war and peace volume 2 special edition leo tolstoy

If you’ve been planning to read the almighty Russian tome, this guide to War and Peace is for you…Ĥ. I’ve shared before why you should read War and Peace, but how should you read it? And what’s the best way to get started and keep going? I’m definitely not a Russian literature expert (I’m sure they’d have a lot of things to comment on my writing from the last few years.) I just like Tolstoy’s writing a lot. Since I first read it in 2012, I’ve read War and Peace five or so times, including for my undergrad dissertation. If I had first come across it now, though, I would’ve felt pretty intimidated… it’s 1300 pages long, for goodness sake.īut the thing is, reading War and Peace doesn’t have to be a struggle.

I was first recommended the book by a friend’s mum as a teenager, and I didn’t really think all that much about it… it was just another long book. It’s the book that inspired this blog, helped me to overcome anxiety better than perhaps anything else, and has taught me plenty of life lessons.

It’s no secret that I love War and Peace. “The misery of nations is caused not by particular persons, but by the particular order of Society under which the people are so bound up together that they find themselves all in the power of a few men, or more often in the power of one single man: a man so perverted by his unnatural position as arbiter of the fate and lives of millions, that he is always in an unhealthy state, and always suffers more or less from a mania of self-aggrandizement.” From Tolstoy’s pacifist writings, “ Thou Shalt Not Kill”, added to this post in 2022 in light of Russia’s war against Ukraine. When you buy through these links, I may earn a commission. A quick note that some of my posts contain affiliate links.

War and peace volume 2 special edition leo tolstoy