War & Peace (Summarized Edition)

War & Peace is a panoramic chronicle of Russia during the Napoleonic invasions (1805–1812), interweaving the fortunes of the Rostov and Bolkonsky families with the spiritual education of Pierre Bezukhov. Tolstoy marries minute realist observation—salon chatter, cavalry charges, domestic tenderness—with audacious historiographical essays that question causal explanations of history. Through battles...