Tolstoi's War and Peace

Following JA The Observer's advice, when I came to the Netherlands I brought with me Tolstoi's War and Peace, which I finished before my trip to the UK.

The book is great, although Tolstoi continuously presents his theory about history and it's great characters. This theory is in part true, but it's exasperating how much does he pauses the plot and insists in this, one time after another, specially at the epilogue, when there's more theory than story.

Take that out and the book is great. The plot follows three fictitious russian families: the Rostov, the Bolkonski and the Bezujov through the napoleonic wars (from 1805 to 1815).

This book touches the subjects of death, love, the search of goals through life and it's meaning, life's disappointments, the truth about eroism in war, combat leadership, practice and theory, and administrative responsability.

The combination between fiction and reality is very well accomplished, since fictitious characters participate in historic events but don't influence them. In this way is very easy for the reader to distinguish fiction from reality.

The autor also provides historic introductions at the begining of some chapters, which helps the reader to understand in a better way the background of the plot and also allows him to learn history.

This book earned the Twister's Choice for best book of the (19th) century.