War and Peace

I did it. I finally finished War and Peace. It took me a long time but I'm happy to say that I finished it. As for whether I liked it or not, that's kind of up in the air. I really liked parts of it. Other parts dragged on and on. The "war" parts were the most difficult for me to get through. My family was laughing at me for that--after all, "war" is in the title. I suppose I should have expected a lot of war-related content. I don't think I would have minded the war chapters if Tolstoy didn't spend so much time postulating on his view of history and the underlying causes behind wars and other historical events.

I really liked Anna Karenina so I thought that I would like this just as much. Nope. I still think I would give it 3 stars, though, just because I really liked the characters and felt invested in their lives. I also love the moral/spiritual themes in Tolstoy's books. For example, Prince Andrey in this book goes from almost an atheistic view of the world to a deep faith in God. Also, family life is shown as the setting for true happiness and fulfillment.

There was a section near the end that I really liked. It describes Natasha, my favorite character. She changes from being a young, naive girl, who likes to be admired for her beauty to a devoted wife and mother with real depth of character.

Here's the first part:

"Natasha did not follow the golden rule preached by so many prudent persons, especially by the French (zing!), that recommends that a girl on marrying should not neglect herself, should not give up her accomplishments, should think even more of her appearance than when a young girl, and should try to fascinate her husband as she had fascinated him before he was her husband... Natasha troubled herself little about manners or delicacy of speech; nor did she think of showing herself to her husband in the most becoming attitudes and costumes, nor strive to avoid worrying him by being over-exacting. She acted in direct contravention of all those rules. She felt that the arts of attraction that instinct had taught her to use before would now have seemed only ludicrous to her husband, to whom she had from the first moment given herself up entirely, that is with her whole soul, not keeping a single corner of it hidden from him. She felt that the tie that bound her to her husband did not rest on those romantic feelings which had attracted him to her, but rested on something else undefined, but as strong as the tie that bound her soul to her body."

Here's an interesting one:

"The subject in which Natasha was completely absorbed was her family, that is, her husband, whom she kept such a hold on so that he should belong entirely to her, to his home and her children, whom she had to carry, to bear, to nurse and to bring up.

"And the more she put, not her mind only, but her whole soul, her whole being into the subject that absorbed her, the more that subject seemed to enlarge under her eyes, and the feebler and the more inadequate her own powers seemed for coping with it, so that she concentrated them all on that one subject, and still had not time to do all that seemed to her necessary.

"There were in those days, just as now, arguments and discussions on the rights of women, on the relations of husband and wife, and on freedom and rights in a marriage, though they were not then, as now, called questions. But these questions had no interest for Natasha, in fact she had absolutely no comprehension of them.

"Those questions, then as now, existed only for those persons who see in marriage only the satisfaction the married receive from one another, that is, only the first beginnings of marriage and not all its significance, which lies in the family."

And here's another passage a little later that talks about how she saw the best in her husband and reflected that view back to him (I left out her husband's name below to avoid spoiling anything for anyone who may want to read this):

"After seven years of married life, (husband's name) had a firm and joyful consciousness that he was not a bad fellow, and he felt this because he saw himself reflected in his wife. In himself he felt all the good and bad mingled together, and obscuring one another. But in his wife he saw only what was really good; everything not quite good was left out. And this result was not reached by logical thought, but by way of a mysterious, direct reflection of himself."

Anyway, good stuff. I love reading books filled with characters that are flawed and real and yet make me want to be a better person. I love finding truth that resonates with me in a book I am reading.

Now, on to something lighter... :)