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War and Peace
10Leo Tolstoy
Tolstoy's twelve-hundred-page panorama of Russia under Napoleon — the largest, fullest, most generous novel ever written, and the standard against which all later epics are measured.
GBM Assessment (Score: 10/10)
War and Peace is regarded by many critics as the greatest novel, a vast expansive narrative that encompasses Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, the lives of several aristocratic families, and a deep philosophical meditation on the nature of history itself. Leo Tolstoy created a work of unparalleled scope and depth, weaving together intimate domestic scenes, broad battlefield set pieces, and searching theoretical essays into a unified vision of human experience.
Produced during Russia's Great Reforms era of the 1860s and set against the backdrop of Napoleon's 1812 invasion, War and Peace combines meticulous historical reconstruction with a philosophy of history that challenges the notion of great men as the drivers of events. The novel has been adapted in celebrated productions by both the BBC and Soviet filmmakers, and it continues to be cited by writers and critics around the world as the supreme achievement of the novelistic form.
Russia, 1869-1872
Russian literature's titanic decade. Tolstoy completes War and Peace. Dostoevsky publishes The Idiot and Demons. The Franco-Prussian War ends with German unification and the Paris Commune. The Suez Canal opens (1869).
Awards & Adaptations
Greatest novel by many accounts. BBC/Soviet adaptations.
Recommended Edition
Pevear & Volokhonsky (2007); L. & A. Maude (1922-23)
