Sunday, June 8, 2008

BOOK ONE: Part 1, Chapter 1

It is now almost a year after I first learned about the pastor who left us War and Peace- and this evening I began at Anna Pavlovna's  party (or chapter one). My favorite part was when Prince Vasili asked Pavlovna for a cup of tea in the midst of discussing the war. I felt that was something Tolstoy himself would have been caught doing during the span of his life time. I caught myself smiling at this thought and realized how incredibly nerdy the smile on my face was. Oh well, a smile is a smile. 

I just finished reading the Twilight series, so every now and again when I see the word 'price' on the page I think of that character looking somewhat like Edward- like a greek statue that should not be from this world. But War and Peace is far away from Twilight, and when ever a new prince is introduced shortly afterwords he is always described as bald or (and) have multiple imperfections. I know that should be some of the lure of this book- it does not play with girls minds about fake beauty in the world, it talks about our harsh realities... or at least I think it will. But for now... most of the Princes still look like Edward in my mind.  Sorry Tolstoy. 

I am waiting for my friend Toby to arrive from LA via Australia so I might get a few more chapters read this evening...but I do realize now that this might take longer then I thought it would.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I haven't actually read the Twilight series. Who wrote that?

You're right about imperfections and things like that. (Like Lise, in the next chapter.) I think Tolstoy picks small details that are noticeable, rather than automatically making everybody look stunningly gorgeous. (As opposed to a piece of American pulp fiction, which will automatically make every guy stunningly good looking and every girl amazingly beautiful.)