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 great novel with a cast of over five hundred characters. Three of these, the artless and delightful Natasha Rostov, the world-weary Prince Andrew Bolkonsky and the idealistic Pierre Bezukhov illustrate Tolstoy s philosophy in this novel of unquestioned mastery. This translation is one which received Tolstoy s approval.