• War and Peace, Volume 2

  • By: Leo Tolstoy
  • Narrated by: Neville Jason
  • Length: 31 hrs and 24 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (2,090 ratings)

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War and Peace, Volume 2  By  cover art

War and Peace, Volume 2

By: Leo Tolstoy
Narrated by: Neville Jason
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Publisher's summary

War and Peace is one of the greatest monuments in world literature. Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, it examines the relationship between the individual and the relentless march of history. Here are the universal themes of love and hate, ambition and despair, youth and age, expressed with a swirling vitality which makes the book as accessible today as it was when it was first published in 1869.

In addition it is, famously, one of the longest books in Western literature and therefore a remarkable challenge for any reader. Neville Jason read the abridged version of War and Peace and proved his marathon powers with his outstanding performance of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. These make him the ideal narrator to essay Tolstoy's epic.

War and Peace was translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude.

© and (P) Naxos Rights International

Critic reviews

"War and Peace presents us with a complete picture of human life; a complete picture of the Russia of those days; a complete historic picture of the struggle of nations; and a complete picture of the things in which men set their happiness and greatness, their sorrow and their shame." (A.V. Knowles, Tolstoy: The Critical Heritage)
"There remains the greatest of all novelists - for what else can we call the author of War and Peace?" (Virginia Woolf)

What listeners say about War and Peace, Volume 2

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

A long book, but at least the chapters are short

Neville Jason does a good (but not great) job reading this longest of long books. The dialogue, as read, is more dynamic than the narration; and the men are voiced more effectively than the women. (Unfortunately, given the amount of time she spends "onscreen," I found Jason's reading of Natasha to be somewhat shrill.) The Frederick Davidson recording is more dynamic, but Davidson's voice seems to rub a lot of people the wrong way. Jason at least has a smooth and mellow voice, and his reading is clear and unhurried.

This is the Maude translation, and Naxos (and Audible) get five stars for making it available in an attractive and accessible format. There are fourteen books in "War and Peace," plus an epilogue, and the recording is divided by book, with a chapter mark for each chapter: so it's very easy to find your way around and know exactly where you are in the story. The idea that you can get the whole thing for only two credits is amazing.

The book is long, some 70 hours or more, but most of the chapters are short and full of absorbing detail. The chapters that aren't -- where Tolstoy lays out his philosophy of history, or summarizes some of the larger historical context from 50,000 feet -- can probably be skipped without great loss. (To oversimplify, Tolstoy basically seems to be saying that while individuals think they have free will in an individual sense, when you step back and look at events from a larger perspective you see that reality is overdetermined and that what happened was inevitable. He also suggests that the "great man" theory of history is seriously flawed, because all the kings of the earth can't do squat without the individual acts of every single pawn.)

I realize that's heresy, but it would be better to get the story and skip the philosophy than to skip the book altogether. The story itself is incredible.

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34 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Definitely worth a listen...

I love listening to audiobooks as I make my commute through LA traffic. It makes the time pass and eases the anxiety of people who shouldn't have a license.

Tolstoy's War & Peace gives a fairly accurate portrayal of life among the upper class Russian society during the Napoleonic Wars. It gives a historical account of the war between Napolean and Alexander, all the while set behind the facade of several interwoven upper class Russian families. It's a very entertaining, and classic work, from one of Russia's greatest novelists. It doesn't however touch upon the poverty stricken serfs who made up the majority of the population of Russia at the time. In this case, I've always felt Dostoyevsky does a much better job in capturing a more realistic portrayal of Russian society. Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamozov both give you a better look at the social climate of the period, if that's what you're looking for.

In other words. It's kind of a cool story about rich people during a war. It can be a little boring in places, but if you like history, you'll probably like the book. And it takes a good chunk of time out of a commute of a long car trip!!! LOL

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22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beyond Magnificence

From Mr. Jason's first utterance until 60 hours later his last syllable of Leo Tolstoy's magnum opus "War and Peace" I was living in Russia. Living with the aristocracy, peasants; cavalry and Cossacks. Soldiers and surfs. In castles, dungeons, town houses, huts and tents, ballrooms and battlefields.
Not for one moment was I distracted or aware of time's passage.
I listened to W & P right after "Anna Karinina". There is not enough Tolstoy. How can one comprehend this man's mind? You can not.
On to Dostoyevsky. Russian literature, what transcendent joy.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Way to Go. This Way.

If you are like me and have tried to read this book and given up , then this is the way to go. Neville Jason does read well.
The names both familiar and formal are accepted by the English speakers' ear and are recognized......Phew....... And it is possible to relax and enjoy this great book. History unfolds as the narrative progresses. Some books lead me to research more than the story tells.....and....................
Apart from learning more about Napoleon, I became very curious about when and how slavery come to Russia.
A great book and a journey into the past too.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Like nothing ever written

Any additional comments?

I do have some quibbles, however, and that's with the epilogue, especially the second epilogue.

Tolstoy makes some interesting points in the otherwise dull and lifeless epilogue - the concept of an objective observer predates Einstein in many ways - but he really, really did not need to go one and on about a point he already made through the course of the novel proper. Of course much time (and tastes) have changed sine he wrote this and a modern author wouldn't dare tell the reader what to think and what lesson to take away from a book (show, don't tell), but even forgiving the style, Tolstoy tries too hard to hammer home a point he can't put into words very well.

Sure, he wants to say that above all, beyond power and influence and even time and space, only one thing can be the cause AND effect of all earthly concerns, but his own logic betrays his hypothesis. He never once applies the same rules of his line of reasoning to his supernatural explanations for the human condition. Yes, man has no true and complete 'free will' nor does he owe every decision of his life to that of a controlling master, yet to say that only something that exists completely out of time and space (and therefore not subject to the rules he lays out in his logic) is a cop-out. He just wants to prove there is a god and he fails because like the historians he condemns for the shortsightedness, the more power one has the less influence they wield at the lowest level.

I actually felt bad for Tolstoy reading that second epilogue because he otherwise made his point quite clear before then too. I mean, the whole reason why War and Peace is so long is to convey that great sense of time needed to see things in a greater context and too explain how complicated and messy life really is. He couldn't do that in a smaller book and certainly not in an epilogue.

Yet the novel is a complete masterpiece, even with this one flaw because it's so grand, so complete, so observant and so mesmerizing that at times we feel like a god looking down on his creation and being able to see and hear and know the deepest thoughts and fears and foibles of everyone alive at any given moment. Tolstoy basically allows us to play the great deity he tries so hard to prove exists externally of the universe; god is not 'out there', he's us. He's each of us. He's the confused mess of stumbling humanity haplessly slouching towards some unknown and unforeseen future that never could have been predicted to begin with. The ebb and flow of history is made up of a billion billion vibrating lives each pressing against each other in a dance like that at a great Russian soiree and every so often a beautiful songbird flutters into the room, delights everyone for an instant and inspires us to love.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Concerning the translation

This is the Leo Wiener translation from 1904 if anyone is interested. There are nine other english editions. I have not read the other editions, but this one was an incredible read/listen, and I highly recommend it :)

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

I feel like I just finished a Marathon

I ended up loving this book. Yes, it is long, and has a lot of stuff in it that could be cut out, but omitting anything would lessen the book. I am very happy that I listened to the entire 61 hours and 44 minutes. I am pretty sure I have changed, and have grown as a person as a result of this book. Now I'm going to go listen to something light and cheerful!

BTW, Neville Jason is an amazing narrator! My standard for judging a good narrator is "could I listen to him read the phone book and enjoy it?" Yes, I could, Neville. Thank you.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Pleasure continues

The pleasure I had in Neville Jason's reading of Volume 1 continued unabated through Volume 2. His rendition is intelligent and sensitive and his ability to produce a variety of voices and stay in character with them is a tremendous help to the listener. A great reading of a great novel

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Book and a Great Narrator

I really enjoyed the first volume of this book. Neville Jason is a tallented narrator and makes the story easy to follow with identifiable and unannoying voices. I highly recommend this audiobook.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Epic historical novel PLUS.....

Impossible to categorize this huge work. A beautifully written historical novel of the Russian aristocracy, woven together with a carefully detailed examination of Napoleon's invasion of Russia, battle by battle, and lastly Tolstoy's theories on how and why these events occurred.

The scope of this book is stunning, the characters unforgettable. Although more approachable than I anticipated, the exhaustive historical detail and Tolstoy's emphatic philosophical discourses make this more than a little challenging.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, absolutely recommend it, and will probably revisit it sometime in the future. Right now, however, I'm ready for some mindless escapism!!

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6 people found this helpful