Yet Tolstoy's portrayal of marital relations and scenes of domesticity is as truthful and poignant as the grand themes that underlie them. The prodigious cast of characters, both great and small, seem to act and move as if connected by threads of destiny as the novel relentlessly questions ideas of free will, fate, and providence. Balls and soirées alternate with councils of war and the machinations of statesmen and generals, scenes of violent battles with everyday human passions in a work whose extraordinary imaginative power has never been surpassed. The fortunes of the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys, of Pierre, Natasha, and Andrei, are intimately connected with the national history that is played out in parallel with their lives.

Tolstoy's epic masterpiece intertwines the lives of private and public individuals during the time of the Napoleonic wars and the French invasion of Russia. 'If life could write, it would write like Tolstoy.' Isaac Babel New list of historical characters to complement the existing list of fictional characters.

New introduction by Amy Mandelker that considers the novel's literary and historical context, the nature of the work and Tolstoy's artistic and philosophical aims.Sensitively revised translation that restores the French passages (translated in footnotes), removes the Anglicization of Russian names, and updates outmoded expressions.Includes lists of historical characters and the fictional families, a chronology of Tolstoy and of historical events in the novel, five maps, and Tolstoy's essay 'Some Words about War and Peace' in an Appendix.New, expanded notes provide historical background and identifications, as well as insight into Russian life and society.A new introduction by Any Mandelker considers the novel's literary and historical context, the nature of the work and Tolstoy's artistic and philosophical aims.French passages are restored, Anglicization of Russian names removed, and outmoded expressions updated. The Maudes' translation of Tolstoy's epic masterpiece has long been considered the best English version, and now for the first time it has been revised to bring it fully into line with modern approaches to the text.Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude and Introducer and Reviser Amy Mandelker Oxford World's Classics Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Global Public Health.The European Society of Cardiology Series.Oxford Commentaries on International Law.

War and peace leo