Editor Needed

       I have been zipping through "War and Peace" and in less than 50 pages, will be at page 1125, the end of the main part of the book.  

       Through the 1078 pages I have read so far, one thing has become increasingly clear.     Tolstoy seriously needed an editor -- someone with a bold red pencil -- who would slash her way through the book and help bring it into shape.

       Tolstoy is guilty of incredible amounts of repetition, restatement and re-explanation. He will make a statement -- occasionally a profound one or simply a nice turn of phrase -- and then will say it again. Once he says it, he repeats it. After making a statement, he will explain what he meant by saying the statement. He often seems to think that perhaps we missed the statement or failed to understand it the first time around, so he says it again. And then, perhaps one page or 10 pages or 50 pages later, he'll say it again -- the same statement -- although sometimes with the phrases reversed.  All over again he'll say it, and then again he'll explain it.  

       Can you imagine how annoying that might be?

       Writers sometimes fall in love with their work, and can't bear the thought of changing even one word.  Or they sometimes think something is so brilliant that it bears repeating. That is when an objective editor is most needed -- to forcibly cut out some material to help make a book lean and fit instead of bloated.

       I have peeked ahead to see that at the end of the main part of the book, there are two epilogues written by Tolstoy that go on for an additional 150 pages. And I am guessing that large portions of them will be taken up with explanations of the book I have just spent much of this month reading. I am considering taking a red pencil to these pages myself, just to see how many of them are left after some masterful slashing. 

       Or would that be a rude thing to do to a "great" novel?