the characters now, seeing them fall in and out of love, the political background & everything. Will share more when I get home||

[ornate shore]

Book 10’s again the same|| old war stuff that’s kinda getting boring for me and ||the only way I’m getting through not falling asleep is increasing the speed of the audiobook for my brain to stay focused and I’m currently at 3.20x

[fickle egret]

Book 14 up to ch 11 ||Petya's death really shows his immaturety and how young he was this is really tragic. Poor petya||

[ornate shore]

Still haven’t finished Book 10, why is this book sooo long
Doesn’t help that people keep trying to get my attention for different stuff and I lose track of where I’d been

[ornate shore]

Done with book 10 and I’m doneeee for the day. My brain can’t handle anymore today
Of all books so far, book 10 would have to be my least liked one

[fickle egret]

I finished book 14 before disaster struck in the bathtub ||The last chapter was what I wanted the end of book 13 to be this one was kinda a doozy other than Petya dying I felt like this was kinda a boring book ||

[astral panther]

in my infinite arrogance, I'm joining this with 2 weeks left nd am determined to finish it. I'm nothing if not a glutton for punishment we're gonna pretend I don't have like 2 other brs due for the 30th too k? k.

[ornate shore]

I’m almost done with Book 11 and cackling at your comments here
||Pierre’s cute poor guy, I feel bad at him trying to be this all noble chosen one and then we have Ellen on the other side, having a whole husband and confused between two suitors and being all ‘oh, it’s such a pain’ ||

I’ve been enjoying Book 11 quite a lot! It’s so much more fun and interesting after the absolute bore I’d found Book 10 to be

[candid mica]

||pierre in a modern romance novel would be the oblivious guy who won’t even know what the hell is happening ||

[ornate shore]

Yessss ||poor guy really, I feel for him really but like you’re not the mc you think yourself to be kinda energy as well ||

[ornate shore]

Finished Book 12
||This one left me feeling quite melancholic
I’m glad Andrey hadn’t actually died when I thought he did but got a couple chapters of proper closure. I feel sad for Sonia, having to give up on love for the ‘greater good’. I really like the way Tolstoy expresses the human-ness of these characters and makes them feel so very real ||

[ornate shore]

||I felt the same way!!! Nikolay's infatuation with Marya felt flawed to me too cuz all his thoughts seem to centre around how 'elegant' and 'graceful' she appears in her sadness Also the part where he feels like it was easy picturing a future with Sonia but not with Marya, like it feels quite temporal and not like end-game sort of ||

[fickle egret]

yes exactly!!

[ornate shore]

||I'm honestly so invested in the relationships and like nitty-gritty character details that I can't help wanting to binge those and glossing over the war bits because they don't hold my interest as much 😭 ||

[ornate shore]

Done with Book 13 and halfway through Book 14 and the realisation just hit that this’ll be ending soon
My audiobook says about 2.5 hours more to go and this has been such a journey that I’m feeling something bittersweet, wanting to extend this out more

[ornate shore]

Finished Book 14 ||and again it was all war and no peace and again, a bore. Petya’s death was tragic though, I kept remembering instances in either Book 11 or 12 where the Countess suddenly feels the absence of Petya and is overcome with emotions if she were to lose him and all that and I feel sad. He was only a kid at the end ||

[candid mica]

||i agree, his death was so brutal, i still recall it so vividly ||

[ornate shore]

Book 15, Ch.4
||The bond development and solidarity between Natasha and Marya is something I love to see Almost sisters one way and perhaps a different way now if Nikolay’s interested in Marya? Idk, either way, it’s nice to see them finding solace within each other||

[ornate shore]

Woah okay I’m done with Book 15 This is real, I’m actually getting to the end
||I’m still not in with the whole NikolayxMarya because although I like Marya, I feel bad for Sonia ||

[candid mica]

||tolstoy did sonia dirty ||

[ornate shore]

||Naaaaaah I was hoping the epilogues may have some knight in shining armour for this sweet lil soul but seems like Tolstoy just had to ||

[candid mica]

||it’s so unfair because no way he made the readers love her so much only to have her treated like that our girl deserves better!!||

[ornate shore]

||Definitely deserves better and now that I’ve had some time to mull over a little, I think it might be better this way. Sonia needs someone who can help her value self a bit better. If she were to marry Nikolay and get stuck with this fam, they’d treat her like they’d always treated her and like we’ve seen how the Countess feels about the match anyway. She’d forever be stuck in the cycle of being a sacrificial lamb . Haven’t read the epilogues yet but even if she doesn’t find someone, I’m going to imagine her going through a wave of healing and growth and just be happy 💜||

[ornate shore]

Starting on the 1st epilogue now!

[astral panther]

i just finished dune, im gonna start listening to this now

[ornate shore]

I AM DONEEEEE

Currently not home but will share my thoughts and whatever I’ve recorded in my reading journal soon-ish

[agile swallow]

Congrats!!!!!!

Also friends - I’ll be reading this slowly through/after the BR end date since my life is full of drama right now and it’s been hard to find time to read but I’m so excited to read everyone’s thoughts as I crawl along

And I’m very jealous of everyone who got the special role of W&P conquered!!! You are all awesome

[cinder spire]

congratulations hanzy!!

[deep ginkgo]

Huzzah!!

[cunning tree]

congrats hanzy 💛

[fickle egret]

I finished book 15 ||Pierre and Natasha is just so weird..... I see no chemestry at all between the two of them wtf is going on. Also the whole story about Kutzukov is kinda kinda sad. Just because he is old doesn't mean he isn't smart||

[candid mica]

so close to finishing

[fickle egret]

ngl the epilogue takes all the wind out of me

[ornate shore]

Thoughts on Epilogue 1 - ||I felt like this should have been it, like it concludes everything on the character’s lives and like nothing more is necessary
I found this epilogue kinda sweet with the domesticity of life and everything

Sweet that they named their son Petya and the way their ‘ever after’ is described in realistic details and all that. I really appreciate that about the book. I feel awful sad for Sonia though and much more for her having to live with them and everything, like really, sucks to be her I’d hoped she’d get something out of being a sacrificial lamb, like maybe she manages to move away and start anew somewhere. It’s a nice end though||

[ornate shore]

Wait until you get to Epilogue 2 (unless you’re already there then ig I can just say, ‘bear with it, you’ll get through quite soon’ )

[candid mica]

epilogue 2 sucked the life out of me

[ornate shore]

Saaaaaaame, and it just went on and on and on like come on Tolstoy, I get that you enjoy yapping but I get it, I got your point

[candid mica]

and it’s not even a new yap, it’s like the yaps from the previous books combined into one mega yap like what

[fickle egret]

Tolstoy probably didn't have an editor to tell him to stop yapping

but he should've

[candid mica]

if tolstoy had an editor for this book, it wouldn’t be 1200 pages long

[ornate shore]

Apparently his wife helped edit and cut down a lot? idk, maybe I’m misremembering but I recall that for some reason

[fickle egret]

but she's biased

[candid mica]

cut down and it still has major yapperings?

[ornate shore]

I can’t remember where I’d read about her editing it down but I found this - https://historyfacts.com/arts-culture/fact/leo-tolstoys-wife-war-and-peace/

[deep ginkgo]

It was serialized too, so original readers were not binging

[fickle egret]

yeah that makes sense, because between volumes i got so much whiplash

[deep ginkgo]

Understandable

[ornate shore]

Thoughts on Epilogue 2 and final thoughts - ||this was honestly such a bore because I had accepted the first epilogue to have completed the book. But I also kinda appreciated this one and the ramblings that went on because in its true essence, the book’s quite well divided into bits of both ‘War’ and ‘Peace’. I found this or rather the war bits to be an exploration of the human psyche but like from a more broader, general perspective, whereas the ‘Peace’ parts, the intricate relationships, the characters and the parts I personally found interesting delves further in, and is more of a deeper exploration and I liked how the book was sort of a mix of both. Unlike Anna Karenina, I did not find this one an absolute bore(like only bits of it more like) and it didn’t necessarily feel like it was written for the sake of being written or word count or something. I was invested in character stories and the way everything developed too, like certain complex emotions for instance the scene with Andrey and Anatole at the front, like how much Andrey despised him, yet it was different there and like the realisation of a bigger picture etc. The couples at the end weren’t the couples I’d rooted for initially but I’m happy with the turnout anyway and I wish Sonia got a better ending too||

[ornate shore]

Oh, I hadn’t known that! Makes so much sense now

[ornate shore]

Idk if I make sense here, I’ve been out for most of today and my thoughts may not be as comprehensible. I do have more to share from my reading journal and clips in my audiobook that I’ve bookmarked to later revisit and annotate and I hope to get to them soon enough

[astral panther]

im starting this now im so ready to slay this. i can also feel myself getting sick which sucks but also means i can just curl up in bed nd listen to this for hours at a time so

[rigid juniper]

i wanna get a copy too i was supposed to read this

[ornate shore]

Do it, Maca! You have like 10 days and if you’re only reading this, I think it’s quite doable!

[ornate shore]

This is how I got through most of it too! Not sick but I’d been on a long-ish road trip and could listen to hours on end and got through a huge chunk! I hope you feel better soon though

[astral panther]

chap 9: ||ah OK so Pierre is a manwhore, got it ||

[astral panther]

chapter 16: ||PIERRE TIED A COP TO A BEAR IN ST PETERSBERG ND THATS WHY HE GOT DISCHARGED FROM THE ARMY?!?!?! DID I HEAR THAT CORRECTLY LMFAOOOO||

if that's correct nd I didn't mishear, he's my favourite character so far

tbf even if I did just mishear he's still my fave along with ||Anna, she's a girlboss but also should get therapy||

this book is so much more unhinged that I thought it would be, I'm loving it. I gotta stop for a bit to charge my headphones but I will be back. soon.

[astral panther]

chap 16: ||peirre really just said to that other guy "you're my friend now, we're having soft tacos later!!!!! :D" maybe w out the soft tacos because peirre just turned down his invite to dinner but still LMAOO I love peirre a lot he's so great. I too am a nuisance to my family nd friends ||

I'm gonna try to finish book 1 before I sleep but we'll see if I can actually fall asleep LMAO

[astral panther]

chap 25: ||"among our old men of 20"... im an old man sonia i think said that (the one in love with nickolai)|| ignore the fact i know no ones names nd cant spell them i have a small brain nd am listening to this on audio

[astral panther]

book 2 chap 3: ||"theres nothing to be gay about" is such a funny sentence out of context LMAOOO LIKE IK GAY MEANT HAPPY BACK THEN BUT OMFG what a sentence. dw prince andre, theres always smth to be gay about, you just need to find the right man ✨ ||

[deep ginkgo]

I love that you’re loving this!!

[astral panther]

I genuinely didn't expect to enjoy it this much since usually classics aren't my vibe but this is interesting af just insane so far usually ||just rich people drama nd them being weird|| isn't my forte at all nd I hate it, but book 1 was the ||goofiest rich people drama ever|| nd it's amazing HAHAHA

[fickle egret]

I finished epilogue 1 ||When the actual history bits were gone, it was back to entertaining, but my god this book is so depressing. These marriages are so hollow and shallow, i feel pity for everybody involved. I feel so much love for little Nikolay Bolkonsky, looking up to Pierre with a fondness that his father used to have for pierre makes me very emotional. Nikolay Rostov's behaviour towards Marya makes me so sad. He really changed so much, and yet there's still that impulsivity and anger within him from when he was younger. I liked pierre's analysis of him: "he is building a library but buying a new book after he finished the last one". I think out of all the parts in this epilogue, what most surprised me is the change in Natasha, removing herself from high society and dedicating herself so much to family life that she has Pierre under her thumb, was not what I expected from her. Perhaps Prince Andrey's death changed her so much. ||

[fickle egret]

you really weren't kidding

this epilogue might yeet me in a slump again

[fickle egret]

I FINISHED IT! IM DONEEEEE

i forced myself

Thoughts on epilogue 2 ||I think it's no surprise with the level of writing of the overall book that Tolstoy is a massive history nerd, and that he has several opinions on it. It was kinda mentioned here and there and I guess this epilogue is for his own nerd satisfaction of writing it and to really drive his points home. At first I thought it was very interesting, but around chapter 5 or 6 i got kinda overwhelmed. I read the afterword a little bit and here it's mentioned that Tolstoy didn't mean for this book to be a novel, and I guess I can tell by this epilogue. Especially around chapter 10 where he talks about free will and lifting an arm, I felt it got so philosophical and stuff that it felt like I was reading an entirely different book. But at the same time, Tolstoy makes point in this epilogue that are embodied by the book itself. Especially the criticisms he has on other historians, that history is mostly described my monarchs and leaders and not by the forces of an entire group is very clearly the point he wants to make with this art piece. But I just wished he stopped yapping sometimes . Like, it's one thing to write such a good novel and story, and a good critical analysis of history, but sometimes these two topics don't mesh well||

[candid mica]

||maybe the reason he wrote the novel with so many characters was to show that history is affected by the action of the minorities and not the monarchs this whole book is an essay to prove his point ||

[fickle egret]

THIS!! ||Looking back, you barely have any scenes with Napoleon directly in it, or Alexander. But it's mostly the outsiders affecting and affected by the war that stand out and make it such an interesting read||

[candid mica]

well i was mostly joking but now i realise i may have actually made a decent point ||maybe this whole book really showed the actions of the rulers and the people to prove his points at the beginning of each book||

||by showing how complicated the lives of ordinary people could be at that time, he was really trying to describe his point that history consists of the lives of the people instead of the ruler ||

[fickle egret]

Overall final thoughts: Even though there were times I was very frustrated with Tolstoy's writing, I'd still give it a 4.5 ⭐ Definitely a one of a kind experience.

First of all, ||Tolstoy's characterizations are so impressively good. In the beginning it was kinda overwhelming with who is who, but at the end of the book, I know exactly which character is which. Each person is so fleshed out, I only occasionally had to look back in the character list, mostly just wondering who are cousins with each other etc but unlike the Count of Monte Cristo where I lost track of who is who several times, Tolstoy's writing is just so much better in terms of even the side characters or the other less notable characters. I was engrossed in these people's lives and they felt very real. The only issue I had in terms of characters was Penguin Classic's choice of marking Andrey, Pierre and Natasha as the three most notable characters, which in hindsight is kind of overshadowing Nikolay Rostov's input in the book as well and a lot of the rest of the cast. In the beginning of the book I annotated mostly character details of those three and on reread I definetly want to analyze more characters in depth.||

Secondly ||While the book gets very depressing at times, the book's story is also at times so funny, so beautiful, so dramatic, so frustrating, it's kind of insane how many emotions this book gave me. I expected to cry a lot and while I didn't do that as much, this book is so well written that a lot of moments stand out. Could it have been shorter? DEFINITELY YES. But I'm not mad at the length, just the choice of weaving two very distinct books into each other, a great novel and an essay in one book is a challenge, and I dont think Tolstoy fully nailed the combination, but I have no regrets. I can see why it is some people's favorite book and although it's not mine, it's definetly up there in terms of how memorable this book is.||

[ornate shore]

This is exactly how I’ve felt too but wasn’t able to express well

Can’t call it my favourite but I definitely appreciated it a lot

[astral panther]

book 2 chap 19 (i think? its XIX) ||im finally in the proper war part nd its really getting excited, im loving this its so so cool||

[candid mica]

xix is 19

[astral panther]

great i cant do math

i cant read roman numerals this whole time ive been going off what the audiobook tells me at the start of each chap LMAOOO

[candid mica]

[visual fractal]

I'll start this tmrw

[astral panther]

just finished book 3 nd ||rest in peace prince andre, you were weirdly gay with Rostov nd shall be remembered for that i think i spelled his name right im going purely off of how it sounds at 2.5x speed LOL||

[astral panther]

my aim for today is to get to book 6

[astral panther]

book 4 chap 5: ||PEIRRE.... MY BOY...... NOOOO|| also can ||Rostov grow a spine please, if you call someone "(blank) the bully" you shouldnt be friends with them, thats insane dude||

wait (chap 9) : ||Prince Andre's alive???? he was wounded fatally??? ||

[astral panther]

book 5, chap 3: ||WHAT TF IS THIS BOOK LMFAOO NOW PEIRRES JOINING THE FREEMASONS ND BEING BULLIED INTO BELIEVING IN GOD??????|| this book is wild

im starting a ||pierre fan club, this man is insane nd i adore him||

[sweet cairn]

im starting a ||pierre
fan club, this man is insane
nd i adore him||

- Zander || 37/50

[astral panther]

thank yew haikubot

[candid mica]

bold of you to assume we hadn’t started one already

[astral panther]

LMAOOO REALLL

[visual fractal]

Book 1 Part 1 Chapter 1
||It tolls so much better on me with a physical copy. I'm having no resistance with it this time ||
||> Russia alone best be Europe's savior.
wonder if it will change as the story progresses ||

[visual fractal]

B1 P1 Chapter 6
||Oh great job comparing the Princess to a tail-wagging dog I guess.||

B1 P1 C6
||Idk if you feel there's nothing in women so much why don't you marry a man. ||

[visual fractal]

I dnf'ed again. I guess Tolstoy is just not for me

[astral panther]

book 6 chapter 8: ||i lowkey forgot peirre was in his weird lowkey cult thing, im glad we're back on my boy HAHA||

chap 10: ||bro that dream was so gay LMFAOOO WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DREAMT OF LYING IN BED W THAT GUY IN THE DREAM ND WANTED TO CARESS HIM ND THEN WHEN HE ASKED YOU WHAT YOUR CHIEF SIN IS, YOU SAID SLOTH ND HE SAID "clearly not" LMFAOOOOOO PEIRRE. I THINK YOURE FRUITY SIR||

[rigid juniper]

thankss, i think ill keep the thread and just add on once i start, probably after the date tho

but congrats to everyone that finished already

do anna karenina next

[ornate shore]

I did that one last year with Lae and Klaus

I think there’s a BR going on here currently

[rigid juniper]

ooo nicee, i read it two years ago myself and loved it

[astral panther]

book 6: ||Prince Andre's tryna strike a chord nd it's probably a minor, she's 16 brother what are you DOINGGG like ik it was a different time but Natasha is really acting like a 16 year old LMAO||

also in chapter 25 ||someone says about how everyone falls in love w their brother nd wants to marry them nd I can say for certain that's just you girlypop, get help xx||

[astral panther]

ok im on book 10 nd this has gotten so boring so im just gonna listen nd blast through it nd ill comment if anything interesting happens

its just become a lot of ||rich people drama which i dont really like in books|| so im lowkey tuned out lmfaooo, im gonna aim to get to like book 14/15 today though

[astral panther]

i cant believe im almost done with this behemoth its been boring at times but overall its still been a fun ride

[ornate shore]

I think most of us felt similarly about Book 10. It really felt like a drag

[fickle egret]

yeah totally, but i feel like afterwards it picks up again.

[astral panther]

thank god its not just me, it dragged on sooo bad. book 11 defo picked up more HAHA

id say ||prince andre kinda dying yet again nd then the asshole who tried to get with natasha behind his back dying|| is really it picking up again LOL

leo tolstoy stop yapping challenge (impossible) though, jesus christ LMAO

[candid mica]

||if prince andrew doesn’t almost die every book, is it even worth it ||

[candid mica]

good luck reading the second epilogue then

[astral panther]

LMAOOO FR I SWEAR ITS LIKE EVERY CHAPTER

[astral panther]

https://tenor.com/view/spider-man-waht-what-did-you-say-really-stop-gif-25962058

[candid mica]

second epilogue is actually the tolstoy yapping finale

[sweet cairn]

second epilogue
is actually the tolstoy
yapping finale

- chocorb

[candid mica]

you are the reason i have crippling anxiety

[astral panther]

LMAOOOOO

[astral panther]

jesus christ

[astral panther]

and with that, ive finished war and peace the second epilogue almost killed me icl that was painful HAHAHAH

[candid mica]

that was the quick

[astral panther]

icl i didnt expect id actually finish it in 2 weeks so im proud of myself for that i can now say ive read this absolute mammoth

[candid mica]

but CONGRATULATIONS

[astral panther]

ive been on x3 speed today to make sure i finished it in time im lowkey surprised i actually understood it considering how fast its been LMAO

[astral panther]

THANK YEWWW CHOCO IM SO HYPED

[candid mica]

AS YOU SHOULD BE

[candid mica]

pierre at 1x is crazy, pierre at 3x must be catastrophic

[astral panther]

i need some time to sit on it i think nd ill send my proper thoughts in the morning but im giving this a solid 4 stars, the only reason its not 5 stars is because Tolstoy yaps sO fuckin much nd it kinda drove me crazy esp during book 10 nd the second epilogue

[sweet cairn]

pierre at 1x is
crazy, pierre at 3x must
be catastrophic

- chocorb

[astral panther]

pierre that fast was genuinely unhinged nd probably the worst part of it

[candid mica]

pierre at 3x is me when i interact with people

[astral panther]

LMFAOOO REALLLL

pierre at 3x speed is me telling people about my current hyperfixation

[candid mica]

tolstoy practically created the awkward antisocial trope

[astral panther]

i love him for that tbh, i dont think ive ever seen myself as much in a classical book character literally ever

i feel like usually, classics characters can be kinda boring nd 1 dimentional (im not a classics fan if you cant tell/lh) but everyone in this book felt like a real person

[candid mica]

||classics characters going to each others’ house vs in w&p where they go to each others’ houses because theirs got blown off just adds that depth ||

[candid mica]

i like to think it’s because we lived in different time periods that i can’t relate but pierre in the first chapter radiated introvert energy and i love him for that

[astral panther]

HAHAHA FR ||usually they go to each others houses for rich people drama but this time its rich people drama with actual lives at stake rather than just overdramatic rich kids who act like their lives are at stake when its just like "I dont want to live as a commoner" LMAO||

[astral panther]

yeah tbf it probably is just a time period thing, peirre transcends societies and unites us

[cunning tree]

@everyone
Here are the contributors of this BR: choco, lemondrop, Laelia, Amanda, manouk, Hanzy, Zander
Let me know if I missed anyone or if the role still needs to be assigned!!

Thank you to everyone who participated in this very loooooong buddy read!!

[fickle egret]

Thanks so much for hosting Laelia omggg i don't think I would've gotten through without this BR

[ornate shore]

Thank you Lae!! I’m so glad I could finally get this chonk off my tbr. Thanks for extending it so much that we could finally finish it and experience some lovely camaraderie too in the process

[astral panther]

thank you sm for hosting this Lae!!!! I joined p late in the party but this was a lot of fun

[candid mica]

can’t believe it’s ending i loved this br and discussing this book with everyone

[agile swallow]

Thanks for hosting!!! I’ll be popping in this BR for the rest of the year hahaha