The most famous—and perhaps greatest—novel of all time, Tolstoy’s War and Peace tells the story of five families struggling for survival during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. ... More > Among its many unforgettable characters is Prince Andrey Bolkonsky, a proud, dashing man who, despising the artifice of high society, joins the army to achieve glory. Badly wounded at Austerlitz, he begins to discover the emptiness of everything to which he has devoted himself. His death scene is considered one of the greatest passages in Russian literature. The novel's other hero, the bumbling Pierre Bezukhov, tries to find meaning in life through a series of philosophical systems that promise to resolve all questions. He at last discovers the Tolstoyan truth that wisdom is to be found not in systems but in the ordinary processes of daily life, especially in his marriage to the novel's most memorable heroine, Natasha.< Less
War and Peace, a Russian novel by Leo Tolstoy, is considered one of the most celebrated works of fiction. It is regarded, along with Anna Karenina (1873–1877), as Tolstoy's finest literary... More > achievement.< Less
The novel begins in the year 1805 during the reign of Tsar Alexander I and leads up to the 1812 French invasion of Russia by Napoleon. The era of Catherine the Great (from 1762–1796), when the... More > royal court in Paris was the centre of western European civilization, is still fresh in the minds of older people. Catherine, fluent in French and wishing to reshape Russia into a great European nation, made French the language of her royal court. For the next one hundred years, it became a social requirement for members of the Russian nobility to speak French and understand French culture. This historical and cultural context in the aristocracy is reflected in War and Peace.< Less
This book is directed to the non-Catholics, in the hope of soliciting their devotion to the Mother of God, in order to hasten the day when the Pope and his bishops will perform the simple and short... More > ceremony of consecrating Russia to Mary’s Immaculate Heart. Such a simple act to spare mankind from a horrible catastrophe! God asks so little for all the love He bestows on the human race.< Less
The novel tells the story of a number of aristocratic families and the entanglements of their personal lives with Napoleon's invasion of Russia. As events proceed, Tolstoy systematically denies his... More > subjects any significant free choice: the onward roll of history determines happiness and tragedy alike.< Less
This edition includes:
Biography of Tolstoy
List of principal characters
Bibliography
Reading Guide Questions
Isaac Babel said, after reading War and Peace, "If the world could write by itself,... More > it would write like Tolstoy."
Perhaps the greatest of all novels. Tolstoy's War and Peace covers the involvement of Russia in the wars of Napoleon, but is also one of the greatest love stories ever written.
This edition is based on the translation by Aylmer Maude (1858–1938) and Louise Maude (1855–1939). In Tolstoy’s own assessment “Better translators …could not be invented.”< Less
War! Peace! Two books that so enraptured the public they sold literally a couple of copies. Now these two blockbuster books are busting out of the blocks full of bluster.
Printed on the highest... More > quality toilet paper, this book will last for seconds, possibly even minutes. Unless you should open or attempt read it. Your glances could easily fade the the print into illegibility.< Less
War and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in 1869. The work is epic in scale and is regarded as one of the most important works of world literature.
It is... More > considered Tolstoy's finest literary achievement, along with his other major prose work Anna Karenina (1873–1877).
War and Peace delineates in graphic detail events surrounding the French invasion of Russia, and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society, as seen through the eyes of five Russian aristocratic families. Portions of an earlier version of the novel, then known as The Year 1805, were serialized in the magazine The Russian Messenger between 1865 and 1867. The novel was first published in its entirety in 1869.
Newsweek in 2009 ranked it first in its list of the Top 100 Books.< Less
War and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in 1869. The work is epic in scale and is regarded as one of the most important works of world literature. It is considered... More > Tolstoy's finest literary achievement, along with his other major prose work Anna Karenina (1873–1877).
War and Peace delineates in graphic detail events surrounding the French invasion of Russia, and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society, as seen through the eyes of five Russian aristocratic families. Newsweek in 2009 ranked it first in its list of the Top 100 Books.
Tolstoy himself, somewhat enigmatically, said of War and Peace that it was "not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less an historical chronicle." Large sections of the work, especially in the later chapters, are philosophical discussion rather than narrative. He went on to elaborate that the best Russian literature does not conform to standard norms.< Less
