War and Peace: Russian Literature Historical Fiction Napoleonic Wars Love and War Tolstoy's Exploration of Philosophical Themes a Masterpiece on Cultural Significance Literary Classics - Tapa blanda

Life did not stop, and one had to live . . . July 1805, St Petersburg, Russia: A country on the brink of attack. A city on the threshold of war and disruption. Five Russian families will find out just how their lives are going to entangle during the ensuing years of war and peace . . . Opening at Anna Pavlovnas soirée, Tolstoys War and Peace introduces you to characters­such as the misfit, illegitimate son Pierre, the analytical and loner Prince Andrew, the sexually alluring Helene, and the impulsive and lively Natasha, who plays the pivotal rolewhose minds and actions prove to be the laboratory where Tolstoy, with a psychologists deftness and an artists vision, lays bare the frailties and manias that make up the human psyche. An explosive tale of epic proportions, War and Peace, one of the best known Russian historical novels, is as much a story of love and adultery as it is of war and death. With a deep insight into the war-stricken Russia, it underlines the irrational motives of human behaviour in both war and peace.

Born in Russia in 1828, Leo Tolstoy grew up to become a novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright and philosopher. A master of realistic fiction he had little interest in academics when he was young. In 1851 he enlisted himself in the Russian army and served in the Crimean War (1854-1856). He records his experience in Sevastopol Stories (1855). Tolstoy produced an autobiographical novel, Childhood (1852), followed by Boyhood (1854) and Youth (1857) which earned him literary acclaim. War and Peace (1865-1869) and Anna Karenina (1875-1877) remain two of his greatest novels. In his short autobiographical story, A Confession (1882), Tolstoy reflects on his mid-life existential crisis. The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) and What Is It To Be Done led to his excommunication from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1901 for a radical anarcho-pacifist Christian philosophy. The Kingdom of God Is Within You expresses his ideas on non-violent resistance. In the last few days of his life, while his health was deteriorating, he separated from his wife and left home. He died of pneumonia at a train station in 1910, at the age of 82.