War and Peace (AmazonClassics Edition)

By: Leo Tolstoy, Louise Maude - translator, Aylmer Maude - translator

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

Length: 55 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

In early nineteenth-century Russia, the threat of Napoleon’s invasion looms, and the lives of millions are about to be changed forever. This includes Pierre Bezúkhov, illegitimate son of an aristocrat; Andrew Bolkónski, ambitious military scion; and Natásha Rostóva, compassionate daughter of a nobleman. All of them are unprepared for what lies ahead. Alongside their fellow compatriots - a catalog of enduring literary characters - Pierre, Andrew, and Natásha will be irrevocably torn between fate and free will.

Through the bonds of love and family, and all that can break them, Tolstoy examines the effects of war on every strata of society in his masterwork of intimate - and epic - social history.

Revised edition: Previously published as War and Peace, this edition of War and Peace (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.

Public Domain (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Wonderful!

The performance was spectacular. The reader was able to do accents and pronounce French very well. I loved this story and feel accomplished having finished such a long novel. We’ll worth it.

You won’t be disappointed

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Tolstoy’s writing is mesmerizing. The characters were all so well written. While long, the story is compelling throughout. The only thing I found I didn’t enjoy were some of the lengthy diatribes about Napoleon, but I understand given his nation’s history with that tyrant.

very well done audiobook

I won't review War and Peace here but only this audiobook version of it, which I think is excellent. The voice actor seems top notch. He has a pleasant, interesting voice, manages novel and recognizable voices for all characters, and performs their lines convincingly. If his reading often seems cloying, I think this is only because the text he reads is often so. The audio is clear. The only issue with the production that I can recognize is in slight differences in the sound of certain passages that I suppose were inserted into an earlier draft of the completed recording (particularly some passages in French), perhaps to correct errors in reading undetected the first time through. These differences are minor and unobtrusive.

Great listen

enjoyed this much more than expected.
it's a long listen but that enticed me to keep listening regularly and to think about keeping the story lines straight.
would really recommend for anyone who enjoys that kind of challenge

Excellent Slow-Hot Burn Epic Novel

I loved this book.
It’s a slow-burn story that introduces most of the main characters and families at a party in Russia in about 1805 when rumblings of war began shaking the world from Europe to Africa and then Russia.
Most of the young folks were from aristocratic families. In this book, you see the foolishness of youth, the seeds of personality, and the growth and education of life. Tolstoy walks you through good times, tough times, romance, and through the Napoleonic Wars in Russia from 1812-1813 and then beyond. I “watched” young folks (and old) deal with love, war, death, loss, and finally, for survivors, rebuilding. Some characters are fictional, some are real, and yet events and experiences are true. As I read, I thought, “Tolstoy knew war.” While he did not serve in that war, he was close to it in time, interviewed many (soldiers, families, and loved ones) who had been in it, read many diaries and letters, and served in the Crimean War.

While I came to “know” many characters, I will always remember Andrew, Pierre, and Natashia. It was hard to say goodbye to some who did not survive, while others, it was not so hard. While war changes things forever, it was good to see a rebuilding of something new beyond those times. It’s a good novel.

The two following epilogues include Tolstoy’s provocative thoughts on history and people. I disagree with some of his ideas. However, it would have been fun to sit with him next to a fireplace on a cool evening with a warm brandy or Vodka to tell stories and share thoughts.

I recommend this book. However, if you choose to enter it, be prepared for a long journey in which history and people come to life, and some will die. The people you meet will live somewhere in your mind as if you knew them. Perhaps they were all real people whose stories came to life again from the diaries and letters that Tolstoy read.

Worth every second invested in it.

From beginning to end, this was a brilliant story, packed with lessons eerily applicable to today's world. While I would reccomend this book to everyone, it is certainly an investment to finish, as it took me several weeks to chip out.

Awesome performance of an awesome book

This book is an unforgettable experience and the narrator, Eduardo Ballerini, made it feel like a real story happening live, full of human emotions and feelings!

I have read many books but this is one is by far one of my favorite both thanks to the genius of Tolstoy and to the amazing talent of the narrator who sleeps seamlessly into every character and impersonates each one of them, men and women alike, brilliantly!

Thank you for your amazing work!!! Never stop doing it and enriching our life with great literature!

Great classic

I loved the story. The narration was splendid and easy to listen too. Would.listen again

Perhaps the greatest book in history

This is an old work, but of never ending relevance to human affairs. The story revolves around the period of Napoleon Bonaparte’s and sets a broad and deep river of context for Tolstoy’s commentaries on the nature of humanity’s actions. He refutes his contemporary historians’ explication of facts and conclusions on many counts. In doing so he takes us down deeper into our behavior, collectively and individually. The reader does a spectacular job of bringing a multitude of voices and personalities to life for the listener. I read this book in college but understand it much better with fifty years between now and then. Be patient as it takes seven to ten hours of listening before it really starts to fall in place. Patience well rewarded.

Epic

This is as good as it should be, being that it is a classic. The stories themselves can seem boring but it is the incredibly real and true to life feel of them that surprised me. The commentary at the end and throughout on history, religion, etc is great! Well worth the read/listen