Leo Tolstoy's epic novel War and Peace was published in 1869. Set during Napoleon's invasion of Russia, it tells of the interwoven histories of the poor Rostov family and the rich Bolkonskys. It is regarded as a milestone in the development of the western novel.
Originally War and Peace was going to be called "All's Well That Ends Well." and initially Tolstoy planned on basing it around the Decembrist uprising of 1825 when the liberals launched an abortive Anti-Tsarist revolt. Tolstoy drew on his family ancestral records for his material and it took him six years to write. |
| Front page of War and Peace, first edition, 1869 (Russian) |
Tolstoy wrote War and Peace in his Yasnaya Polyana thome, which is 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southwest of Tula, Russia, and 200 kilometres (120 mi) from Moscow.
The draft for War and Peace, the 15th longest novel in the world with around a half a million words, was written out by hand by Tolstoy's wife, Sophia Tolstaya many times, before Tolstoy was happy with his novel.
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| Tolstoy's notes from the ninth draft of War and Peace, 1864. |
Tolstoy's original text for War And Peace in Russian and French contains about 460,000 words. The English translation has about 560,000.
There are over 500 characters in War and Peace.
War and Peace takes on average 31 hours to finish reading.
The Post-Impressionist artist, Leonid Pasternak, professor at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, illustrated War and Peace. He was the father of Doctor Zhivago author Boris Pasternak.
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| Leonid Pasternak's 1893 illustration to War and Peace |
The longest movie to win an Oscar was the 1968 classic War and Peace, which ran over 7 hours.
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