War and Peace: Leo Tolstoy - Hardcover

"My favourite book of 2007 is this new translation of War and Peace... I'm relishing the incomparable mix of vivid description, penetrating social comment and philosophy. Translators give their wits and craft selflessly in the service of others' work; this is a triumph of fidelity and unpretentiousness" (Sally Vickers Independent)

"I'm absolutely blown away by this translation. The main thing about reading Volokhonsky and Pevear is that I feel I'm reading a book for the first time...it's a joy to read...There were moments in the book that hadn't quite established themselves until this [translation]...The sense of actually being in the skin of these people is phenomenally, brilliantly rendered by this new translation" (Simon Schama)

"There remains the greatest of all novelists-for what else can we call the author of War and Peace" (Virginia Woolf)

"To read him . . . is to find one's way home . . . to everything within us that is fundamental and sane" (Thomas Mann)

"Tolstoy is a magnificent writer. he is never dull, never stupid, never tired, never pedantic, never theatrical!" (James Joyce)

War and Peace is one of the richest novels ever written. Tolstoy's enthralling epic combines history and fiction in his depiction of Russia's lengthy war with the French armies of Napoleon and its effects on the domestic lives of those caught up in the conflict. He creates some of the most vital and involving characters in literature as he follows the rise and fall of families in St Petersburg and Moscow who are linked by their personal and political relationships. His heroes are the thoughtful yet impulsive Pierre Bezukhov, his intelligentand ambitious friend, Prince Andrei, and the woman who becomes indispensable to both of them, the enchanting Natasha Rostova.

Stunningly translated with remarkable fidelity to the all-important tone of Tolstoy's original, and including an introduction, notes, a chapter summary and an index of historical figures, this edition of War and Peace is destined to become the definitive English translation for our time.