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Often called the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is at once an epic of the Napoleonic wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of Russian spirit. Yet the book was not immediately or universally recognized by readers as a world classic when it was published in installments between 1865 and 1869. In fact, dedicated craftsment of the novel--Turgenev, Flaubert, Henry James--all deprecated what they considered to be the totally formless nature of the work. Nevertheless, Tolstoy's genius is seen clearly in the multitude of characters in this massive chronicle--all of them fully realized and equally memorable. Out of this complex narrative emerges a profound examination of the individual's place in the historical process, one that makes it clear why Thomas Mann praised Tolstoy for his Homeric powers and placed War and Peace in the same category as the Iliad.
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