War and Peace (Modern Library Classics)

About this book

Introduction by A. N. Wilson Nominated as one of Americas best-loved novels by PBSs The Great American Read Often called the greatest novel ever written War and Peace is at once an epic of the Napoleonic Wars a philosophical study and a celebration of the Russian spirit. Tolstoys genius is seen clearly in the multitude of characters in this massive chronicleall of them fully realized and equally memorable. Out of this complex narrative emerges a profound examination of the individuals place in the historical process one that makes it clear why Thomas Mann praised Tolstoy for his Homeric powers and placed War and Peace in the same category as the Iliad: To read him . . . is to find one s way home . . . to everything within us that is fundamental and sane.