War and Peace - Read Jim Fulner

48 audio discs (61 hr.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in., 1225 pages

Russian, English language

Published May 27, 2008 by Blackstone Audio.

ISBN:: 978-1-4332-4441-4
OCLC Number:: 176887940

Tolstoy’s epic masterpiece intertwines the lives of private and public individuals during the time of the Napoleonic wars and the French invasion of Russia. The fortunes of the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys, of Pierre, Natasha, and Andrei, are intimately connected with the national history that is played out in parallel with their lives. Balls and soirees alternate with councils of war and the machinations of statesmen and generals, scenes of violent battles with everyday human passions in a work whose extraordinary imaginative power has never been surpassed. The prodigious cast of characters, seem to act and move as if connected by threads of destiny as the novel relentlessly questions ideas of free will, fate, and providence. Yet Tolstoy’s portrayal of marital relations and scenes of domesticity is as truthful and poignant as the grand themes that underlie them.

The last word of the landlord’s literature and the brilliant one …

Tolstoy’s epic masterpiece intertwines the lives of private and public individuals during the time of the Napoleonic wars and the French invasion of Russia. The fortunes of the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys, of Pierre, Natasha, and Andrei, are intimately connected with the national history that is played out in parallel with their lives. Balls and soirees alternate with councils of war and the machinations of statesmen and generals, scenes of violent battles with everyday human passions in a work whose extraordinary imaginative power has never been surpassed. The prodigious cast of characters, seem to act and move as if connected by threads of destiny as the novel relentlessly questions ideas of free will, fate, and providence. Yet Tolstoy’s portrayal of marital relations and scenes of domesticity is as truthful and poignant as the grand themes that underlie them.

The last word of the landlord’s literature and the brilliant one at that. —Fyodor Dostoyevsky The best ever Russian historical novel. —Nikolai Leskov One of the most remarkable books of our age. —Ivan Turgenev This is the first class work!… This is powerful, very powerful indeed. —Gustave Flaubert The best novel that had ever been written. —John Galsworthy This work, like life itself, has no beginning, no end. It is life itself in its eternal movement. —Romain Rolland The greatest ever war novel in the history of literature. —Thomas Mann There remains the greatest of all novelists — for what else can we call the author of “War and Peace”? —Virginia Woolf Tolstoy is the greatest Russian writer of prose fiction. —Vladimir Nabokov

1 edition

JIm FUlner reviewed War and Peace by War and peace.

2 stars

This story was a drag. returnreturnI tried I really did. In hopes of learning one of the great stories of history I decided to go with the Audio book. This is why it jumped out at me as it was the largest Audio Book in the library. 48 CDs. As far as an audio book production quality it was fairly well. The foreigner reading the English version was good, the end of each CD was properly announced, the beginning of the next likewise, and the track splits made sense. 48 CDs is a lot to manage, and I think about 3 or 4 MP3 CDs would have been better. The Library still had this item marked as NEW yet the box was already falling apart. That is a problem. Worst of all I couldn't renew it because the audio book was already reserved for someone else. returnreturnThe story dragged on …

This story was a drag. returnreturnI tried I really did. In hopes of learning one of the great stories of history I decided to go with the Audio book. This is why it jumped out at me as it was the largest Audio Book in the library. 48 CDs. As far as an audio book production quality it was fairly well. The foreigner reading the English version was good, the end of each CD was properly announced, the beginning of the next likewise, and the track splits made sense. 48 CDs is a lot to manage, and I think about 3 or 4 MP3 CDs would have been better. The Library still had this item marked as NEW yet the box was already falling apart. That is a problem. Worst of all I couldn't renew it because the audio book was already reserved for someone else. returnreturnThe story dragged on and on and on. After the first 6 discs nothing had really happened. Some guy died, someone else joined the army and a bunch of rich bastards talked about how great it is that French people kill other people, and how awesome it is to get drunk. After having to return the discs due to what was described above, I decided to watch the movie before I wrote this review. I got about half way through the 4 hour movie before I realized I still wasn't following it due to how much it dragged on and on about nothing. returnreturnSave yourself some time, unless you need to for a class, or you have a much stronger desire than I to read it just because its classic literature, don't.

Subjects

Russia -- History -- Alexander I, 1801-1825 -- Fiction.
Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815 -- Campaigns -- Russia -- Fiction. Audiobooks.