War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy · Война и мир
Assigned by 5 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1865-1869
- Form
- Novel
- Language
- Russian
- Length
- Epic · 1300 ppover 700 pages
- Difficulty
- Demanding3 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendWar and Peace, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa VolokhonskyVintage Classics, 2008Keeps Tolstoy's repetitions and the French passages, with a full apparatus.
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Russia from 1805 to 1812 and after, followed through three families. Pierre Bezukhov inherits a fortune and searches for a meaning to his life; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky seeks glory at Austerlitz and finds it empty; Natasha Rostova grows from a girl into a woman through love, betrayal and grief. Around them Napoleon invades, Moscow burns, and Tolstoy argues in essays that history is made not by great men but by the sum of countless small acts.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns War and Peace are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
