War and Peace....Done!

I have finally finished last book of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.  I have to say, I’m a little proud of myself. Yes, I have been listening to most of it (I found an app that streams the Gutenberg recordings of books,) and I couldn't say I could give you an in depth analysis of all the military movements and battles contained within, but I can say I really liked it.

I liked it for the same reasons that I like some of the English classics like Pride and Prejudice and Emma and that ilk. I find the old world charm of the way they conduct themselves in "Society" incredibly attractive, beguiling and intriguing. The social structure was so well established and pervasively known by everyone that, although to us, it seems like a mysterious dance, but to these people, it was their life.

I had an emotional investment in Tolstoy’s characters. Who wouldn't have cried when the Princess Lisa Bolkonskaya died. It wasn't the death of the little princess with the fuzzy lip that made me cry but the truly heart wrenching description of the accusatory confusion on her face upon her death that gripped my heart and made me weep. “Why?” was her question in death, and that was heart breaking.

Being a little bit of a sucker for a happy ending, however, I did so enjoy the eventual joining of Princess Marya Bolkonskaya and  Nikolai Rostov.  With Nikolai’s act of devotion, he improved so many lives without compromising his morals of marring for money, (which he got anyway.)

Along this line, I felt the joining of Pierre Bezukhov and Natasha Rostova was a match made in heaven, to use I tiered, old phrase.  Both Natasha and Pierre needed someone to dote on and be doted upon.  Both deserved the happiness that they found in one another after all they had been through.

So, I cried, I laughed, I developed a deep emotional attachment to the characters and the journeys they underwent, and I can now say “I have read War And Peace”