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War and Peace by Leo TolstoyMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I did it! And I must say it is one of the best classics I have had the joy of spending over a month reading. Once you figure out who is who (everyone is referred to by at least three names) the world of the upper class during the Napoleonic war in Russia during 1805-1820 comes alive. Along the way, Tolstoy expounds his thoughts on how history is interpreted and the misconception of heroes. His battle scenes are exciting and insightful, the romances are complicated and satisfactory. There is death and disappointment, courage and compassion, faith and disillusionment. Throughout it all the characters seek to understand the purpose of life--some think they find it only to be mistaken, others discover it only after great trials, and some never do. I never felt as though I were slogging through a classic, and even though it was long, there is very little I would cut out.
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The regiment fluttered like a bird preening its plumage and became motionless.
At that meeting he was struck for the first time by the endless variety of men's minds, which prevents a truth from ever presenting itself identically to two persons.
The actions of Napoleon and Alexander, on whose words the event seemed to hang, were as little voluntary as the actions of any soldier who was drawn into the campaign by lot or by conscription.
all the facts of history (as far as we know it) confirm the truth of the statement that the greater or lesser success of one army against another is the cause, or at least an essential indication, of an increase or decrease in the strength of the nation--even though it is unintelligible why the defeat of an army--a hundredth part of a nation--should oblige that while nation to submit.
the unknown quantity is the spirit of the army...Men who want to fight will always put themselves in the most advantageous conditions for fighting.
For us the standard of good and evil given us by Christ, no human actions are incommensurable. And there is no greatness where simplicity, goodness, and truth are absent.
But pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy.
We imagine that when we are thrown out of our usual ruts allis lost, but it is only then that what is new and good begins.
While there is life there is happiness.
There were then as now conversations and discussions about women's rights, the relations of husband and wife and their freedom and rights, though these themes were not yet termed questions as they are now; but these topics were not merely uninteresting to Natasha, she positively did not understand them.
These questions, then as now, existed only for those who see nothing in marriage but the pleasure married people get from one another, that is, only the beginnings of marriage and not its whole significance, which lies in the family.
Discussions and questions of that kind, which are like the question of how to get the greatest gratification from one's dinner, did not then and do not now exist for those for whom the purpose of a dimmer is the nourishment it affords, and the purpose of marriage is the family.
As gold is gold only if it serviceable and not merely for exchange but also for use, so universal historians will be valuable only when they can reply to history's essential question: what is power?
What causes historical events? Power. What is power? Power is the collective will of the people transferred to one person. Under what condition is the will of the people delegated to one person? on conditions that that person expresses the will of the whole people . That is, power is power; in other words, power is a word the meaning of which we do not understand.
