It took me sooooooooooo long to get through this book!!!! And the reason for that is that Tolstoy talks way too much about details of war and starts to philosophize about it. And not in a good way. Most of these thoughts can be simply obtained by thinking some minutes about war. There is nothing new in it. The characters didn't show enough of emotion which they probably had, but Tolstoy failed to write down. It read more like a history book. I think if I had known that I would have enjoyed it more. It's still a 5 star read. The research Tolstoy had to go through is remarkable. The characters great and their connections as well. I especially liked the edition from the Vintage Classic Russian Series. It was full of extra information that gave me a better understanding of the war with Napoleon and the Russian culture at the time. I would only recommend this if you like long books and history books.