“War and Peace” is Leo Tolstoy’s best-known novel—more than any other work of the author, it reflects the depth of his sense of the world and his philosophy.
This is a book from the category of the eternal, because it is about everything: life and death, love and honor, courage and heroism, glory and deeds, war and peace.
Volume One acquaints us with the high society of 19th-century Russia. It depicts relationships between parents and children in the Rostovs’ family, the marriage proposals among the Bolkonskys, the intrigues of the Bezukhovs, evenings in the drawing room of the countess A.P. Scherer, balls in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Volume Two tells of the unfolding war of 1812; Pierre Bezukhov’s duel with the reckless Dolokhov, Masonic gatherings, and Natasha Rostova’s first ball—intertwining plot lines preserve the intrigue of the story from the first to the last page.
In the third volume, the transition of French troops across the Neman is shown in the smallest detail, as well as the surrender of Smolensk, the Battle of Borodino, and the burning of Moscow. In contrast to the hypocritical punishment for using the French language, there is the heroic act of Pierre Bezukhov, who saves a girl from a burning house.
The concluding volume of the epic opens its heroes from a new angle, and familiar plot lines take an unexpected turn. The moral changes in Natasha Rostova after the death of Prince Andrei, the love of Nikolai Rostov and the princess Marya Bolkonskaya, Pierre Bezukhov’s meeting with Platon Karataev in French captivity… Seemingly separate events line up into an inseparable chain, supplementing and clarifying the philosophical idea of the brilliant writer.