GajimaruClassics.
War and PeaceOn the coverNapoleon in Winter Clothing, Vasily Vereshchagin
War and Peace
As Napoleon's armies move east, five aristocratic families live through fifteen years of war and peace, battlefields and ballrooms, first loves and lost illusions, while Tolstoy asks what really moves history.
Character notes and context for the chapter you’ve read.
No other novel holds this much life at once, death and dances, history and the small choices of ordinary people. You don't read it so much as live a few years inside it, and come out changed.
Setting1805–1812 · Imperial Russia
Imperial Russia speaks French at its dinner parties and Russian to its serfs. Napoleon is remaking Europe by force; an aristocrat’s world runs on name-days, duels, and vast estates worked by people they legally own.
On screen & beyond
- Sergei Bondarchuk’s monumental Soviet film (1966–67)
- BBC television series (2016)
- King Vidor’s Hollywood film (1956)
- Prokofiev’s opera (1942)