63 h 43 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In a glittering drawing room, war is still gossip—but soon it reaches the families gathered there.
Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace follows five noble families as Napoleon’s armies threaten Russia. Pierre Bezukhov, awkward and kind, searches for a meaningful life. Prince Andrei Bolkonsky turns from empty society toward military glory. Natasha Rostova begins to discover love and her own feelings.
From St Petersburg drawing rooms to soldiers’ trenches, private hopes meet the force of war. Family loyalty, money, ambition and mistakes shape lives as Russia faces invasion. Tolstoy brings generals and servants into the same wide world, while asking how history takes shape—and whose choices truly matter.
What you’ll discover
- A search for meaning Follow Pierre as he looks beyond his fortune for a way to live with purpose.
- Love taking shape Meet Natasha as her warmth and quick feelings open onto the promise of love.
- Family warmth and strain Enter the generous Rostov household, where hospitality and loyalty sit beside growing money troubles.
- War at close quarters Move between generals’ tents and soldiers’ trenches, seeing battle from sharply different points of view.
- History beyond great men Explore Tolstoy’s challenge to familiar accounts of history and his attention to its many hands.
Who will love it
For readers who love novels with many lives in them, and anyone drawn to family, war and big ideas in one book. Love, loyalty, battles and the search for meaning bring these lives together.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A drawing room where war is only gossip
- Pierre inherits a fortune and a trap
- The Rostovs show love and loyalty
- At Austerlitz, Andrei looks up at the sky
- Natasha's first ball and the promise of love
- Pierre searches for meaning among the Masons
- Napoleon invades and Moscow waits
- History is made by many hands
- How Tolstoy builds a world on one page
Who’s who
- Pierre BezukhovA large, awkward, kind young man who suddenly inherits a fortune and searches for a way to live that has real meaning.
- Prince Andrei BolkonskyA proud, intelligent officer who despises empty society and seeks glory and purpose in the army.
- Natasha RostovaA lively, warm-hearted girl from the Rostov family who is just learning about love and her own feelings.
- Nikolai RostovNatasha's brother, a loyal and impulsive cavalry officer who loves honor, his regiment and his family.
- Princess Marya BolkonskayaAndrei's devout, gentle sister, who endures her harsh father's temper with patience and deep inner strength.
- SonyaThe Rostovs' orphaned cousin, who is quiet, dutiful and devoted to Nikolai.
- Hélène KuraginaA beautiful, cold and ambitious society woman who marries Pierre for his fortune and shines in the salons.
- General KutuzovThe old Russian commander who believes in patience and the spirit of his troops over clever plans.
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy · 1869
As Napoleon's armies threaten Russia, Pierre searches for meaning and Natasha discovers what love can cost.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
A drawing room where war is only gossip
The novel opens in July 1805 at a party given by Anna Pavlovna Scherer, a lady-in-waiting at the Russian court. The guests speak French, the language of polite society, and they talk about Napoleon as if he were a bad guest who has spoiled the evening. Tolstoy shows at once that this is a world of manners, rank and careful talk. Everyone knows who matters and who does not.
Two young men stand out in the room. Prince Andrei Bolkonsky is handsome, dry and bored. He is married to the charming Lise, who is expecting a child, and he finds the empty talk around him hard to bear. He tells his friends he is going to the army, partly because he wants glory and partly because he wants to escape his home.
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What is War and Peace about?
It follows several Russian noble families, mainly the Bezukhovs, Bolkonskys and Rostovs, through the Napoleonic Wars from 1805 to 1812 and after. It mixes love, family life and battle with Tolstoy's argument about how history works.
Is War and Peace a true story?
No, the main characters are invented, but the setting is real. Napoleon, Tsar Alexander I and General Kutuzov appear, and the battles of Austerlitz and Borodino really happened. Tolstoy built the novel from historical research and family memory.
Is War and Peace hard to read?
The prose itself is clear and the scenes are vivid.
The author
Leo Tolstoy
1828–1910 · Russian novelist and moral philosopher
Leo Tolstoy was a Russian author born in 1828 at Yasnaya Polyana, where he lived for much of his life. He wrote novels, stories, and essays. War and Peace appeared in 1865–1869 and Anna Karenina in 1875–1877. He died in 1910 at Astapovo, Russia.
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