War and Peace (Russian Война и мир, Voyna i mir) is a monumental epic by Leo Tolstoy, originally published between 1865 and 1869 in Russki Vestnik. This timeless novel explores the intricacies of Russian society during the tumultuous Napoleonic Era. Often hailed as one of Tolstoys two masterworks—alongside Anna Karenina—it ranks among the greatest novels ever written. War and Peace revolutionizes the genre with its vast array of characters entangled in a narrative that spans grand themes of war, peace, youth, aging, and the complexities of marriage. While regarded as a novel today, its innovative structure challenged the conventions of its time, leading many contemporary critics to question its classification. Tolstoy himself viewed Anna Karenina (1878) as his first true novel in the European tradition. (Summary by Wikipedia)