War and Peace has been on my to read list forever. I read Anna Karenina last year though and I found it to be chore. I didn't enjoy it at all (I found it too long and tedious, thought at least 1/3 of the book could have been cut out and it would have been good). Is War and Peace similar? If I found one tedious will I find the other so also.
I just started Anna Karenina last night and am only on p. 39, but I did read all of War and Peace some years ago. I enjoyed it overall until the last 100 pages, but it is definitely wordy and takes concentration. I had to make myself a little cheat sheet of the names because it had so many characters who each had 3 or more nicknames so I couldn't remember which nickname went with whom.
I did feel that the story ended about 100 pages before the end of the book and the end was all an annoying political diatribe.
Post by daydreamer on Apr 28, 2013 12:31:54 GMT -5
I found both Anna Karenina than War and Peace similar in respect to ease of read. I think Tolstoy's writing style lends itself pretty well to translation to English. That said I didn't get through War and Peace for personal reasons unrelated to the ease of reading. Do you think you will be more or less interested in the story? IIRC, W&P has a lot of military scenes and a lot of drawing room scenes.
I read War and Peace first and hated it, but a friend convinced me to read Anna Karenina, and I quite liked it. I describe Anna Karenina as War and Peace without the war part. I felt that the writing style was fairly similar, but the endless descriptions of Napoleonic battles was terribly boring to me, and it disrupted the part of W&P that I did enjoy. If you struggle with AK, I wouldn't recommend W&P unless you really like reading 19th-century military descriptions.
I read War and Peace first and hated it, but a friend convinced me to read Anna Karenina, and I quite liked it. I describe Anna Karenina as War and Peace without the war part. I felt that the writing style was fairly similar, but the endless descriptions of Napoleonic battles was terribly boring to me, and it disrupted the part of W&P that I did enjoy. If you struggle with AK, I wouldn't recommend W&P unless you really like reading 19th-century military descriptions.
For some reason this part made me laugh out loud.
FWIW, I am enjoying Anna Karenina at the moment (probably more than W&P, but I read that a long time ago so it's hard to remember).