War and Peace - Complete Four Volumes (Illustrated Collector's Edition)

Author: (Russia) Tolstoy
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: A voluminous long novel by Tolstoy. It is grand in scale and features a multitude of characters, earning the title "the greatest novel in the world," achieving extraordinary accomplishments. Since its publication, War and Peace has been hailed as "the greatest novel in the world." This massive work, with its epic grandeur, vividly depicts the major historical events and various aspects of Russian society from 1805 to 1820: "nearly a thousand characters, countless scenes, every possible domain of national and private life, history, war, all the tragedies of humanity, various desires, every stage of life, from the cry of a newborn infant to the final outburst of emotion in an elderly person on the brink of death, all the joys and sorrows one can experience, every possible inner thought, from the feeling of a thief stealing from his companion to the noble impulse of heroism and the profound insights of contemplation—all of this is present in this picture." (Strakhov's words) The author's extensive coverage and holistic grasp of life, along with the thorough revelation of the intrinsic connections between individual phenomena and the whole, personal destinies and the surrounding world, give this novel immense ideological and artistic depth. This is Tolstoy's voluminous long novel. The author intertwines war and peace, the front and the rear, the domestic and the foreign, the army and society, the upper and the lower, reflecting the spirit of the era comprehensively while also creating vast typical environments for a wide variety of archetypal characters. The author's portrayal of characters is both complex and rich, often employing the artistic method of contrast. The genre represents an innovation in Russian literary history and transcends the traditional norms of European long novels.