I have read 50% of War and Peace! Yippee. I promised myself that, as a treat, I would allow myself to pause following each quarter of this massive tome, and read something else. However, at the moment, I'm making good progress through it and am quite absorbed so I will stick with it for now.
So, a couple of observations at this point.
Having got through the interminable descriptions of battle minutiae, and returned to Russian society, War and Peace becomes more readable. It still doesn't seem to be going anywhere purposeful, but I'm starting to settle into the different approach to reading that this kind of work demands. With most books, I am driven to read because I want to know what happens at the end. With War and Peace, and other looooong books (such as a Suitable Boy - definitely recommended), you have to read for the pleasure of the reading itself. There is no sense of a drive towards a resolution, at this point. For example, Natasha has had, so far, 3 intense love affairs which have been suddenly ended - in most other books based in this kind of period, by now you would expect to have an inkling of the character that she will actually end up marrying, but there is no such thing here. No predictability - this is probably a positive in terms of plotting skill, but deprives the reader of the satisfaction of divining what might happen next!
Secondly, Tolstoy is fairly subtly giving the impression that he views Russian society with disdain. He paints quite an affectionate portrait, but none of his characters are "good" - all of the young men are given to spending money they don't have, gambling, drinking, and general misbehaviour; the "respectable" older generation are either unreasonable, crotchety and mean, social climbers, or buried in a sea of debt - it's not really a surprise that the younger generation don't behave well! The interesting thing about the way Russian high society is portrayed is that it seems very modern - the young men seem very similar to the way some of the "evils" of today's society are portrayed by the media. Russian society also seems much free-er than English society at the same period.
There is, however, very little to like. I am trying to get over this, as I know that liking the characters shouldn't be the be-all and end-all of appreciating a work of fiction, but it is quite deeply engrained!
Onwards and upwards...
Did you catch Saturday Live yesterday on Radio 4 - about the woman who took up learning Russian aged 56 after reading War & Peace and wanted to read it in the original? She is now in her 70s, has a PhD, and is a world famous translator of Pushkin. Inspiring! Made me think about tackling W&P and stop prevaricating about learning Mandarin. But probably not enough time to do both!
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