I'm glad I had the patience to persevere but good grief, how many different ways can one say the same thing over and over.... but I guess considering the time it was written it was a masterpiece of its time.

Well read, marathon of a novel. May not have stuck with it if I was reading it myself.

Depiction of battle scenes.

The differing intonation of his voice for different characters was helpful.

The travails of the main characters elicit emotion.

So many stories interwoven in this lengthy classic novel. Some parts really pulled me in to the lives and times of the Russian and French war.

The narrator was reading the book in a manner that you really had to concentrate to understand what he was saying most times.

No, the books are good, but the Audible version is terrible. I could not finish it.

slurred speech, he ruined the characters.

None, the BOOK is great. The narrator however..

I regret spending money on this Audible book.

War and Peace describes Russian society during the Napoleonic Wars through the eyes of its ruling classes, its military leaders, even through the eyes of Napoleon. It is also a philosophical treatise on human nature, society, and war. A deeply humanistic work and rightly considered a literary masterpiece.

The narrator manages to convey the intonation and emotions of a wide caste of characters without ever losing the thread. Quite a feat and much easier to listen than to read!

I have listened to several audiobooks narrated by Frederick Davidson, but this one is unlistenable. He moves in and out away from the microphone constantly causing dips and peaks in volume that are just intolerable. You can even hear pages being turned occasionally!I suspect that this may be one of the earliest titles he's recorded because other books read by him have been quite pleasurable. Unfortunately, this one is unlistenable. It really should be taken down and re-recorded.

Maintain a consistent distance to his microphone.

You don't cut classics like War and Peace.

I want my money back so I can get a recording of this book that I can listen to!

It ranks as a classic among classics. This was the finest book to come out of the Russian classic literature era.

I believe this book stands on its own and I would be hard pressed to compare another one to it.

Just the pure pronunciation of all the French words that I have always had problems with in any novel that contains that language.

War in a time of peace.

This is a book that is so big, I just would not deign to tackle it as a sit down and read book. That is the main reason I bought this version. Very interesting classic. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys classic literature.

I am 57 years old and I have tried to read 'War and Peace' many times throughout my adult reading life; all with little success. Rarely have I read past the first section. What I discovered in having it read to me, was that it flowed on and on and I got into a rhythm of listening. Also I could be active with other physical projects and that helped to let time pass - painting, knitting, cleaning, gardening - all with Leo Tolstoy's great work being read to me.Dear reader - I finished it!

Interestingly the aspect that I found most intriguing and enjoyable, was that a European history was being told without any reference to Britain. Please do not think I am an Anglophobe, far from it, I was raised on British history and the 'glories' of Empire; but this lead me to clearly see that Anglo-centredness was not everything. In 'War and Peace' the history-telling is part fact and part fiction, but it is completely focussed on Russia and France with some German and Austrian seasoning. I appreciated the contrast to my own knowledge.I came to know the characters and their stories well. Each one was drawn beautifully and each one had his or her important place within the tale. I am not saying that any character was fully human, each one seemed to me to represent an aspect or 2 or 6 of humanness. Certainly I felt bereft when the book ended and there was no more Pierre, Natasha or Princess/Countess Marya in my life.

Clear, flexible, unobtrusive

Nothing extreme, other than the length!

I really valued the epilogue which Tolstoy uses as an exegesis of his beliefs about power and, obviously, war and peace. Although written over a century ago, he can still speak to us in our time of the risks, dangers, evils of seeking power by force.I have read Anna Karenina, but I will now listen to it also and hope to hear the voice of Leo Tolstoy in this his 2nd great novel

I read this novel a couple of weeks ago and have delayed writing a review as I was unsure of my overall opinion, History, philosophy, romance, many complicated characters and my lasting impression is "I did it' ! I read 'War and Peace' and that speaks volumes about my overall feeling about the experience. If you wish to be able to say that you read "War and Peace' then go ahead, if not.....

was Tolstoys’ assessment of free will he said the factors that limited it were time and space. Take as an expression of freewill me lifting my arm my freedom is limited by space I cannot lift it any direction I choose or through any objects that obstruct it. Just as limiting is time because in order to show that my raised arm is an act of free will I must show I could have not raised my arm which because time is a one way street is impossible. So when I look into the past I can see that at that moment, because of the series of events leading up to it, I had no choice but to raise my arm in an attempt to prove my free will.I think it is the infinity of time and space that lead us to have the necessity of creating a framework with which to reference our existence, us supercomputers risen from the earth and water. What do we know about our existence? Well the piece of infinity we have to work with is pretty small and any piece of infinity is almost zero. How do we make the most of the piece that we have? I have read that it is estimated that we can focus our attention on about 25000 bits per second but the subconscious records hundreds of thousands. So it seems to me we need to enlist our subconscious to make the most of what we have to work with and point our consciousness where it will be most be the most effective in creating a positive effect if we want to make the most of our free will. I think it is our beliefs that direct our subconscious to determine where we focus our attention. Tolstoy’s novel is about the French invasion of Russia and there is only one person Kitrusov, the commander in chief, who’s beliefs align with reality in a way that it allows him to focus his attention where his free will, such as it is, will do the most good. He alone sees the inevitability of the events that have been set in motion. That Napoleans’ army cannot be stopped or checked in it’s drive to Moscow and to stand in its way would lose the Russian army just as he saw the French army was doomed once it got there it was too late in the season all stores had been burned and it will melt away burdened with plunder trying to make it back to France through the harsh Russian winter and did his best to hold the Russian army back though half of it was lost through the exuberance with which the Russian soldier would undergo forced marches poorly clad through the snow with the thought of getting at the invader.

ha ha