by Leo Tolstoy
1, ' Introducing Pierre and Prince
Andrew'
A serial reading by Eric Gillett
Tolstoy's ' War and Peace ' (written in 1863-9) is not only one of the longest novels in existence but, by general consent, one of the greatest. The action covers fifteen years, from 1805 to 1820 ; the scene is the Russia of the Napoleonic Wars. The main characters belong to three or four families of the nobility, but the multitude of subsidiary characters-ranging from the Tsar and Napoleon himself to humble peasants and simple soldiers-are also living individuals, drawn ' in the round'. Their private lives are set against the tremendous background of the French war and the book contains some of the most memorable war scenes in the whole of fiction.