WAR AND PEACE

Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 in the Tula province. He studied at the University of Kazan then led a life of pleasure until 1851 when he joined an artillery regiment in the Caucasus. He established his reputation as a writer with The Sebastopol Sketches (18556). After a period in St Petersburg and abroad he married had thirteen children managed his vast estates in the Volga Steppes and wrote War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). A Confession (187982) marked a spiritual crisis in his life and in 1901 he was excommuincated by the Russian Holy Synod. He died in 1910 in the course of a dramatic flight from home at the railway station of Astapovo.A masterpiece ... this new translation is excellentWar and Peace is like no other novel ... Tolstoy writes of both war and peace more marvellously than anyone else has doneThis beautiful Penguin Classics clothbound edition of Tolstoys great novel is translated with an introduction and notes by Anthony Briggs and with an afterword by Orlando Figes.At a glittering society party in St Petersburg in 1805 conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleons army marches on Russia and the lives of three young people are changed forever. The stories of quixotic Pierre cynical Andrey and impetuous Natasha interweave with a huge cast from aristocrats and peasants to soldiers and Napoleon himself. In War and Peace Tolstoy entwines grand themes conflict and love birth and death free will and faith with unforgettable scenes of nineteenthcentury Russia to create a magnificent epic of human life in all its imperfection and grandeur.Anthony Briggss superb translation combines stirring accessible prose with fidelity to Tolstoys original while Orlando Figess afterword discusses the novels vast scope and depiction of Russian identity. This edition also contains appendices notes a list of prominent characters and maps.A masterpiece ... This new translation is excellent Anthony Beevor