War and Peace is universally acclaimed as one of the supreme classics of world literature. The subject of the novel is the gigantic canvas of all life - as revealed against the monumental background of Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812.It is a teeming panorama of tsarist aristocrats and humble peasants, heroic battles, vainglorious soldiers, cowards, sages and fools.

War and Peace is not only the awesome spectacle of two worlds - France and Russia - caught in a life-and-death struggle, but it also captures with brilliance and for all time the moving forces of history which change and illuminate men's lives.