War And Peace

By: Leo Tolstoy

Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale, Leo McKern, Nicola Pagett, Full Cast

A thirty-five strong cast including Leo McKern as Kutuzov, Simon Russell Beale as Pierre Bezuhov, Emily Mortimer as Natasha Rostov and Gerard Murphy as Andrei Bolkonsky, brings all the passion and turbulence of Tolstoy’s epic masterpiece to the airwaves in this unique BBC Radio 4 dramatisation. 'Nine hours of blood-and-thunder period drama on a single disc has to be the best bargain around' - Guardian ‘Excellent special effects and a haunting theme tune make it compulsive listening.’ - Independent©2006 and (P)1997, 2006 BBC Audiobooks Ltd.

Simply, wonderful!

Although I've never read War and Peace (1500+ pages is daunting), the story is terrific and the dramatization is superb. I recommend, however, because the story is long and their A LOT of characters coming in and out that you read a summary (wikipedia, for example) as it makes it richer and more pleasurable.

Loved It

If you've never read Tolstoy, this is a great place to start. The dramatization was done very well.

A most enjoyable listen

The music and dramatization is of the highest standard. A worthwhile purchase. The story is both insightfull and entertaining.

Enjoyed this story and this presentation

This was a very good production of this story. The book is long and arduous -- so much the term "War and Peace" has become a shorthand for saying something is excessively long and difficult to get through.

But, this dramatized version was enjoyable. The story has a great sweep of history with it, and has well-drawn characters who reflect internally about what they see in this world. I became very interested in the happenings of each character.

I did experience the same problem I have with most movies -- the sound effects and sound sometimes cause me to lose the conversation. But that's because these old ears heard too much rock and roll when I was younger. Also, there were so many characters I had a hard time keeping them straight. Fortunately, Wikipedia has a chart online that shows the characters and how they are related to one another.

I think if you want to know the story and characters of War and Peace, this may be a good choice. It's easy listening, and CONSIDERABLY shorter than the novel being read. I don't know if this is due to trimming out scenes, or if dramatizing naturally shortens it. In any case, I recommend it.

At least I've got the gist of it now

I've never attempted to read War and Peace, but have always been curious as to what it's all about and why it's regarded as such a great piece of literature.

This dramatization may not have been word for word, but at least I feel as though I know what the book was about. The performances were delightful and I quite enjoyed listening to it. I would recommend to anyone who hasn't read the actual book but wants to get the general idea.