No document, historical or artistic, gives us such vivid and detailed insight into the life, character, and psychology of the Russian people and the Russian nation of the pre-revolutionary era as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. This deep and analytical anatomy of individual and collective souls makes the book interesting to every person of any geographical latitude and any era. It is a monumental milestone of life and an unparalleled standard of art. An infinite tableau of the world's soul, depicting the titanic conflicts, passions, pettiness, and greatness of humanity. The greatest novelistic composition-mirror of one of the most socially and religiously fermenting eras in history and a guide for every era.