War and Peace (SparkNotes Literature Guide Series) [NOOK Book]

Highly Recommended!!!

War and Peace is a classic that should not be missed by anyone. Leo Tolstoy is a master story teller.

The formatting of this ebook was masterful as well. Very professional and no errors. Worth every penny.

91 out of 92 people found this review helpful.

this is not the Pevear translation

The $2.99 ebook is not the Pevear translation and inaccurately reflects an excerpt for that version of the text. The downloaded text in the $2.99 version is highly abridged. Buyer beware!

22 out of 24 people found this review helpful.

Warning to Nook users!

The free eBook version of War and Peace is part III of a multi-volume set. Barnes and Noble does not indicate this, and there is no way to find the other volumes in the set. If really want to read War and Peace on your Nook, go for one of the eBooks that is not free, or use another web site to get a full copy of the free version.

My apologies to everyone reading this "review" in other editions of the book - B&N doesn't separate reviews by edition. I'm only talking about the free eBook edition translated by Leo Weiner. And I hope that in the future B&N will correctly label it as "War and Peace - Volume III".

18 out of 19 people found this review helpful.

WAR AND PEACE

This is an awesome book and you must take great care to ensure you are getting a copy that suits your requirements. Look for a quality translation - Prevear should do it for most people. I have tried several of the free downloads of this book for my nook and they are quite unreadable. The amount of spelling mistakes is unbelievable - do this book the justice it deserves and treat yourself to a good copy!

14 out of 15 people found this review helpful.

Best book I've ever read.

And I have read many! When I 'had' to read this book in college it changed my life. While it never preaches, or really makes it clear what 'side' the author takes, somehow it made God's character real to me. That God is love. And, that without love we are nothing. Also, it was amazing to me that I could read a 1000 page Russian novel and never get bored. This is a beautiful book that showed me that God loves a broken and sinful mankind and that He can be found in spite of the ugliness of our own hearts.

8 out of 10 people found this review helpful.

War and Peace

WAR AND PEACE successfully captured life's promises, challenges, joys, triumphs, and losses in a way that no other novels has done before and after. In this novel with more characters than any other I can imagine the main characters are Pierre Bezuhov, Prince Andrey Bolkonsky, and Natasha Rostov, who are all affected by the destabilization of the war Napoleon brought upon Russia in the early nineteenth century. It is around them that the other characters revolve. Even though the sheer size of this novel of over a million words may discourage readers to pick it up, the consuming nature of the story keeps a reader glued to the book from the opening pages. The sheer power of this romantic and adventurous story made this classic story to survive as perhaps the best of all times.

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

NOT the full version

This is not the full version of the book. It's only an excerpt. :-(

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

for the free ebook and bn's ereader for mac

the free version of war and peace is only an excerpt and starts from part nine. also the ereader that barnes and noble has available for download doesnt even work. i went to adobe and downloaded their epub reader which worked fine.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

A classic of unmatched caliber not well honored in this particular translation.

I purchased this particular paperback translation by Pat Conroy because I was looking for a lightweight version of War and Peace that I could re-read en route to and from work on public transportation. I was preparing for a trip to Russia and "getting in the mood." While the book served that purpose, for me, the purchase was a mistake. The print was too small and hard to read, and the translation was not particularly scholarly. Much of the text was in the original French, which, although not unusual in many Tolstoy translations, I found distracting because it tested my French fluency rather than adding to the continuity of the text. Unless you are reasonably fluent in French, I recommend reading another translation. My experience here reminds me that you get what you pay for. For about $10, I bought an inexpensive, lightweight, paperback volume of less than stellar quality that I did not enjoy and stopped reading. Tolstoy deserves far better treatment. Next time, I will go with the salesperson's highly recommended translation, despite its size and weight.

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Tolstoi's 1500 Page Baby

Anyone serious about getting to know this novel, fitted out in smart English duds by Louise and Aylmer Maude, will not hesitate to invest in the handsome three-volume edition so mercifully published by Everyman's Library, Knopf. All long novels should be brought out this way, in fact, as they normally were in an age unafraid of multiple tomes: in sensibly-sized and serviceable volumes, not so bloated that they will crush your chest in bed, print actually suited to normal eyes that do not require high-tech telescopes to decipher the text. All this said, Tolstoi's novel has the power to occasion some intriguing questions. Why does Prince Andrei love his wife so little, and Princess Lize her family so much? Is Pierre Bezukhov as obtuse as he seems? Does the author tell us the full story of Nicholas Bolkonsky's ill-treatment of his daughter, or is there an even more sinister tale, lurking behind the edge of every page? What will Natasha do when her serfs are one day freed, and was there a real-life prototype for the eerily emetic Helene? And who brewed all that borsch, fried all those bliny? Tolstoi himself, of course, foresaw all such questions, and would no doubt refer the reader to his various commentaries on the subject, which would seem to have dropped from his pen like so many fully-formed Baltic bonbons for our enjoyment. We may be turned off (or on!) by his theories of history, and especially by the near lunatic ravings which constitute the final epilogue. But it would not be possible to emerge unchanged from a summer spent reading this novel. Are not now our notions of Russia more spangled? Is not our approach to life now more brave? Though its title may make this book sound heavier and more indigestible than a granite gulag birthday cake, let us hasten to state that it is anything but.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is volume ll

This is vol ll of 3

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

So many translations-----so little time . . .

This is not a ¿light and fun¿ book, the way some more modern pieces of literature come to mind (SLAUGHTER HOUSE FIVE by Vonnegut¿still a classic in its own way---and KATZENJAMMER by McCrae¿hilarious and unsettling at the same time), but it IS a great book¿freat piece of literature. New translations of War and Peace appear from time to time, each with its own virtues. Sometimes what one reader calls virtues, another finds to be deficiencies. The now-venerable Maude translation, in the splendid Norton Critical Edition, is sometimes majestic, always readable, and, most important, conveys to most minds the story Tolstoy told. The breathtaking, awe-inspiring power of Tolstoy's storytelling and his burning insights into the quandaries of the human condition are what is important about War and Peace. The Maudes' translation brings all this to life. Norton's editorial supplements help the newcomer to things Russian fight his/her way through the thicket of Russian names and mid-nineteenth-century literary mindset to get comfortable with Pierre, the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys. Once you get to know these unforgettable people, you are hooked for good. I have read this book many times in Russian and in the Maudes' translation. I always end by thanking Tolstoy for writing the best novel of them all, and the Maudes for their tireless work in translating it for those not fortunate enough to read it in the original.For lighter reads, try: KATZENJAMMER by McCrae or SECRET LIFE OF BEES by Kidd.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

a masterpiece, but could have used some editing

A great epic, unforgettable characters and melodrama. This is one of those classics you want to make sure you read in your lifetime, but probably once in a lifetime will be enough. It helps if you skip those chapters which are philosophical 'asides' and not part of the plot.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A timeless masterpiece

This book serves as an accurate depiction of the War of 1812, with actual historical characters, who struggle through life in search of meaning. A beautifully written book, which is even better if read in Russian, due to the lack of the word power in the translation. I was really dissapointed when I read a number of the assessments written by some of the other 'reviewers'. Only a highly uneducated person could criticize such a work of art, but hopefully those few will soon enough grow up and realize what they have missed. Anyway, it is a really great book. If you were to read only one novel in your lifetime, this has to be the one.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Must read

Must read

Wont open

I am t the table of contents, but when you select an item it looks like it wants to load and then opens to the table of contents again.... HELP

Jkkxd

It was amazing !

Too long

!

Great

Im only 10 and i love it .

Yc

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