It is a novel that is probably more talked about than read. People think: "It's such a big book! It has such a serious theme!" The feeling that they are going to be taught a long, hard lesson often puts readers off. But really, War and Peace (1869), which tells the stories of five upper-class families in Russia at the time of the 1812 French invasion, is not to be missed. Reading this novel is one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences, like climbing the Great Wall: You will regret it if you do not try. Earlier this month, USA Today reported that a six-episode   War and Peace miniseries   produced by the BBC would air next year. With a complex plot and so many characters, readers unfamiliar with the work might be most interested in the characters from the financially-troubled Rostov family of Moscow. Count Rostov has four teenage children. Natasha is in love with Boris Drubetskoy, who is about to become an army officer. Nikolai Ilyich loves the poor Sonya, a ward   of the family, but his family is not happy with their relationship. The proud Vera is about to start a happy marriage with a German-Russian officer. The youngest Rostov is the 9-year-old Petya, who, like his brother Nikolai, has his heart set on fighting for his country. The lives of all are about to be changed by the upcoming great war that involves many other major characters of War and Peace, such as Prince Andrei, who goes into a military career partly in order to get away from his unhappy marriage to the socialite   Lise. The novel has a great reputation among many kinds of writers and millions of readers. US writer Ernest Hemingway wrote: "I don't know anybody who could write about war better than Tolstoy did." A comment by the great 20th-century Russian short-story writer Isaak Babel shows the rich sense of history that Tolstoy's work conveys. "If the world itself could write, it would write like Tolstoy," Babel commented. What can we know from Isaak Babel's comment?
The novel has a great distinction in the world. The book helps readers make sense of history. Many other writers regard Tolstoy as their idol. Readers should follow Tolstoy's writing style.