War & Peace is finally finished

It’s been the longest book of this challenge, but I’ve finally completed Leo Tolstoy’s War & Peace. And man, was the ending a disappointment.

Plot summary: War & Peace

Across the book, we follow the Rostov family, including Natasha, Nicholas, Sonya and Petya. There’s also the Bolkonski family, Andrew and Mary with their irascable father. Then there’s Pierre, lost and looking for a virtuous way of life. Weaving in and out of these main characters are several supporting characters in the guise of friends, parents, wives, lovers and enemies.

We watch as they grow older, living through the French-Russian wars. Pierre marries a degenerate woman and falls into a miserable and self-serving way of life. Nicholas joins the army and falls in and out of love with his cousin Sonya. Prince Andrew’s first wife dies and he becomes a desperate but humanitarian cynic. He and Natasha fall in love.

But it’s not to be. Led astray by Pierre’s brother-in-law, Natasha is caught trying to elope. She and Andrew end their engagement. Pierre is estranged from his wife and realises that he loves Natasha. The shakey peace between France and Russian ends and war begins again.

Andrew’s father dies. Mary is alone, and finally begins to come out of her shell. She meets Nicholas and they fall in love. War, however, drives them apart. Several character die. New couples form, and the first epilogue shows you how they are living after the war.

Then comes the second epilogue. My word, what an epilogue.

The most disappointing ending

I was really enjoying this book. Of course, there were several dull parts, where Tolstoy gets on his hobby horse about how all historians are wrong. And then there are the very detailed and rather dry battle descriptions. But the actual story was so compelling. The characters were very real. Their behaviour made you think about ethics, morality, heck, even what it takes to be a nice person!

Then he writes this second epilogue.

The second epilogue is totally unrelated to the book. It is the driest thing I’ve ever read. Even my university textbooks were more interesting. It is as if Tolstoy, on completing the story, decided it was time to let loose on his historians-are-all-wrong theme completely. A few chapters here and there over 800 pages wasn’t enough. No, he needed an entire epilogue devoted to it.

If were ever to read War & Peace again, I wouldn’t bother with the second epilogue. It’s not worth it and sits outside the story itself. But for the sake of the challenge I read it all.

I feel that it has wrecked my experience of this book. The ending of a story is important. It can leave you satisfied, longing for more or disappointed. Pushing through that epilogue left me disappointed. Especially because the ending of the book itself was rather vague, leaving me to believe that the two epilogues had more to say on the main story.

But I’m still glad I read War & Peace

While I was disappointed, I’m still glad I read this book. The majority of it was very well written and engaging. It has been good to learn more about a nation and a time in history that I am not familiar with. I also think this was a good ‘soft launch’ into Russian authors, as it was much easier to read than I expected. I’ve picked up some of their particular style, so if I plunge into other authors, I might be able to get across the varied names/titles, as well as the huge number of characters.

I just wish I hadn’t read that epilogue!

Would you read War & Peace? Let me know in the comments.