War and Peace Book Club Questions

Ten discussion questions for Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1869) - written for groups who have finished the book and want an argument, not a summary. Full spoilers ahead. The first six are anchored to this novel’s specific turns; the last four keep the room talking when the wine runs low.

Print questions

War and Peace book club questions · readeasy.app/book-club-questions/war-and-peace/

1. 1. Pierre inherits everything and spends the book trying to become worthy of it. Is he the novel's real hero?

2. 2. Prince Andrei looks at the sky at Austerlitz and again before Borodino. What does the sky know that the battle doesn't?

3. 3. Napoleon appears as a character in his own head. What is Tolstoy's theory of great men, in one sentence?

4. 4. Natasha betrays Andrei with Anatole and remains the book's living heart. How does Tolstoy pull that off?

5. 5. Kutuzov naps through councils and wins the war. What is the novel's case against cleverness?

6. 6. Which of the three families would you have been born into? What does your answer admit?

7. 7. On a scale of 'couldn't finish it' to 'immediately reread it', where does War and Peace land for you — and what tipped it?

8. 8. Which character in War and Peace changed the most in your eyes by the end, and which one refused to change at all?

9. 9. If War and Peace were published today as a debut, how would it be received? What would the reviews get wrong?

10. 10. What did you believe about War and Peace before reading that turned out to be false?

How to run the meeting

Don’t go in order. Open with whichever question matches your group’s mood - a quiet room starts with a character question, a lively one starts with an argument about the ending. Let one question run until it genuinely dies, then jump. Two rules keep it alive: every claim gets pointed at the text (someone will have the book on their phone), and “I hated it” counts as an opinion that must be defended like any other.

War and Peace runs about 561,000 words - roughly 1,225 pages - so a month between meetings is comfortable at 30 minutes a day; the full session math is on the reading time page. For a quicker take on who actually finished it, open the meeting with the War and Peace quiz - scores settle grudges faster than discussion. The book’s famous quotes make good meeting-openers too, and if the group wants a next pick built like this one, the books like War and Peace list is the handout.

Taking the club through the whole author? Our Leo Tolstoy books in order guide orders the full shelf.

Ground rules that save meetings

Three habits keep a club alive past the first bottle. First, the person who picked the book opens the discussion - they owe the group one sentence on why they chose it, which is usually the strongest prompt of the night. Second, silence is allowed to sit for a full ten seconds; the second answer is always better than the first. Third, end on the next pick while everyone is still arguing, because momentum is the only renewable fuel a book club has. The questions above are written to survive all three rules.

More book club question sets

Anna Karenina questions, Crime and Punishment questions - or grab questions for all 133 classics. For the end-of-season meeting, the mixed-classics book quiz settles who read the most.

Frequently asked questions