War & Peace is a vast epic centred on Napoleon's war with Russia While it expresses Tolstoy's view that history is an inexorable process which man cannot influence he peoples his great novel with a cast of over five hundred characters Three of these the artless & delightful Natasha Rostov the world-weary Prince Andrew Bolkonsky & the idealistic Pierre Bezukhov illustrate Tolstoy's philosophy in this novel of unquestioned mastery This translation is one which received Tolstoy's approval ...

Leo Tolstoy's War & Peace is a sprawling epic covering the impact of Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia on five different families This Penguin Classics edition is translated with an introduction & notes by Anthony Briggs with an afterword by Orlando Figes author of A People's Tragedy Russian Revolution 1891-1924 At a glittering society party in St Petersburg in 1805 conversations are dominated by the prospect of war Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon's army marches on Russia & the lives of three young people are changed forever The stories of quixotic Pierre cynical Andrey & impetuous Natasha interweave with a huge cast from aristocrats & peasants to soldiers & Napoleon himself In War & Peace Tolstoy entwines grand themes
- conflict & love birth & death free will & faith
- with unforgettable scenes of nineteenth-century Russia to create a magnificent epic of human life in all its imperfection & grandeur Anthony Briggs's superb translation combines stirring accessible prose with fidelity to Tolstoy's original while Orlando Figes's afterword discusses the novel's vast scope & depiction of Russian identity This edition also contains appendices notes a list of prominent characters & maps Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was born at Yasnaya Polyana in central Russia After marrying Sofya Behrs in 1862 Tolstoy settled down managing his estates & writing two of his best-known novels War & Peace (1869) & Anna Karenina (1878) In 1884 Tolstoy experienced a spiritual crisis becoming an extreme moralist rejecting the state the church & private property His last novel Resurrection (1900) was written to raise money for the Doukhobor sect of Christian spiritualists If you enjoyed War & Peace you might also like Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov'A masterpiece This new translation is excellent'- Anthony Beevor'A book that you don't just read you live'- Simon Schama

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' If you've never read it now is the moment This translation will show that you don't read War & Peace you live it' The Times Tolstoy's enthralling epic depicts Russia's war with Napoleon & its effects on the lives of those caught up in the conflict He creates some of the most vital & involving characters in literature as he follows the rise & fall of families in St Petersburg & Moscow who are linked by their personal & political relationships His heroes are the thoughtful yet impulsive Pierre Bezukhov his ambitious friend Prince Andrei & the woman who becomes indispensable to both of them the enchanting Natasha Rostov ...

Accompanied by a stellar cast including Paul Dano (12 Years a Slave Prisoners There Will Be Blood) as the idealistic Pierre James Norton (Happy Valley Belle Grantchester) as the ambitious Prince Andrei & Lily James (Cinderella Downton Abbey) as the impulsive beauty Natasha 1008 pages Tolstoy Leo ...

Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play The classic BBC dramatisation of Tolstoy&s epic story of love & loss set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins heads the cast as the soul-searching Pierre Bezuhov (a role for which he won the 1972 Best Actor BAFTA); Morag Hood is the impulsive & beautiful Natasha Rostova; Alan Dobie is the dour but heroic Andrei Bolkonsky; & David Swift is Napoleon whose decision to invade Russia in 1812 has far-reaching consequences for Pierre & the Rostov & Bolkonsky families This twenty-part serial was the vision of its producer David Conroy (Portrait of a Lady Cold Comfort Farm) whose principle aim was to transfer the rich characterisation & incident from Tolstoy&s greatest novel to fifteen hours of television drama Scripted by Jack Pulman (I Claudius The Golden Bowl) & directed by John Davies (The Woodlanders Germinal) Conroy&s War & Peace boasts superb acting award-winning design (1972 Best Design BAFTA) & breathtaking battle sequences which were filmed in former Yugoslavia ...

This is a three-volume boxed set of Tolstoy's historical chronicle of Russia's struggle with Napoleon The novel is an affirmation of life itself focusing on the lives of individuals & the physical reality of human experience & its bewildering complexity ...

Undeniably epic in scale Tolstoy's masterpiece has intimidated readers since it was published in 1869until now This deluxe mini edition makes this massive yet masterful work accessible to readers who can get to know the greatest novel ever written in just one sitting It

Includes:: comprehensive summaries of each book of War & Peace along with descriptive character profiles an introduction & biography of Leo Tolstoy complemented with two-colour illustrations throughout

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Conflict a basic human instinct helping humankind evolve even while threatening the very existence of the species an instinct that will be as much a part of the future as it is now & always has been For all the glories of war-the defeat of evil the promise of freedom justice protection of the innocent the righting of wrongs technological innovation heroism-there are also the horrors individual grief mass destruction the elimination of entire cultures & great achievments injustice villainy the annihilation of the innocent & pain beyond bearing War & Space offers the ultimate speculation on the future of warfare-stories of insectoid anguish genetically-engineered diplomats who cannot fail aliens plundering humanity a weaponized black hole-scenarios of triumph & defeat great heroism & vile depravity & more ...

Humans were born armed Before Homo sapiens first walked the Earth proto-humans had manufactured spears & other tools not only to hunt & defend themselves but also to attack other humans The war instinct is part of human nature but the means to fight war depend on technology Politics economics ideology culture strategy tactics & philosophy have all shaped war but none of these factors has driven the evolution of warfare as much as technology Expanding on this compelling thesis this book traces the co-evolution of technology & war from the Stone Age to the age of cyberwar & nanotechnology Alex Roland shines a light on the patterns of interaction between technology & warfare describing the sensational inventions that changed the direction of war throughout history fortified walls the chariot swift & nimble battleships the gunpowder revolution & finally aircraft bombers rockets submarines improvised explosive devices (IEDs) & nuclear weapons In the twenty-first century scientific & engineering research is constantly transforming war & simultaneously producing countless technological innovations Yet even now the newest & best technology cannot guarantee victory Rather technology & warfare remain in a timeless dialectic spurring change without ever stabilizing a military balance of power New technologies continue to push warfare in unexpected directions while warfare pulls technology into new stunning possibilities In an era of computers drones & robotic systems Roland reminds us that although military technologies keep changing at a precipitous speed the principles & patterns behind them abide Brimming with dramatic narratives of battles & deep insights into military psychology this Very Short Introduction is ultimately an original account of human history seen through the kaleidoscopic lens of war technology ABOUT THE SERIES The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly Our expert authors combine facts analysis perspective new ideas & enthusiasm to make interesting & challenging topics highly readable ...

WINNER OF THE VONDEL PRIZE 2017 LONGLISTED FOR THE 2017 MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE Selected as a Book of the Year 2016 in The Times Sunday Times & The Economist & one of the 10 Best Books of 2016 in the New York Times Shortly before his death Stefan Hertmans' grandfather Urbain Martien gave his grandson a set of notebooks containing the detailed memories of his life He grew up in poverty around 1900 the son of a struggling church painter who died young & went to work in an iron foundry at only 13 Afternoons spent with his father at work on a church fresco were Urbain's heaven; the iron foundry an inferno During the First World War Urbain was on the front line confronting the invading Germans & ever after he is haunted by events he can never forget The war ends & he marries his great love Maria Emelia but she dies tragically in the 1919 flu epidemic Urbain mourns her bitterly for the rest of his life but like the obedient soldier he is he marries her sister at her parents' bidding The rest is not quite silence but a marriage with a sad secret at its heart & the consolations found in art & painting War & Turpentine is the imaginative reconstruction of a damaged life across the tumultuous decades of the twentieth century; a deeply moving portrayal of family grief love & war ...