War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Finished July 2026.

Excellent.

Easy? No.

Some slow parts, some Tolstoy philosophy.

But - strongly compelling character arcs.

Though I may eventually have otherwise found my way to reading War and Peace, what got me to read it at the time that I did was 100% caused by Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, a Broadway musical (Tony-nominated) based on an ~80 page slice of the book (the musical ends at about the halfway point of War and Peace). After watching the musical, I wanted to know what happened before and after. So I read War and Peace. I'm certain Dave Malloy (creator of the musical) would have wanted it no other way.

I read the translation by Louise and Aylmer Maude, specifically because this is the translation which Dave Malloy quotes from in the musical.

Notes ahead contain spoilers.

Thoughts after finishing but before epilogue

I have just finished the fourth (final) volume/book, but have yet to read the (two part, ~100 ebook pages) epilogue.

Ah, so Pierre and Natasha will indeed be together. I had been wondering about this ever since the end of Great Comet (aka the end of Book 2, when Pierre sees the great comet of 1812).

But so much happened in between.

I'm so glad I decided to read this. It's been such a great book (though slow at some times) and I was absolutely right about wanting to read it to enhance my understanding of the musical and to satisfy the craving to see what ends up happening to the characters. I did not expect it to be as rewarding as it was. At the time, I hadn't even been sure if the plot of the musical was relevant to the overarching plot of the book - but it now obviously was. Frankly, Dave Malloy picked a great part of the book to showcase as a musical.

The end of the musical showed Andrei turning away from Natasha, saying he never wished to speak of her again, and it showed Pierre having a special moment with Natasha and feeling like she awakened something within him. I was also left wondering if there would ever again be a chance between Natasha and Andrei. And the plot did reveal this, in a surprisingly tight way. Most of Andrei's emotional touchpoints for the rest of the book are him reacting (or non-reacting via avoidance) to Anatole's crime, him getting injured and coming to peace with Anatole, then reuniting with Natasha and the Rostovs while he is sick, ultimately expressing to Natasha that if gets well again then they will be together again, and then tragically dying of his illness. It felt so right for him to come back emotionally to his feelings of love for Natasha.

His turning away from her originally felt brash, but he also seemingly had no choice because she was basically about to elope with Anatole (and was only stopped by her godmother). To continue on that topic... reading the book definitely enhanced my understanding of that whole situation. When watching the musical, I feel that it's easy to place all the blame on Natasha for the elopement, because it seems so sudden and so ridiculous that she would fall for Anatole when she is engaged to the person she loves (Andrei). But the book makes some things clearer. For one thing, she wasn't actually engaged to Andrei yet (maybe this was just me misunderstanding the musical). She was only "promised" to him. Very soon after realizing their interest in each other, Andrei listens to the advice of his father (who very much is opposed to his marrying Natasha) and goes traveling abroad for a full year, and the idea is that if he and Natasha still feel the same way upon his return, they will get married. Andrei also explicitly tells Natasha that she does not need to feel bound to him. When it's put this way, especially considering that Andrei left just as he and Natasha would have been experiencing the honeymoon phase, when everything is exciting at the beginning and probably quite important to a relationship, at the beginning of what is essentially them dating, I'm not super surprised that Natasha's feelings started to change when he simply got up and left (and, if I recall, did not communicate much with her via letters or anything). Natasha of course intended to make it work, but we see her essentially experiencing misery and agony due to her separation from Andrei, and she doesn't really understand why he had left (frankly I don't understand either -- but he's a person, and person do things that are hard to understand sometimes^[1]). Time is ticking by and she feels so lonely. Then, the worst possible thing happens, which is Anatole, who, as we the audience knows but Natasha does not know, is literally only trying to have fun and mess around, but he deceives Natasha, who has basically no experience with relationships and intimacy and is so gullible (her feeling here is (paraphrased) "he kissed me. this must mean he loves me! We must get married now"), into thinking that he genuinely wants to marry her, and she succumbs to it. It feels so inevitable because Anatole is pretty rotten and has one goal in mind, to elope with Natasha (and then immediately leave her after making love presumably), and we can tell he will do whatever he can to do that. And Natasha is so lonely and at this point the contrast between Andrei being away and seeming to not be serious about their marriage prospects (because why would he leave!), and Anatole being direct and intimate and so attractive and confessing his love and saying he wants to marry her, now -- makes her go along with it. And then, of course, it all falls to pieces, and Anatole just runs away, and Andrei hears about it, and breaks off their would-be engagement. But while reading it, I'm just thinking, Andrei it's kind of your fault because you left for a year during a very fragile time in your relationship. Of course, Natasha is at fault too, for her actions. Again, it all feels inevitable^[2] and it sucks but makes sense that Andrei turns away from her.

All that to say... it makes sense that he still felt love for Natasha, once he got over her betrayal. It took him getting mortally wounded to get there, but at least it happened.

And then, Tolstoy weaves things such that it feels again inevitable for Andrei to die.

For the sake of two characters' happinesses/endings: Princess Marya (Andrei's sister) and Pierre.

While Andrei is wounded, we see Princess Mary and Nicolai (Natasha's younger brother) essentially fall in love with each other. And this feels wonderful for Mary because she has never before felt this for someone. And also it would be good for the Rostovs because it would help get them out of financial ruin.

"and Pierre", I mean, it would have been cool if Andrei had lived and got back together with Natasha (and I was genuinely hoping that it would happen, while reading it), but I also had a feeling somewhere in my mind that if Andrei did die, then this would make the Great Comet ending, which hints that Pierre and Natasha might get together, might happen. And, like, what else would happen with Pierre (I guess he could have had other resolutions too. but he didn't).

Moving on to other thoughts. Petya's death was sad and tragic... but I saw it coming from a mile away, because of how much his mother tried to protect him from going to war, how unnecessary it was for him to do so, and how reckless he was being once he was actually on a battlefield. Though, the light here is that Petya's death shook Natasha out of her grieving for Andrei because Natasha saw the necessity of being strong to support her mother in her grief. Also, on a similar note, Andrei's illness/death itself got Natasha to bond and become extremely close to Princess Marya (who very much disliked each other earlier on). Which ultimately led to Natasha going back to Moscow with Mary, where Pierre happened to visit and then realize that there was hope again for being together with Natasha.

Looking at the ways the characters changed from start to finish... It's really well done. I strangely felt a sort of pride in seeing how the characters grew. It's a result of spending so much time with them, and just of seeing things come together. Pretty much all the characters I've been talking about changed a lot over the course of the book -- especially Pierre, Natasha, and Mary.

Pierre... what a guy. Somehow the most relatable character, but also the strangest and most vacuous sometimes. Kind of a silly guy making silly choices which ultimately actually serve him somehow. Such as bumbling into battlefields, for the curiosity of it, which eventually leads to him getting taken prisoner, which itself transforms him into a very different person...

And Mary, who is defined by her relationship with her father, and has no life of her own, when her father is dying she feels hope of having her own life but extreme guilt, and then eventually grows out of that and (especially with the interest in Nicolai) is able to actually feel this freedom and feel like her life is her own.

Natasha, we just see grow up, from an innocent, kinda clueless girl, to someone who has gone through things, and becomes quite mature. This sounds so normal when I put it this way, and it is, but it's somehow special to see this so clearly across a book.