Tolstoy's enthralling epic depicts Russia's war with Napoleon and its effects on the lives of those caught up in the conflict. He creates some of the most vital and involving characters in literature as he follows the rise and fall of families in St. Petersburg and Moscow who are linked by their personal and political relationships. His heroes are the thoughtful yet impulsive Pierre Bezukhov, his ambitious friend, Prince Andrei, and the woman who becomes indispensable to both of them, the enchanting Natasha Rostov. 'There is a good argument to say that any decent library must make room for War and Peace' -Independent on Sunday 'It is hard to imagine how this translation could be superseded' -Vladimir E. Alexandrov, Professor of Literature, Yale University ‘The greatest of all novelists’ -Virginia Woolf