War and 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 i>reat novel with a east of over five hundred characters.Three of these, the artless and delightful Natasha Rostov, the world-weary Prince Andrew Rolkonsky and the idealistic Pierre lfezukhov illustrate Tolstoy"s philosophy in this novel of unquestioned mastery.This translation is the one which received Tolstoy"s approval.