War And Peace: Leo Tolstoy (Penguin Classics)

by Leo Tolstoy (Author), Anthony Briggs (Author), Leo Tolstoy (Author), Anthony Briggs (Author), Leo Tolstoy (Author)

• New

  Illustrated
  2007

  $14.39

  Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace is a sprawling epic covering the impact of Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia on five different families. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with an introduction and notes by Anthony Briggs, with an afterword by Orlando Figes, author of A People's Tragedy: Russian Revolution 1891-1924 . At a glittering society party in St Petersburg in 1805, conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon's 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 nineteenth-century Russia, to create a magnificent epic of human life in all its imperfection and grandeur. Anthony Briggs' superb translation combines stirring, accessible prose with fidelity to Tolstoy's original, while Orlando Figes' afterword discusses the novel's vast scope and depiction of Russian identity. This edition also contains appendices, notes, a list of prominent characters and maps. Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was born at Yasnaya Polyana, in central Russia. After marrying Sofya Behrs in 1862, Tolstoy settled down, managing his estates and writing two of his best-known novels, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1878). In 1884 Tolstoy experienced a spiritual crisis, becoming an extreme moralist, rejecting the state, the church and private property. His last novel, Resurrection (1900), was written to raise money for the Doukhobor sect of Christian spiritualists. If you enjoyed War and Peace , you might also like Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov . A masterpiece...This new translation is excellent . (Anthony Beevor). A book that you don't just read, you live . (Simon Schama).

• Used

  Paperback
  1970

  $3.25

• New

  Paperback
  2009

  $15.88

  A NEW TRANSLATION BY RICHARD PEVEAR AND LARISSA VOLOKHONSKY Tolstoy's enthralling epic depicts Russia's war with Napoleon and its effects on the lives of those caught up in the conflict. He creates some of the most vital and involving characters in literature as he follows the rise and fall of families in St Petersburg and Moscow who are linked by their personal and political relationships. His heroes are the thoughtful yet impulsive Pierre Bezukhov, his ambitious friend, Prince Andrei, and the woman who becomes indispensable to both of them, the enchanting Natasha Rostov.

• New

  Hardcover
  2007

  $27.41

  On this new year day 2015 - Listen in to BBC Radio 4'S 10-Hour, Adaptation of War & Peace, starring John Hurt and Simon Russell-Beale! War and Peace is one of the richest novels ever written. Tolstoy's enthralling epic combines history and fiction in his depiction of Russia's lengthy war with the French armies of Napoleon and its effects on the domestic lives of those caught up in the conflict. He creates some of the most vital and involving characters in literature as he follows the rise and fall of families in St Petersburg and Moscow who are linked by their personal and political relationships. His heroes are the thoughtful yet impulsive Pierre Bezukhov, his intelligent and ambitious friend, Prince Andrei, and the woman who becomes indispensable to both of them, the enchanting Natasha Rostova. Stunningly translated with remarkable fidelity to the all-important tone of Tolstoy's original, and including an introduction, notes, a chapter summary and an index of historical figures, this edition of War and Peace is destined to become the definitive English translation for our time.