War & Peace

War and Peace

Front page of War and Peace, first edition, 1869 (Russian)
Author	Leo Tolstoy
Original title	Война и миръ
Translator	The first translation of 'War and Peace' into English was by American Nathan Haskell Dole, in 1899
Country	Russia
Language	Russian, with some French
Genre	Novel (Historical novel)
Publisher	The Russian Messenger (serial)
Publication date	Serialised 1865–1867; book 1869
Media type	Print
Pages	1,225 (first published edition)

War and Peace (pre-reform Russian: Война́ и миръ (War and Society); post-reform Russian: Война́ и мир, translit. Voyná i mir [vɐjˈna i ˈmʲir]) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, which is regarded as a central work of world literature and one of Tolstoy's finest literary achievements.

The novel chronicles the history of the French invasion of Russia and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society through the stories of five Russian families. Portions of an earlier version, titled The Year 1805, were serialized in The Russian Messenger from 1865 to 1867. The novel was first published in its entirety in 1869.

Tolstoy said War and Peace is "not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less a historical chronicle". Large sections, especially the later chapters, are a philosophical discussion rather than narrative. Tolstoy also said that the best Russian literature does not conform to standards and hence hesitated to call War and Peace a novel. Instead, he regarded Anna Karenina as his first true novel. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "no single English novel attains the universality of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace."

War and Peace is perhaps best known as one of the longest novels ever written.

Tolstoy began writing War and Peace in the year that he finally married and settled down at his country estate. The first half of the book was written under the name "1805". During the writing of the second half, he read widely and acknowledged Schopenhauer as one of his main inspirations. However, Tolstoy developed his own views of history and the role of the individual within it.