About War and Peace

Leo Tolstoy’s grand masterpiece—a timeless saga of family, love, and loss in Russia surrounding the War of 1812.

“The greatest of all novelists…what else can we call the author of War and Peace?” asked Virginia Woolf rhetorically—and literary luminaries the world over have agreed with her. The saga stands alone in its vast scope and minute detail, its immense diversity and final unity. Set in the years leading up to and culminating in Napoleon’s disastrous Russian invasion, the novel focuses upon an entire society torn by conflict and change. Here is humanity in all its innocence and corruption, wisdom and folly, painful defeats and enduring triumphs. Here is the seemingly effortless artistry of a master capable of portraying with equal power the clash of armies and the solitary anguish of the heart. Here, finally, is a view of history and personal destiny that is perpetually modern.

Complete and Unabridged
Translated by Ann Dunnigan
Includes an Introduction by Pat Conroy
And an Afterword by John Hockenberry