Done. FINALLY done. Can you tell I got a little resentful of War and Peace by the end of the year? Ha! There's something about year-end reading and the pull of the 'best of lists' (I'll add mine to the pile soon) or just wanting to get to all the holiday books on my shelf. For sure, throughout the year, sitting down with this doorstop did not feel burdensome and I was hopeful about the story's conclusion. However, in the final chapters and weeks of reading, I wasn't getting any emotional investment in the characters or their predicaments. You would think after 1400 or so pages I would have felt like I knew these people inside and out and been invested in their fates. Alas...
I will say that it was totally accessible reading and not terribly complex - just long. There were certainly parts I enjoyed, mostly anything having to do with the women in the story, and Pierre. Sadly those parts were given short shrift to all of the incessant minutiae of the battle scenes. Which is ironic, because Tolstoy goes on at length about how the planning doesn't matter in war, just luck and circumstance. I'm glad to know the story. I'm glad that I learned a lot about my reading habits. I'm glad I did something new. I'm glad I saw it through. I'm glad I have this lovely Penguin Clothbound Classics edition to commemorate this task.
Purposely not giving this a star rating, because that seems weird.
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