Oh poor Pierre! - War and Peace

I once decided to read War and Peace, so bought a copy to take on holiday to Spain. It was a black Penguin. I also took my friend Susan. My friend Susan is the only person I know who reads faster than me. So we read all the short books first and then she had nothing to read, so she started War and Peace. She became the most awful company. She was always nose-in-book and from time to time she would shake her head sadly and sigh: "Oh, poor Pierre!" Meanwhile I had finished all the other books too and had nothing to read. I complained but she wasn't listening.

I finally got my hands on my own book on the last day of the holiday, and left it behind in the last hotel as we rushed off to the airport - it was under my pillow. I felt that God was telling me that it was not yet time to read "War and Peace". Now the book club has chosen it for the summer months, so that takes care of that.

It was beautifully done on the telly - the sets, the costumes, the acting - all wonderful. If you are a man you will probably miss seeing the lovely Lily James playing Natasha. If you are like me, you will miss Pierre, with his kind voice, and all his sadness and spirituality showing in his face. Ah, and it all ended well for him! What a relief!

The TV serial was not unalloyed pleasure as James Norton has a face like a block of wood, so we have no way of knowing what Prince Andrei was like as a man. I suspect he was supposed to be a sympathetic character but that is one reason why I need to read the book - to find out what he was thinking about - and why reading is still better than watching TV, (although Grayson Perry maintains that TV is the new literature).



The book I lost



Russians suffering: meanwhile Pierre had plenty of nice clothes back in Moscow - why wasn't his palace looted? So much to find out.