![]() ![]() War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy is available from Audible, 60hr 54min The best of the rest If the thought of reading Tolstoy makes you feel tired, this is surely the ideal way in. But the battles and bear hunts are exciting and there is the singular satisfaction of having got to the end and conquered this most intimidating classic. The unhappily married Pierre’s excursions into freemasonry also test the patience. New characters arrive thick and fast, many of them related to one another, and it can be hard to keep on top of them without the help of a whiteboard and pen. The book has its challenges, some of which even Newton, with her impressive range of voices, cannot overcome. Among the main players are Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count who wants a slice of his father’s riches Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who goes off to fight in the war and Natasha, the beautiful daughter of a nobleman, with whom both men are enamoured. The narrator Thandiwe Newton rises to the challenge of voicing the scores of aristocrats who gossip and meddle in each other’s lives while bemoaning the state of Europe. ![]() War and Peace opens in St Petersburg in 1805 where there is handwringing in upper-class drawing rooms over the advance of Bonaparte. ![]()
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