Today marks the first deadline in The Year of War and Peace. If you're following the schedule, you should be done Volume I Part I. Myself, I've still got some forty pages to go before I reach that goal. But that's not going to stop me from glibly summarizing what I've read so far:
It is 1805 and all of Europe is embroiled in the Napoleonic Wars. The Russian upper-class deals with this by throwing lots and lots parties. The characters do do other stuff than go to parties, but we don't see any of it. But even though we don't get to see the actual interesting stuff that the characters actually do, we do get to listen to other characters gossip about it at- wait for it- parties. What fun!
Also, an interesting distinction I've learned from this book:
The Decemberists: Indie folk group and every English major's favourite band.
The Decembrists: Group of young Russian aristocrats and officers who in 1825 rose up in support of a constitutional monarchy.
Jury's still out on which group is more pretentious.
This blog follows a group of friends as they read 'War and Peace' over the course of a year. It is more exciting than it sounds, but don't take our word for it: pick up a copy and join in.
Shannon,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the synopsis thus far. Its good for our readers to have a little background before reading posts, if anyone is out there reading this who had not yet tackled W&P. I'm also glad that as a fellow band-nerd your interest was also piqued by the Decemberist/Decembrist thang. And yes, you're right that is the character most like the audience, as we are both being introduced simutaneously to new people, ideas, and customs.
I don't know if you believe in spoiler alerts for books that are 150 years old, but if so...
SPOILER ALERT!:
On his deathbed the Count Bezukov signed papers to officially adopt Pierre (awww) making him legitimate. Also, do we ever get any info on Pierre's mother, or was I was I out of it when we read that she died in childbirth, a horrible accident, etc.
And now for Part 2! Allons-y!