War and Peace. A Historical Novel.

TOLSTOY, Leo. (Count Lyof N Tolstoi).

$7,500.00

Item Number: 96223

New York: William S. Gottsberger, 1886.

First editions in English of Tolstoy’s masterpiece; one of the most important novels in world literature and widely considered the greatest novel ever written. Small octavo, six volumes, bound in contemporary three quarters morocco over marbled boards with gilt titles to the spine. Translated into French by ‘A Russian lady’ and from the French by Clara Bell. In near fine condition with light wear to the extremities. An excellent set of Tolstoy’s masterpiece. 

Widely considered the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is at once an epic of the Napoleonic Wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of the human spirit. Tolstoy’s genius is seen clearly in the multitude of characters in this massive chronicle—all of them fully realized and equally memorable. Out of this complex narrative emerges a profound examination of the individual’s place in the historical process, one that makes it clear why Thomas Mann praised Tolstoy for his Homeric powers and placed War and Peace in the same category as the Iliad: "To read him . . . is to find one’s way home . . . to everything within us that is fundamental and sane." "There remains the greatest of all novelists--for what else can we call the author of War and Peace" (Virginia Woolf).