War and Peace, Volume 1 and 2

Author: (Russian) Tolstoy, translated by Zhou Yushan
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2000-09-01
Features: "War and Peace" is a grand masterpiece centered on the theme of war. It follows the lives of four noble families—the Kuragins, Bolkonskys, Ростовы (Rostovs), and Bezukhovs—to portray fifteen years of Russian history in the early 19th century and depict the lives of various social classes. It is a magnificent epic that recreates the social of the time. The characters in the work are vividly and delicately portrayed, and the scenes are depicted as if they were before one's eyes. Despite being a 19th-century novel, it has endured to this day without any sense of temporal distance. The compassion for humanity it expresses transcends its historical context and continues to move people. "War and Peace" has shocked the world literary scene with its grand conception and outstanding artistic depiction, becoming a universally recognized world literary masterpiece and a precious spiritual wealth of humankind. British writer W. Somerset Maugham and Nobel Prize-winning author Roman Rolland praised it as "the greatest novel in history" and "the greatest epic of our time, the modern Iliad."