Reading War and Peace (help) / the Tolstoy Diaries ep. 1

welcome to war and peace! Round 3 of #DickensorTolstoy is underway and I'm so excited to have the first of many Tolstoy vlogs out to you! Ignore everything I say about the tedium/dry parts of the novel because as I'm typing this I am 500 pages in, have cried multiple times, and am on my way to declaring War and Peace as one of my favourite books of all time. If you're reading along with us, feel free to leave your thoughts below xx

Books Mentioned
War and Peace

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#theTolstoyDiaries

[ldh]

Hey Emma, loved the video! Just thought you might like to know that Sophia Tolstoy, Leo's wife, contributed a ton of work to this massive book with no credit from her husband. He would read her diaries, and once read one of her short stories that would later become the beginning of the Rostov family - yet he told her he barely looked at it when he read it the first time. She also copied his manuscript by hand seven times, correcting grammar and spelling mistakes, and she also offered key suggestions in the plot (like saying he needed to focus more on the family and romantic subplots and less on war strategies). She did all of this thanklessly while raising his 13 children and managing his estate, allowing him time to write while she took care of the domestic labor. While enjoying this book, please remember Sophia Tolstoy, who has been erased from literary history for being a woman.

[Lokster]

The first part of War & Peace I always describe as being invited to a massive party with loads of guests. You keep getting introduced to people. You forget their names. You meet them again. Your guide is a gossip who knows all the info and wants to tell it to you.

[catsyrhy]

“I just finished the first page, I think I deserve a coffee”... why is that me every time I want to read

[haibui]

Guys War and peace is amazing. Don't be scared of how chunky the book is. The story is very interesting. I guarantee time will fly when you're reading this masterpiece

[LuIndierevolution]

I'm obsessed with this channel. Finally found a booktuber that doesn't read only young adult or new books. All your videos on classic and contemporary literature are soo interesting!

[Rita__Margarita]

I’m from Russia, and I want you to know that I’m soooo proud of you, really💪🏻

[bruh-iyec]

You have Great Expectations for ‘War & Peace’!? *Dickens tiptoes back to his cave*

[Lyngbjorn-mv]

In Russia we read this in school (grade 10, 15 yo) and i really don’t know anyone in school who loves it 😂 except that every girl was in love with Andrey ☺️ You are now in a perfect age to read it ❤️

[Yaelj]

I really like the part where nikolai is in battle and he thinks to himself, why am i under attack? Why is the enemy trying to kill me? Me, who everybody loves? And he thinks of the love of his family and how next to it, it seems impossible that someone would want to kill him.

[aytanitamamasita]

Fun Fact: My teacher once said that the word «мир» can both be translated, understood as “piece” and “humanity ”, and Tolstoy put two (actually more but that is irrelevant here) meanings behind the name of his book. And, by War and People he means that the book will show different people from different classes with different life goals be affected by war (which it does)

[sarawiser]

i’m sure someone has already mentioned it, but there is this absolutely stellar musical called Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 that is based off of a 70 page chunk taken from the middle of War & Peace. I would highly recommend listening to the cast recording once you get to that part of the book because it really helped me to fall in love with the story ❤️

[anaish.]

"the Tolstoy Diaries" omfg, I feel this is gonna become my favorite series ever

[itsmelive]

"i know this book has been out for.... a while" this is the kind of classics accessibility I'm looking for in a booktuber ✨

[julianecutie]

I‘m also currently reading war and peace and i would highly recommend watching the bbc mini series before you start, because it will introduce you to the important characters. The series focuses mainly on the „drama“ parts because it is just 6 episode so you‘ll still get a lot out of reading the book

[arlena]

War and Peace, even if you‘re not a great reader, is just a title everyone knows. And for me at least it always felt like I was never going to read it, not only because of its length, but also because it always seemed to be only for ‚true‘ specialists, for old white men, scholars, the elite. When I was younger, I was worried I wouldn’t understand it, would waste my time and energy at something I wasn’t supposed to do in the first place. And yet here I am - here we are - a generation of young people of all different sorts of backgrounds, tackling (and enjoying!) this literary masterpiece. Discussing it among each other, learning from it, growing as people for having read it. I think I‘ve come a long way from that intimitaded girl to a young woman confident in her abilities and choices, but I also think that we all owe you and Carolyn a great deal too, because for many of us, your discussions and passions are the reason we picked this book (and others like it) up in the first place. And to inspire so many people, especially young people, to approach and enjoy great literature, to encourage them to read more and more widely, is an honourable thing to do indeed, and it deserves all the attention and gratitude we can give. Because I don‘t know if you‘ve actually realised it, but you‘re making a huge difference here. So, thank you for that. 💛

[requiiiem]

Hi🤍 I'm from Russia and "War and peace" one of my favourite russian classics book. I wish you like this book 🤧💕

[ashleylesiak]

I just finished War and Peace a couple weeks ago. I found it really helped to watch historical videos on the battles before reading them.

[Talluel]

Умница! Не многие русские читают это произведение, а уж иностранцам и подавно тяжелее) Но я рада, что ты решила одолеть эту книгу! ❤ (п.с. в России "Войну и мир" проходят в школе на уроках литературы)

[dooniashard]

I am from Russia. And in our schools we must read this book in 10th grade. So many of pupils hate War and Peace, because it's time-consuming and "boring". But then you actually read this you start to understand how much Leo Tolstoy had to tell us, how real and powerful the historic events and story is. This is not only accurate story of Russia this is life-changing book. For me it is at least.
Fun fact: The first name of the book was rather simple and a little stupid but true _" Аll is well that ends well".
All meaningful characters were real people. For example Denis Davidov appears as Dennisov Vasiliy (sorry for the name spelling). He was a great soldier who worked with a partisans and a writer.

[Progress]

Her comment section is the best one I've seen till date.So much positivity ❤️