012 - Chapter 12

War and Peace (Russian Война и мир, Voyna i mir; in original orthography Война и миръ, Voyna i mir”) is an epic masterpiece by Leo Tolstoy, published between 1865 and 1869 in Russki Vestnik. This monumental novel intricately weaves the tale of Russian society during the tumultuous Napoleonic Era. Often hailed as one of Tolstoy’s two seminal works (the other being Anna Karenina), it stands as one of the greatest novels in the world. War and Peace revolutionized narrative fiction with its vast array of characters and sweeping themes that explore the grand subjects of war and peace alongside the intimate realities of youth, aging, and marriage. Its innovative structure and depth challenged the literary conventions of its time, leading many contemporary critics to question its classification as a novel. Tolstoy himself regarded Anna Karenina (1878) as his true foray into the European novel form. (Summary by Wikipedia)